TERRA Phenotyping Reference Platform: Advanced Field Crop Analysis and Data Resources to Increase Crop Productivity

David LeBauer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Usage Details

Improvement of crops through genomic selection and breeding is currently limited by the speed at which plant traits can be measured. Currently, the measurement of plant traits related to yield potential and stress tolerance is very slow, and is a key bottleneck in the identification and selection of promising genotypes. Our team is deploying a suite of cutting edge remote sensing instruments that will quantify plant architecture, carbon uptake, water use, and root growth that will enable plant breeders and physiologists to measure thousands or tens of thousands of individual plants per day. To support this work, the TERRA REF team will develop an integrated phenotyping pipeline that leverages genetics and breeding, automation, remote plant sensing, genomics, and computational analytics. The data generated by this platform and the underlying software will be provided as a public resource in order to advance the adoption of remote sensing and predictive modeling in crop improvement and precision agriculture.