Keegan Hammond

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Life Sciences; Plant and Wildlife Sciences https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/ Hammond, Keegan Dillon, "Spatiotemporal Variation of Alfalfa Leaf Area Index and Crop Water Productivity in an Irrigated Alfalfa Field" (2023). Theses and Dissertations. 10523. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/10523 http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd13361 variable-rate irrigation, leaf area index; unmanned aerial vehicle; alfalfa; crop water productivity; visible vegetation index; management zones

1. Introduction This study was motivated by the potential to inform variable-rate irrigation (VRI) of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) by assessing the within-field spatial variation in the canopy leaf area index (LAI) [1]. VRI technology improves crop water productivity by spatially matching irrigation rates to crop water demands, reducing irrigation inputs, and maintaining crop yield [2,3,4].