TITLE:
Initiation of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Phenotyping of Plant Height and Canopy Width in Guar
AUTHORS:
Waltram Ravelombola, Aurora Manley, Caroline Ruhl, Madeline Brown, Hanh Pham, Shubham Malani, Waqas Ahmad
KEYWORDS:
Guar, Unmanned Aerial System, Vegetation Indices, Phenotyping, Plant Height, Canopy Width
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.13 No.12,
December
21,
2022
ABSTRACT: The use of the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) has attracted scientific attention because
of its potential to generate high-throughput phenotyping data. The application
of UAS to guar phenotyping remains limited. Guar is multi-purpose legume
species. India and Pakistan are the world’s top guar producers. The U.S. is the world guar
largest market with an import value of >$1 billion annually. The objective
of this study was to test the feasibility of UAS phenotyping of plant height
and canopy width in guar. The UAS data were collected from a field plot of 10
guar accessions on July 7, 2021, and September 27, 2021. The study was
organized in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 3 blocks. A total
of 23 Vegetation Indices (VIs) were computed. The analysis of variance showed
significant genotypic effects on plant weight (p on
plant height (p most VIs were significant for both flights (p Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Red Edge
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDRE) were significantly and
highly correlated with plant height (r = 0.74) and canopy width (r = 0.68). The results will be of interest in developing high throughput
phenotyping approach for guar breeding.