3D Laser Triangulation for Plant Phenotyping in Challenging Environments.

Katrine Kjaer,Carl-Otto Ottosen

doi:10.3390/s150613533

Abstract

To increase the understanding of how the plant phenotype is formed by genotype and environmental interactions, simple and robust high-throughput plant phenotyping methods should be developed and considered. This would not only broaden the application range of phenotyping in the plant research community, but also increase the ability for researchers to study plants in their natural environments. By studying plants in their natural environment in high temporal resolution, more knowledge on how multiple stresses interact in defining the plant phenotype could lead to a better understanding of the interaction between plant responses and epigenetic regulation. In the present paper, we evaluate a commercial 3D NIR-laser scanner (PlantEye, Phenospex B.V., Herleen, The Netherlands) to track daily changes in plant growth with high precision in challenging environments. Firstly, we demonstrate that the NIR laser beam of the scanner does not affect plant photosynthetic performance. Secondly, we demonstrate that it is possible to estimate phenotypic variation amongst the growth pattern of ten genotypes of Brassica napus L. (rapeseed), using a simple linear correlation between scanned parameters and destructive growth measurements. Our results demonstrate the high potential of 3D laser triangulation for simple measurements of phenotypic variation in challenging environments and in a high temporal resolution.

Highlights

Plant screening and phenotyping technologies with an appropriate resolution in fluctuating climate environments are essential to improve the efficiency of high-throughput plant phenotyping (HTPP)towards understanding how phenotypic variation is linked to environmental conditions
Our results demonstrate the high potential of 3D laser triangulation for simple measurements of phenotypic variation in challenging environments and in a high temporal resolution
We found that there were good correlations using the 3D point cloud monitored from one angle on the rapeseed plants with leaf areas ranging from 2.5–400 cm2 and shoot dry weight ranging from 0.01 g–1.5 g per plant

Summary

Introduction

Plant screening and phenotyping technologies with an appropriate resolution in fluctuating climate environments are essential to improve the efficiency of high-throughput plant phenotyping (HTPP)towards understanding how phenotypic variation is linked to environmental conditions. Optical principles require complicated normalization and calibration software, making their application impracticable, and sometimes impossible in challenging environments This issue can be solved by using closed cabinets to which plants are transported for imaging, or by measuring under dark conditions [1,2]. In many phenotyping platforms, plants are often placed in rows with large distances between the pots [1,4], or screened individually following a plant-to-sensor concept [2,5] These applications do not reflect the situation in the field or in production units where plants are grown at high density and where the structure of the individual plant is affected by competition for light and resources. Direct methods to quantify these structural changes are important to understand on how plants optimize the canopy structure to maximize light utilization and minimize water loss under heat and drought stress

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