Capturing High Resolution Plant Movement in the Field

Lodging of small grains due to environmental stresses results in yield loss, quality reduction, and difficulties with mechanical harvesting, which lead to economic consequences. New technological discoveries allow for faster and in situ measurements for determining the mechanics of loading stress and plant movement. The overall measurement of plant movement can be a very sophisticated method to mechanically test and predict the behavior of stems when exposed to wind. We investigated the inertial measurement of plants during different magnitude wind events. This type of analysis captures real time quantitative stem behavior during wind events. Using a 1.5 cm2 inertial measurement sensor attached to the upper panicle of a plant, we recorded the ranges and extremes of instantaneous linear acceleration and rotational velocity. When this technology was applied to historically known varieties of different lodging classification, the measurements were able to distinguish between cereal species and differences between movement of lodging susceptible and resistant plants without physical lodging. This type of technology could be used to improve field based lodging models and quantify movement resulting from micro changes in structural and composition of the stem, and to analyze plant movement in natural conditions with a resolution and specificity that has so far been prohibitively expensive and technologically challenging to achieve.