Minirhizotron measurements can supplement deep soil coring to evaluate root growth of winter wheat when certain pitfalls are avoided
Abstract Background Root growth is most commonly determined with the destructive soil core method, which is very labor-intensive and destroys the plants at the sampling spots. The alternative minirhizotron technique allows for root growth observation throughout the growing season at the same spot bu...
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| Language: | English |
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BMC
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Plant Methods |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s13007-024-01313-0 |
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| author | Jessica Arnhold Facundo R. Ispizua Yamati Henning Kage Anne-Katrin Mahlein Heinz-Josef Koch Dennis Grunwald |
| author_facet | Jessica Arnhold Facundo R. Ispizua Yamati Henning Kage Anne-Katrin Mahlein Heinz-Josef Koch Dennis Grunwald |
| author_sort | Jessica Arnhold |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Root growth is most commonly determined with the destructive soil core method, which is very labor-intensive and destroys the plants at the sampling spots. The alternative minirhizotron technique allows for root growth observation throughout the growing season at the same spot but necessitates a high-throughput image analysis for being labor- and cost-efficient. In this study, wheat root development in agronomically varied situations was monitored with minirhizotrons over the growing period in two years, paralleled by destructive samplings at two dates. The aims of this study were to (i) adapt an existing CNN-based segmentation method for wheat minirhizotron images, (ii) verify the results of minirhizotron measurements with root growth data obtained by the destructive soil core method, and (iii) investigate the effect of the presence of the minirhizotron tubes on root growth. Results The previously existing CNN could successfully be adapted for wheat root images. The minirhizotron technique seems to be more suitable for root growth observation in the subsoil, where a good agreement with destructively gathered data was found, while root length results in the topsoil were dissatisfactory in comparison to the soil core method in both years. The tube presence was found to affect root growth only if not installed with a good soil-tube contact which can be achieved by slurrying, i.e. filling gaps with a soil/water suspension. Conclusions Overall, the minirhizotron technique in combination with high-throughput image analysis seems to be an alternative and valuable technique for suitable research questions in root research targeting the subsoil. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3e25a1ce17d54aa5878bd14ab5579fff |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1746-4811 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Plant Methods |
| spelling | doaj-art-3e25a1ce17d54aa5878bd14ab5579fff2025-02-02T12:25:56ZengBMCPlant Methods1746-48112024-12-0120111210.1186/s13007-024-01313-0Minirhizotron measurements can supplement deep soil coring to evaluate root growth of winter wheat when certain pitfalls are avoidedJessica Arnhold0Facundo R. Ispizua Yamati1Henning Kage2Anne-Katrin Mahlein3Heinz-Josef Koch4Dennis Grunwald5Institute of Sugar Beet ResearchInstitute of Sugar Beet ResearchInstitute of Crop Science and Plant Breeding, Kiel UniversityInstitute of Sugar Beet ResearchInstitute of Sugar Beet ResearchInstitute of Sugar Beet ResearchAbstract Background Root growth is most commonly determined with the destructive soil core method, which is very labor-intensive and destroys the plants at the sampling spots. The alternative minirhizotron technique allows for root growth observation throughout the growing season at the same spot but necessitates a high-throughput image analysis for being labor- and cost-efficient. In this study, wheat root development in agronomically varied situations was monitored with minirhizotrons over the growing period in two years, paralleled by destructive samplings at two dates. The aims of this study were to (i) adapt an existing CNN-based segmentation method for wheat minirhizotron images, (ii) verify the results of minirhizotron measurements with root growth data obtained by the destructive soil core method, and (iii) investigate the effect of the presence of the minirhizotron tubes on root growth. Results The previously existing CNN could successfully be adapted for wheat root images. The minirhizotron technique seems to be more suitable for root growth observation in the subsoil, where a good agreement with destructively gathered data was found, while root length results in the topsoil were dissatisfactory in comparison to the soil core method in both years. The tube presence was found to affect root growth only if not installed with a good soil-tube contact which can be achieved by slurrying, i.e. filling gaps with a soil/water suspension. Conclusions Overall, the minirhizotron technique in combination with high-throughput image analysis seems to be an alternative and valuable technique for suitable research questions in root research targeting the subsoil.https://doi.org/10.1186/s13007-024-01313-0Root samplingRoot length estimationConvolutional neural networkRoot image segmentationSoil core sampling |
| spellingShingle | Jessica Arnhold Facundo R. Ispizua Yamati Henning Kage Anne-Katrin Mahlein Heinz-Josef Koch Dennis Grunwald Minirhizotron measurements can supplement deep soil coring to evaluate root growth of winter wheat when certain pitfalls are avoided Plant Methods Root sampling Root length estimation Convolutional neural network Root image segmentation Soil core sampling |
| title | Minirhizotron measurements can supplement deep soil coring to evaluate root growth of winter wheat when certain pitfalls are avoided |
| title_full | Minirhizotron measurements can supplement deep soil coring to evaluate root growth of winter wheat when certain pitfalls are avoided |
| title_fullStr | Minirhizotron measurements can supplement deep soil coring to evaluate root growth of winter wheat when certain pitfalls are avoided |
| title_full_unstemmed | Minirhizotron measurements can supplement deep soil coring to evaluate root growth of winter wheat when certain pitfalls are avoided |
| title_short | Minirhizotron measurements can supplement deep soil coring to evaluate root growth of winter wheat when certain pitfalls are avoided |
| title_sort | minirhizotron measurements can supplement deep soil coring to evaluate root growth of winter wheat when certain pitfalls are avoided |
| topic | Root sampling Root length estimation Convolutional neural network Root image segmentation Soil core sampling |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s13007-024-01313-0 |
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