Sensors for measuring plant phenotyping: A review

Abstract

Food crisis is a matter of prime importance because it becomes more severe as the global population grows. Among the solutions to this crisis, breeding is deemed one of the most effective ways. However, traditional phenotyping in breeding is time consuming and laborious, and the database is insufficient to meet the requirements of plant breeders, which hinders the development of breeding. Accordingly, innovations in phenotyping are urgent to solve this bottleneck. The morphometric and physiological parameters of plant are particularly interested to breeders. Numerous sensors have been employed and novel algorithms have been proposed to collect data on such parameters. This paper presents a brief review on the parameter measurement for phenotyping to describe its development in recent years. Some parameters that have been measured in phenotyping are introduced and discussed, including plant height, leaf parameters, in-plant space, chlorophyll, water stress, and biomass. And the measurement methods of each parameter with different sensors were classified and compared. Some comprehensive measurement platforms were also summarized, which are able to measure several parameters simultaneously. Besides, some deficiencies of phenotyping should be addressed, and novel methods should be proposed to reduce cost, improve efficiency, and promote phenotyping in the future. Keywords: plant phenotype, high-throughput phenotyping, sensor, morphometric parameters, physiological parameters DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20181102.2696 Citation: Qiu R C, Wei S, Zhang M, Sun H, Li H, Liu G, et al. Sensors for measuring plant phenotyping: A review. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2018; 11(2): 1–17.