Monitoring agriculture by remote sensing enables large‐scale evaluation of biomass production across space and time. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is used as a proxy for green biomass. Here, we used satellite‐derived NDVI of arable farms in the Netherlands to evaluate changes in biomass following conversion from conventional to organic farming. We compared NDVI and the stability of NDVI across 72 fields on sand and marine clay soils. Thirty‐six of these fields had been converted into organic agriculture between 0 and 50 years ago (with 2017 as reference year), while the other 36 were paired control fields where conventional farming continued. We used high‐resolution images from the Sentinel‐2 satellite to obtain NDVI estimates across 5 years (January 2016–October 2020). Overall, NDVI did not differ between conventional and organic management during the time series, but NDVI stability was significantly higher under organic management. NDVI was lower under organic management in sandy, but not in clay, soils. Organic farms that had been converted less than ~19 years ago had lower NDVI than conventional farms. However, the difference diminished over time and eventually turned positive after ~19 years since the conversion. NDVI, averaged across the 5 years of study, was positively correlated to soil Olsen‐P measured from soil samples collected in 2017. We conclude that NDVI in organic fields was more stable than in conventional fields, and that the lower biomass in the early years since the transition to organic agriculture can be overcome with time. Our study also indicates the role of soil P bioavailability for plant biomass production across the examined fields, and the benefit of combining remote sensing with on‐site soil measurements to develop a more mechanistic understanding that may help us navigate the transition to a more sustainable type of agriculture.

中文翻译：

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归一化差异植被指数分析揭示了从传统农业向有机农业转变过程中生物量产量的增加和稳定性


通过遥感监测农业可以跨空间和时间大规模评估生物质生产。归一化植被指数（NDVI）被用作绿色生物量的代表。在这里，我们使用荷兰耕地的卫星 NDVI 来评估从传统农业转变为有机农业后生物量的变化。我们比较了 72 个沙地和海洋粘土田地的 NDVI 以及 NDVI 的稳定性。其中 36 个农田在 0 至 50 年前（以 2017 年为参考年）已转变为有机农业，而另外 36 个农田则为配对对照农田，继续进行传统农业。我们使用 Sentinel-2 卫星的高分辨率图像来获取 5 年（2016 年 1 月至 2020 年 10 月）的 NDVI 估计值。总体而言，在时间序列上，常规管理和有机管理之间的 NDVI 没有差异，但有机管理下 NDVI 的稳定性显着更高。在有机管理下，沙质土壤的 NDVI 较低，但粘土的 NDVI 较低。大约 19 年前转变的有机农场的 NDVI 低于传统农场。然而，随着时间的推移，这种差异逐渐缩小，并最终在转换后约 19 年后转为正值。研究 5 年的平均 NDVI 与 2017 年收集的土壤样品中测量的土壤 Olsen-P 呈正相关。我们得出的结论是，有机田中的 NDVI 比常规田中更稳定，并且早期生物量较低因为向有机农业的过渡可以随着时间的推移而克服。 我们的研究还表明了土壤磷生物有效性对整个检查田间植物生物量生产的作用，以及将遥感与现场土壤测量相结合的好处，以形成更机械的理解，这可能有助于我们向更可持续的类型过渡农业。