Application of a Multi-Spectral UAV Imagery in Germplasm Characterization: Prediction of Forage Biomass and Growth Patterns of Cicer Milkvetch ( Astragalus cicer L.) Populations

David MacTaggart, Steve Shirtliffe, Aaron Beattie, Herbert A. Lardner and Bill Biligetu ()
Additional contact information
David MacTaggart: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8, Canada
Steve Shirtliffe: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8, Canada
Aaron Beattie: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8, Canada
Herbert A. Lardner: Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8, Canada
Bill Biligetu: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8, Canada

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-10

Abstract: Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)-based multi-spectral imaging could reduce the intensive labour required in phenotyping germplasm in crop breeding. The objectives of this study were to examine if UAV-based imaging could differentiate cicer milkvetch ( Astragalus cicer L.) germplasm and identify UAV-based vegetation indices with correlations to its dry matter yield (DMY). A spaced nursery from 27 cicer milkvetch populations was established near Saskatoon, SK, Canada, in 2019. From 1 June to 15 October in 2020 and 2021, phenotypic traits including maximum stem length, leaf number per stem, rhizome spread rate, and stem density, along with two UAV-measured traits, green area and canopy volume, were measured bi-weekly. Forage DMY was determined in late June and mid-October of each year. In this study, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) green area and NDVI canopy volume data differentiated the three selected populations. NDVI green area had the highest correlation with forage DMY among the traits (June harvest: r = 0.91, October harvest: r = 0.77). Among measured phenotypic traits, maximum stem length had the highest correlation with forage DMY (June harvest: r = 0.74, October harvest: r = 0.83), which was significantly correlated to NDVI green area. The results indicated potential use of UAV-phenotyping in single plant evaluation in plant breeding.

Keywords: multi-spectral imaging; forage breeding; phenotyping; UAV/drone; biomass; NDVI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/11/1969/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/11/1969/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:11:p:1969-:d:1512788

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().