Laboratory of Functional Plant Biology

As there is an increasing demand for high yield, environment friendly crop cultivation, an expansion of tools and techniques for non-invasive measurement of plant function is recognised. Plant health monitoring technology is not only convenient to screen large plant populations in basic research and breeding programmes, but is also key to enabling efficient resource management in precision agriculture. A major requirement is to accurately visualise a large number of plants with a high spatial and temporal resolution. One way to achieve this is by using imaging sensors sensitive to a wide range of wavelengths, including X-ray, visible, near infra-red, short wave infra-red, long wave infra-red and microwave spectra. These sensors can be used to monitor relevant plant health and performance parameters including growth, water content, leaf temperature and photosynthetic capacity. In the frame of the EU-funded Time Scale project (co-ordinated by NTNU in Norway), Aaron Velez-Ramirez and Dominique Van Der Straeten conceived an advanced multispectral and dynamic imaging system. Together with Joeri Vercammen (Interscience Belgium) and Joke Belza, another member of the Ghent team, they investigate the possibilities of online volatile monitoring parallel to plant imaging. The results will provide ample possibilities for exploitation in terrestrial precision agriculture and horticulture and will open novel avenues for life support in space, allowing control of sustainable crop growth and yield.
http://www.ugent.be/en/research/research-ugent/trackrecord/trackrecord-h2020/collaborative-h2020/leit/leit-space-timescale.htm