Satellite-enabled enviromics to enhance crop improvement.

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Environmental Science
• Genetics

Background:

• Enviromics characterizes environments using large-scale environmental datasets.
• It offers genotypic recommendations for site-specific plant breeding, crucial for climate change adaptation.
• Integrating envirotyping and remote sensing aids in understanding the complex interactions between genetics, environment, and management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the potential of enviromics in improving crop breeding and predicting performance.
• To emphasize the need for precise environmental profiling through exhaustive envirotyping.
• To discuss the role of informatics platforms and diverse sensor data in enviromics research.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing large-scale environmental datasets from optical, thermal, radar, and LiDAR sensors.
• Aggregating diverse environmental data with freely available climate information.
• Leveraging informatics management platforms for data integration and analysis.

Main Results:

• Enviromics can significantly improve predictions of genotype performance and genetic gain in crops.
• Diverse sensor data provides detailed information on vegetation, surface structure, and terrain.
• Innovative enviromics research is fueled by the integration of various data sources.

Conclusions:

• Enviromics holds immense potential for transforming agriculture and crop improvement.
• Key challenges include developing integrative methodologies, advanced AI models, robust cyberinfrastructure, and fostering collaboration.
• Overcoming these obstacles is vital to harness big data from satellites for 21st-century agriculture.