Spectral Imaging and Disease Detection in Eggplant

Disease Detection in Eggplant A group of crop scientists, Srivastava, Roy, Kimothi, Kumar, Sehgal, Mamatha, and Ray wanted to find the vegetative indices and hyperspectral bands with which people could monitor diseases in eggplant, also known as brinjal. Eggplant (Solanum melongena) is the fourth most used fresh produce commodity in the world after potato, onion, and tomato.… Continue reading…

Latest News in Plant and Crop Research: October 2021

Plant research is focused on physicochemical and biochemical attributes, as well as physiological processes to establish basic plant science. These are applied in crop research to improve productivity and also reduce the ecological footprint of conventional farming. Today, we give ten of this year’s latest discoveries in plant and crop science the “tl;dr” treatment, providing you with… Continue reading…

Transpiration in Plants: Its Importance and Applications

Water remained on the leave.

Definition of Transpiration A plant does not use most of the water that it absorbs. About 97-99% of the water is lost through transpiration. Transpiration is defined as the physiological loss of water in the form of water vapor, mainly from the stomata in leaves, but also through evaporation from the surfaces of leaves, flowers,… Continue reading…

Bringing new crops to light by looking below ground

The CI-600 In-Situ Root Imager allows Dr. Shinsuke Agehara and his team at University of Florida to develop a holistic understanding of established and emerging crops in Florida—from the ground, up.

Modeling ecosystem functioning with precise plant data

In conjunction with LECA, PhyloAlps Project and Swiss Federal Research Institute, Amélie Saillard and her team use the CI-202 Portable Laser Leaf Area Meter to measure functional traits throughout the Alps, gathering vital information on each of the nearly 3500 alpine vegetal species.

Plant Canopy Data to Assess Urban Cooling Methods

With global warming and its effects becoming increasingly apparent, all possible measures must be explored to reduce its impact on human life. A growing number of communities find themselves dealing with increased temperatures not taken into account in earlier city planning. Urban cooling measures can make life easier for these residents and also mitigate climate… Continue reading…

Nutrients Moderate Root Dynamics

The continuous cultivation of trees in plantations requires nutrient management to maintain soil fertility. The method and extent to which nutrients are increased can alter species interactions in mixed plantations by influencing root growth. Until recently, little was known about these below-ground dynamics, as they were difficult to study. Advanced tools like minirhizotrons, which make… Continue reading…

Specific Leaf Area Drives Tropical Forest Seedling Diversity

Several forest restoration strategies are commonly attempted today, such as monocultures, mixed-species plantations, and passively regenerating forests. Scientists are also looking at an increasingly wider array of parameters to find out more about the processes that drive seedling diversity in recruitments in different forest restoration methods. Specific leaf area was found to be crucial in… Continue reading…

Leaf Area Measurement and Ecosytem Dynamics in a Changing Climate

An interesting marshland study in the Yangtze Estuary shows the difficulty in extrapolating general predictions of increased vegetative growth, under climate change-induced air warming. Local environmental factors in specialized ecosystems, such as salt marshes, can complicate plant growth patterns to give C3 plants an advantage over C4 plants in warmer climates. Moreover, population-level effects can… Continue reading…