Quantitative Estimation of Wheat Phenotyping Traits Using Ground and Aerial Imagery

A - Papers appearing in refereed journals

Khan, Z., Chopin, J., Cai, J., Rahimi-Fichi, V., Laga, H., Haefele, S. M. and Miklavcic, S. J. 2018. Quantitative Estimation of Wheat Phenotyping Traits Using Ground and Aerial Imagery. Remote Sensing. 10 (6), p. 950. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10060950

AuthorsKhan, Z., Chopin, J., Cai, J., Rahimi-Fichi, V., Laga, H., Haefele, S. M. and Miklavcic, S. J.
Abstract

This study evaluates an aerial and ground imaging platform for assessment of canopy development in a wheat field. The dependence of two canopy traits, height and vigour, on fertilizer treatment was observed in a field trial comprised of ten varieties of spring wheat. A custom-built mobile ground platform (MGP) and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) were deployed at the experimental site for standard red, green and blue (RGB) image collection on five occasions. Meanwhile, reference field measurements of canopy height and vigour were manually recorded during the growing season. Canopy level estimates of height and vigour for each variety and treatment were computed by image analysis. The agreement between estimates from each platform and reference measurements was statistically analysed. Estimates of canopy height derived from MGP imagery were more accurate (RMSE = 3.95 cm, R2 = 0.94) than estimates derived from UAV imagery (RMSE = 6.64 cm, R2 = 0.85). In contrast, vigour was better estimated using the UAV imagery (RMSE = 0.057, R2 = 0.57), compared to MGP imagery (RMSE = 0.063, R2 = 0.42), albeit with a significant fixed and proportional bias. The ability of the platforms to capture differential development of traits as a function of fertilizer treatment was also investigated. Both imaging methodologies observed a higher median canopy height of treated plots compared with untreated plots throughout the season, and a greater median vigour of treated plots compared with untreated plots exhibited in the early growth stages. While the UAV imaging provides a high-throughput method for canopy-level trait determination, the MGP imaging captures subtle canopy structures, potentially useful for fine-grained analyses of plants.

Keywordsunmanned aerial vehicle; mobile ground platform; canopy traits; canopy imaging; field phenotyping; wheat; height; vigour
Year of Publication2018
JournalRemote Sensing
Journal citation10 (6), p. 950
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10060950
Open accessPublished as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
FunderGrains Research and Development Corporation of Australia
Publisher's version
Copyright license
CC BY
File Access Level
Open
Supplemental file
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online14 Jun 2018
Publication process dates
Accepted12 Jun 2018
PublisherMDPI
ISSN2072-4292

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