From November 20 to December 11, 2025, Dr. Renaldas Žydelis, a senior researcher at the Department of Plant Nutrition and Agroecology, Institute of Agriculture, LAMMC, completed a research internship at the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), France. The objective of the internship was to develop collaboration in applying remote sensing approaches in soil research under nemoral climate zone conditions within the framework of the “AgroSens” and “Melicertes” projects.
Collaboration between LAMMC and INRAE in the field of remote sensing, focused on the prediction of soil indicators, began in 2021 with the implementation of the EJP Soil project STEROPES (https://lammc.lt/data/public/uploads/2022/03/steropes.pdf), which was successfully completed in 2024.
During the internship, part of the work initiated within the EJP Soil STEROPES project was further developed. The applicability of satellite imagery for predicting soil organic carbon content and soil texture in the Nevėžis River basin was evaluated. This study is unique in that the selected soil indicators were predicted over a large-scale area of approximately 4,000 km², achieving very high spatial resolution, where one pixel corresponds to one are.
In addition, preliminary field and modelling data from the Lithuanian Research Council-funded project “Integration of digital sensors for the prediction of soil properties in Lithuanian agroclimatic zones” were presented. Discussions also addressed the prediction of various soil indicators, including heavy metal content, soil texture, bulk density, as well as crop yield and its quantitative and qualitative characteristics, using both unmanned aerial vehicles and satellite imagery.
French researchers presented their national project “Melicertes”, which focuses on assessing the spatial reliability of soil organic carbon predictions and the uncertainty factors affecting these predictions. Given the strong interconnections among the presented activities, it is planned to continue and further develop collaboration between LAMMC and INRAE in the future.
