Science Focus
Combining Roots & Leaf Analysis?
High-throughput phenotyping is mainly concerned with the characterisation of above-ground vegetation, as it is easier to acquire data on the canopy at lower cost with drones, robots, tractors and gantries. But the above-ground part of the plant explains most of the yield components and the light capture capacity of the plant. Another key player in plant resilience, and one often forgotten in field phenotyping programmes, are the roots. The root architecture of the plant, its developmental dynamics, will describe how the crop can access the necessary water and minerals iCOn the different soil layers. Understanding this part can help to predict the behaviour of the crop. The challenge then is…
Do You Even Need Plant To Produce Food?
Plants form the basis of the human diet and can provide everything we need: carbohydrates, fats and proteins. But getting enough protein without animal products can be problematic because herbivores are often much better at recovering nitrogen from plants than we are, whereas we digest protein from meat more easily. Nitrogen fixation in plants is…
Accessibility Of Phenotyping In Low Income Countries
Image courtesy of IPPN The International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN) is currently the most representative organisation for innovation in phenotyping, bringing together scientists from different countries, from greenhouses to open fields. However, most of the current IPPN members are mainly located in developed countries such as the USA, Europe or China. A large part of…
Biophysical Or AI Model?
High-throughput phenotyping emerged about ten years ago as a result of collaboration between different scientific fields, including remote sensing and agronomy. It has led to the development of an elegant biophysical model for interpreting sensor data, called the “biophysical model“, an algorithm designed to exploit the physical knowledge of the measured object and the sensor…
Phenotyping Data Management: The Hidden Tip Of Iceberg
Despite the high availability of the phenotyping method, the path from raw data to decision is not easy and requires a specific organisation of the trial, which can be divided into two levels: First, the organisation of the plot must be digitised in order to obtain geo-referenced information on the organisation of the trial, which…