Progress 11/01/00 to 09/30/06
Outputs
Watering improvement may have the widest implications on crop production in controlled environment plant production industry. Plants need water to transport nutrients, to keep stomata open for CO2 intake, and to cool the plant itself under high sunlight. Over watering, however, not only wastes water and pumping energy, it also causes higher relative humidity in the growing area which can lead to diseases such as root rot diseases Pythium and Rhizoctonia. Subsequently, proper watering can help growers to provide sufficient water for plant growth and, at the same time, help growers to control relative humidity and promote plant health, reduce water usage, and decrease runoff and ground water contamination. The goal of this research was to develop methodologies for objective, early drought stress detection and water stress management of crops. Sensing technologies were developed for non-destructive, non-contact monitoring of plants for early diagnosis of plant water
status. The technologies developed in preciously controlled environmental were evaluated under sub-optimal plant growth conditions and under less controlled commercial production environments. The specific objectives of the project were to: 1. develop a research facility for the water stress detection and irrigation research activities, 2. evaluate and develop stress detection technologies for the selected plants, 3. develop control strategies for irrigation management, and 4. evaluate the effect of water stress on plant quality. Most of the objectives stated above were accomplished prior to 2006. In 2006 we collaborated with plant scientists to apply the developed drought stress quantification techniques for their studies related to plant stress physiology. In addition, renovation of a gas exchange chamber facility, initiated in 2005, was continued. The goal is to modernize research facility for better environmental control in order to better study plant growth and development as
affected by modified atmospheric environment. The drought stress detection methodologies developed from earlier stages of this project are being implemented to better understand effects of modified atmosphere on plant water usage. The custom built facility has 12 large reach-in cylindrical chambers (133 cm height; 54 cm radius) located in a stand alone building. Temperature and relative humidity of all the 12 chambers are currently controlled using a common air handler. The renovated facility will have multiple independent environmental conditions as well as non-contact, real-time sensing capabilities to monitor photosynthetic efficiency, water usage efficiency, and effects of modified atmosphere on plants.
Impacts
The drought stress detection techniques, irrigation management strategy, and canopy surface water assessment techniques developed under this project have earned national and international attentions. We have published 12 conference papers, 10 refereed journal articles for our academic peers, and three outreach and engagement type of publications for greenhouse growers who may benefit from the plant response based precision irrigation management approach. The work was presented at international meetings that were held at China, Japan, Korean, Turkey, and U.S. Techniques developed from this project, with an original intent to quantify plant drought stress levels, were extended for other applications. One study used the techniques to study responses of soybean plants that were subjected to flooding stress. Another study used the techniques to study soil moisture effects on the Glucosinolate-myrosinase Complex. Yet another study has been proposed to use the drought stress
quantification techniques to evaluate post harvest quality of some transgenic petunia plants. The drought stress quantification techniques developed from this project are potential good tools for studies related to stress physiology in addition to irrigation management that was demonstrated in this project.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
|
Progress 01/01/05 to 12/31/05
Outputs
The goal of this project is to develop effective water management techniques for controlled environment plant production. During Fiscal year 2005, the project focused on 1) disseminating findings from an assessment of a plant-response-based closed loop irrigation management system, 2) completing a study on background compensation to improve plant surface moisture detection sensitivity, and 3) establishing a gas exchange chamber system to facilitate real-time studies of evapotranspiration as affected by environmental conditions. Result of a plant-response-based irrigation management study was published (Preneger et al., 2005). The paper described an irrigation system using a combination of feedback, and feed forward strategies to improve water usage efficiency by reducing leaching. Timing of irrigation was determined using a quantitative crop water stress index (CWSI). Irrigation events were trigger when CWSI value was higher than a preset threshold value. Precise
amount of irrigation water requirement was determined from a CWSI compensated ET model. Approximate 50% water saving was achieved without sacrificing plant quality. A manuscript describing our effort on evaluating various background compensation techniques for canopy surface water assessment was published (Ramalingam et al., 2005). Two background compensation techniques were evaluated: a spatial approach based on normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and a spectral approach based on a linear unmixing model. It was found the compensation techniques were effective for the multispectral water assessment but was difficult to implement when canopy temperature sensing was used to detect added water (e.g. from spraying). Renovation of a gas exchange chamber facility was initiated in 2005. The goal is to modernizing a research facility for better environmental control in order to gain better understanding of plant growth and development as affected by modified atmospheric
environment. The drought stress detection methodologies developed from earlier stages of this project will be implemented to better understand effects of modified atmosphere on plant water usage. The custom built facility has 12 large reach-in cylindrical chambers (133 cm height; 54 cm radius) located in a stand alone building. Temperature and relative humidity of all the 12 chambers are currently controlled using a common air handler. The facility is being renovated to have multiple independent environmental conditions as well as non-contact, real-time sensing capabilities to monitor photosynthetic efficiency, water usage efficiency, and effects of modified atmosphere on plants.
Impacts
The drought stress detection techniques, irrigation management strategy, and canopy surface water assessment techniques developed under this project have earned international attention. Two invited presentations were delivered in Japan and China, respectively. One paper was published on a Japanese scholar journal, Journal of Agricultural Meteorology (Kacira et al., 2005). Two other papers were published in Transactions of the ASAE. Renovation of the growth chamber facility is currently underway and will be an area of emphasis for the next 5 years. Our vision is to establish a platform for plant monitoring and control methodologies development, in addition to providing a chamber facility to grow plants in precisely controlled environment. The facility will be used not only for engineering projects but also shared with colleagues of common interest. Collaborative relationship has been established with colleagues in entomology and horticulture both on and off campus of
The Ohio State University.
Publications
- Prenger, J.J., P. P. Ling, H. M. Keener, R. C. Hansen. 2005. Plant response-based irrigation control system in a greenhouse: system evaluation. Transactions of the ASAE 48(3):1175-1184.
- Kacira, M., S. Sase, L. Okushima, and P.P. Ling. 2005. Plant response-based sensing for control strategies in sustainable greenhouse production. J. Agric. Meterrol. 61(1):15-22.
- Ramalingam, N., P.P. Ling, and R. Derksen. 2005. Background reflectance compensation and its effect on multispectral leaf surface moisture assessment. Transactions of the ASAE 48 (1 ):375-383.
|
Progress 01/01/04 to 12/31/04
Outputs
The goal of this HATCH project is to develop effective water management techniques for controlled environment plant production. During Fiscal year 2004, the project focused on 1) establishing a multispectral approach for water status assessment of plants under artificial lighting, 2) improve the sensing techniques by compensating background contributions in the sensors field of view, and 3) delivering research based information to commercial growers. A methodology was developed for robust equivalent water thickness (EWT) estimation of plants grown under artificial lights (Yang and Ling, 2004a). The PROSPECT-SAIL model was used to determine EWT from measured plant canopy reflectance (400 to 2500 nm) under artificial light sources. The major effort of this research was to improve the reliability of approximating best solutions of the non-linear model. The spectral approach was evaluated against with other drought stress detection techniques developed in this project
(Yang and Ling, 2004b). Background compensation is important for non-contact water status assessment of plants. Spectral information of plants collected using proximity sensors (e.g. spectroradiometer, spectral imaging systems) is often a mixture of reflectance of the objects of interest and also the background in the sensor's field of view. For accurate target analysis, background compensation techniques were evaluated to obtain compensated reflectance spectra. Ramalingam et al. (2004) reported favorable findings of using a multispectral imaging system to assess water coverage of high volume spray applications. Collaborative research was continued in 2004. Working with Dr. Matthew Kleinhenz's research group, Horticultural and Crop Science, The Ohio State University, we evaluated plant responses under drought stress. Radovich et al. (2004) described soil moisture effects on the Glucosinolate-myrosinase complex.
Impacts
The multi-spectral approach, although expensive in terms of equipment cost and computation load requirement, has the greatest potential among the three techniques. In addition to estimating plant water status, it is also possible to estimate other physiological properties of plants such as lignin and chlorophyll contents. The background compensation techniques developed in our research were found valuable in assessing plant water status. The technique was effective in compensating spectral information in the range of 400-2500 nm. A similar approach could potentially be developed for background temperature compensation when canopy temperature is of interest. Background-compensated spectral information helps to improve sensing resolution and accuracy of the drought stress detection. Using drought stress management as a tool for crop quality improvement has shown encouraging results. Continued research in this area is desirable for improving economic value of crops
through cultural practices.
Publications
- Ling, P.P. 2004. A review of soil moisture sensors. OFA Bulletin. Number 886. 2 pages. OFA - an Association of Floriculture Professionals. 99. 22-23.
- Ramalingam, N., P.P. Ling, and R. Derksen. 2004. Background compensation for multispectral imaging assessment of leaf surface moisture. Transactions of the ASAE (accepted for publication). Radovich, T.J.K., J.G. Streeter, P.P. Ling, M.D. Kleinhenz. 2004. Radish (Raphanus sativus) as a Model System for the Study of Soil Moisture Effects on the Glucosinolate-myrosinase Complex. Hort Science 39(4). p. 896.
- Yang, Y. and P. P. Ling. 2004a. Improved model inversion procedure for plant water status assessment under artificial lighting using PROSPECT+SAIL. Transactions of the ASAE 47(5):1833-1840
- Yang, Y. and P.P. Ling. 2004b. Non-contacting techniques for plant drought stress detection in a controlled environment. ASAE Paper No. 041130. St Joseph, MI:ASAE.
|
Progress 01/01/03 to 12/31/03
Outputs
The goal of this HATCH project is to develop effective water management techniques for controlled environment plant production. During Fiscal year 2003, the project focused on 1) evaluating a multispectral approach for plant water status assessment in controlled environment, 2) developing automated irrigation control strategies for improved water usage efficiency, 3) delivering research based information to commercial growers, and 4) evaluating using the developed sensing techniques to characterize plant response to flooding stress. A paper describing our effort on using visible, near infrared, and mid-infrared spectral information to determine water status of New Guinea Impatiens was presented at an international conference (Yang and Ling, 2003). Methodologies were successfully developed to use measured spectral reflectance to estimate plant canopy water status for drought stress detection using PROSPECT SAIL model. The student who worked on the project completed a
Ph.D. degree program. A feedback triggered, feedfoward controlled irrigation management system was developed. The system used plant responses as feedbacks to determine the timing of irrigation and used evaportranspiration model to estimate the needs of irrigation water volume. The aim of this effort was to evaluate the potential of using a closed-loop water management system to improve watering efficiency. Results of the study showed an approximately 50% irrigation water saving without affecting plant quality, compared against a timer controlled irrigation system. A paper describing this study was presented at an international conference (Prenger et al., 2003). The student who worked on the project completed a Master of Science degree program. In addition to sharing research findings with our peers, information has been delivered to greenhouse growers through presentations at grower meetings and bulletin articles. Four water management focused presentations were delivered at local,
regional, and national grower meetings. An article (Ling, 2003) was published on OFA Bulletin to describe science-based, practical methodologies that can be used in commercial production environment to improve water usage efficiency. The developed water status monitoring techniques were evaluated for the assessment of soybean responses to flooding stress. Results from the study suggested the feasibility of using canopy movement, extracted using an imaging system, to identify soybean genotype that is flooding stress resistant. The research was a collaborative effort between the research group led by Dr. VanToai of USDA ARS, Columbus, OH, and the research group led by Dr. Ling of The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH. The research generated a referred journal article Vantoai et al., 2003
Impacts
Saving more than 50% of irrigation water in controlled environment plant production systems has been demonstrated. In addition to significant savings of water, fertilizer, and pumping energy, less leachate may result in less water treatment costs and more friendly to our environment.
Publications
- Yang, Y. and P.P. Ling. 2003. Improved model inversion procedure for plant water status assessment under artificial lighting using PROSPECT SAIL model. ASAE Paper No. 033118. St. Joseph, MI ASAE. 20 pages.
- Prenger J., P.P. Ling, H.M. Keener, and R.C. Hansen. 2003. Plant response based irrigation control using CWSI-IRT feedback and evapotranspiration modeling. ASAE Paper No. 034101. St. Joseph, MI ASAE. 20 pages.
- Ling, P.P. 2003. How to determine when to irrigate automatically. OFA Bulletin. Number 876. 2 pages. OFA an Association of Floriculture Professionals.
- VanToai, T., V. Roberts, Y. Yang, P. Ling, G. Boru, D. Hua, B. Bishop, and M. Karica. 2003. Monitoring soybeans tolerance to flood stress using image processing technique. Digital Imaging and Spectral Techniques: Applications to Precision Agriculture and Crop Physiology. Crop Science Society of America
|
Progress 01/01/02 to 12/31/02
Outputs
Plant-response-based closed-loop plant production is a concept of using plant's physiological status as a feedback to adjust environmental, and cultural practices to improve quality of plants. The goal of this HATCH project is to develop effective water management techniques for controlled environment plant production. During the Fiscal year 2002 the project focused on 1) developing early drought stress detection techniques for plant production in controlled environment, 2) evaluating the feasibility of monitoring plants in greenhouse environments, and 3) developing automated irrigation control strategies for improved watering effectiveness and efficiency. Two publications describing our effort on early drought stress detection technique development had been published. First paper reported the findings of using machine vision extracted canopy leaf movements for the stress detection (Kacira et al., 2002a). The second paper detailed a methodology based on plant canopy
temperature, extracted using infrared thermometry, for the drought stress detection. A conference paper was presented to describe our effort in developing a model-based multispectral technique to quantify plant water status using near infrared and mid-infrared information (Yang and Ling, 2002). These techniques have been developed in a highly controlled environmental chamber. For potential applications in less controlled environment, an early drought stress detection techniques was evaluated in greenhouse environment. Chen et al. (2002) reported the success of using a field irrigation unit for automated irrigation, and growth regulation of New Guinea Impatiens. It was found possible to make irrigation decisions based on three measured parameters: plant canopy temperature, air temperature, and air relative humidity. It was also found possible to suppress plant eight by increasing drought stress threshold levels before irrigation events were triggered. The effort was a continuation of
research effort reported by Chen and Ling (2001) that described the design, construction, and implementation of a portable, field drought stress detection unit for greenhouse environment. Irrigation control strategies base on measured plant responses have been evaluated for watering effectiveness and efficiency. The aim of this effort is to answer first two of the three questions associated with irrigation management: 1) when to water, 2) how much to water, and how to deliver water. The concept of closed-loop control strategy development and some preliminary results were presented at a conference (Prenger and Ling, 2002). We will continue the effort to 1) study the plant water uptake dynamics, and 2) evaluate the performance of several control strategies for effective and efficient water use for plant production in controlled environments.
Impacts
Early, non-contact drought stress detection is a key for effective irrigation management for plant production. Timely, demand-based irrigation helps to improve water usage efficiency and crop quality. Irrigate only needed amount of water can also reduce runoff and leaching problems associated with over-watering. One, among other techniques been evaluated in the laboratory, drought stress detection techniques has been evaluated in greenhouse environments and shown promising results. The publication describing the establishment of the automated plant monitoring (Kacira and Ling, 2001) received 2002 ASAE Honorable Mention Paper Award. The paper was recognized as top 5% of the papers published previous year in Transactions of the ASAE, Applied Engineering in Agricultural, Resource, and The Journal of Safety & Health
Publications
- Kacira, M., P. P. Ling, and T. H. Short. 2002. Machine vision extracted plant movement for early detection of plant water stress. Transactions of the ASAE 45(4): 1147-1153.
- Kacira, M., P. P. Ling, and T. H. Short. 2002. Establishing crop water stress index (CWSI) threshold values for early and non-contact detection of plant water stress. Transactions of the ASAE 45(3): 775-780.
- Chen Y., P.P. Ling, and M. Kacira 2002. Let plants say what they need: plant-response based portable water stress monitoring system for greenhouse plant production. 8th. International Congress on Agricultural Mechanization and Energy. October 15-17, 2002, Kusadasi, Turkey.
- Prenger J. and P.P. Ling. 2002. Closed loop control of plant water stress level using real-time adjustment of evapotranspiration calculation with CWSI feedback. International ASAE Meeting, Chicago, IL. ASAE Paper No. 024044.
- Yang, Y. and P.P. Ling. 2002. Multi-spectral plant drought stress monitoring. International ASAE Meeting, International ASAE Meeting, Chicago, IL. ASAE Paper No. 023064.
|
Progress 01/01/01 to 12/31/01
Outputs
Plant-response-based closed-loop plant production is a concept of using plants physiological status as a feedback to adjust environmental, and cultural practices to improve plant grown and development. The goal of this HATCH project is to develop effective water management techniques for controlled environment plant production. During the Fiscal year 2001 the project focused on 1) establishing an automated sensing and control platform for plant stress detection studies, 2) evaluating advanced sensing technologies for non-contact, early drought stress detection, and 3) evaluating the feasibility of monitoring plants in greenhouse environments. A publication, (Kacira and Ling, 2001), titled "Design and development of an automated, non-contact, and non-destructive system for continuous monitoring of plant health and growth" has been published on Transactions of the ASAE. The paper describes a fully automated plant-monitoring platform for plant stress detection and
control studies. Advanced sensing technologies including infrared thermometry, digital imaging, and multispectral have been evaluated for the drought stress detection. A field sensing and control unit was designed, constructed, and has been evaluated for continuous monitoring of plant health in a greenhouse environment. These research efforts will be continued for the duration of the project. Other water management related activities include condensation control to reduce disease pressure and canopy surface water detection. The effort will also be continued for the duration of the project period.
Impacts
Early, non-contact drought stress detection is a key for effective irrigation management for plant production. Timely, demand-based irrigation helps to improve water usage efficiency and crop quality. Irrigate only needed amount of water can also reduce runoff and leaching problems associated with over-watering. One, among other techniques been evaluated in the laboratory, drought stress detection techniques has been evaluated in greenhouse environments and shown promising results.
Publications
- Kacira, M. and P.P. Ling. 2001. Design and development of an automated, non-contact, and non-destructive system for continuous monitoring of plant health and growth. Transactions of the ASAE, volume 44(4): 989-996.
- Prenger J. and P. Ling. 2001. Greenhouse condensation control - understanding and using vapor pressure deficit (VPD). Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet, AEX-804-2001. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210.
- Prenger J. and P.P. Ling. 2001. Suppressing disease in greenhouses with dehumidification: strategy for air-heated, forced ventilation houses. International ASAE Meeting, Sacramento, CA. ASAE Paper No. 018016.
- Yang, Y. and P.P. Ling. 2001. Multi-spectral plant drought stress detection: PROSPECT model calibration. International ASAE Meeting, Sacramento, CA. ASAE Paper No. 013074.
- Chen, Y. and P.P. Ling. 2001. A portable drought stress monitoring system for greenhouse New Guinea Impatiens production. International ASAE Meeting, Sacramento, CA. ASAE Paper No. 014082.
- Chen, Y. and P.P. Ling. 2001. Evaluation of HSI colorimetric system for intensity invariant spectral feature extraction. International ASAE Meeting, Sacramento, CA. ASAE Paper No. 013108.
- Ramalingam, N., P.P. Ling, and R.C. Derksen. 2001. Leaf surface moisture detection using multi-spectral imaging. International ASAE Meeting, Sacramento, CA. ASAE Paper No. 013004.
|
|