The field of precision agriculture has brought the concept for “big data” to farming by bringing sensor technology into the field allowing growers to make more efficient management decisions. However much of the research and practice of precision agriculture has focused on soil-related issues while sub-field microclimates have been mostly unstudied despite their known importance to crop production. This study sought to explore the differences in temperature at a sub-field level during an entire season using weather microsensors recording data every minute from 11 Dec 2017 to 11 Apr 2018. Twenty-two cost-effective sensors were placed within a ~ .5 ha area satsuma orange (Citrus unshiu) grove along the Gulf Coast on Baldwin County, Alabama. The sensors were placed in aerated housings in a vertical column on the west face of eleven trees at a height of 1 and 2 m off the ground. We focus on several events where temperatures hovered near 0 °C or near − 7 °C, a temperature known to damage satsuma trees and find that temperatures can vary by as much as 1.5 to 2 °C at the same moment in the same grove. Extreme cold events were also found to be non-uniform within the grove, and the response was seen on a tree-by-tree basis where increased exposure to < − 7 °C temperatures led to increase defoliation (r² = 0.92) and lower fruit count in the following year (r² = 0.71). We discuss the implication of these differences in temperature and what it may mean for the future of precision agriculture.

精确农业领域通过将传感器技术引入该领域，使种植者能够做出更有效的管理决策，从而将“大数据”概念引入了农业。然而，精确农业的许多研究和实践都集中在与土壤有关的问题上，而子田小气候尽管对作物生产具有重要的意义，但大多尚未被研究。这项研究试图使用天气微传感器从2017年12月11日至2018年4月11日每分钟记录数据，探索整个季节亚域水平的温度差异。将22个经济高效的传感器放置在约0.5公顷的范围内区域萨摩橘（柑橘柑）沿阿拉巴马州鲍德温县墨西哥湾沿岸的树林。传感器被放置在11棵树的西侧垂直列的加气外壳中，离地面1和2 m的高度。我们关注的几个事件是温度徘徊在0°C或−7°C附近，该温度已知会损坏萨摩树，并发现同一树林中同一时刻的温度可能相差1.5至2°C。在树林中还发现极端寒冷事件是不均匀的，并且在逐树的基础上观察到了响应，其中暴露于<-7°C的温度增加导致脱叶增加（r ² = 0.92）并降低次年的水果计数（r ²= 0.71）。我们讨论了这些温度差异的含义及其对精密农业未来的意义。