Research Topic / Special Issue: IPPS2022 – Plant Phenotyping for a Sustainable Future
This Research Topic aims to collect selected contributions from attendees and members of the research community of IPPS 2022, the 7th International Plant Phenotyping Symposium, which was held in Wageningen, Netherlands (September 26-30 2022).
Spontaneous submissions are also welcome.
Plants are a vital aspect of and a venue for addressing the challenges facing our planet. The need for renewable energy sources and a reliable food/feed supply as well as ways to manage resource and materials scarcity and climate change are among the challenges that we can address with plants. Integrating plant systems approaches, from molecular to organismal to field applications, is necessary to develop sustainable production with higher yields using limited land, water, and nutrients and to improve the characteristics required for the traditional and novel use of plants for the future.
A major bottleneck in research and application is plant phenotyping, the quantitative analysis of the structure and function of plants. Innovative plant phenotyping approaches targeting relevant traits are needed to identify key processes and understand the dynamic interactions between genetics, molecular and biochemical processes, and the physiological responses to changes in the environment that lead to the development of phenotypes.
IPPS 2022 brought together a diverse phenotyping community from academia and industry to discuss and realize potentials to harness the power of plant phenotyping and to contribute to a sustainable future by delivering phenotyping in the context of climate change and photosynthesis; plant development and allocation; microbiome, ecology and biotic interactions; modelling of physiological and ecological processes; food and bio-economy; sensors, robotics and automation; and informatics, data and analytics.
Building on IPPS 2022, this Research Topic will focus on plant phenotyping for a sustainable future, including, but not limited to, the following sub-topics:
• Phenotyping for climate change adaptation and abiotic stress (heat, drought, salinity etc)
• Phenotyping for resource use efficiency (water use, nitrogen use, P-use etc)
• Phenotyping for photosynthetic traits/efficiency (in- & ex-field)
• Carbon & nutrient dynamics & root phenotyping
• Seed & germplasm phenotyping
• Phenotyping of plant organ development
• Phenotyping the soil microbiome / biostimulants
• Phenotyping for biotic stresses, plant diseases and disease resistance
• Phenotyping supported modelling / process-based modelling (e.g. Digital Twins)
• Phenotyping for future-proofing specific food crops (lab to field, breeding)
• Phenotyping crops for non-food purposes (ornamentals, forests, feed, fibres)
• Phenotyping of specialty- & horticulture crops
• New sensor technology
• Image based sensors & phenotyping
• Non-image-based phenotyping
• Robotics & vectors/ sensor carriers
• Affordable phenotyping approaches
• Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
• Experimental design and data analysis for phenotyping, including statistical modelling & methods
• FAIR data / metadata / databases / ontologies / standards / harmonization