To overcome some of the myriad challenges facing stable and sustainable crop production in an era of global climate change we are seeking to develop predictive models for crop performance in diverse agronomic environments. Crop phenotypes such as yield and drought tolerance are controlled by genotype, environment (considered broadly) and their interaction (GxE). The volumes of phenotypic data necessary to construct such models remain limiting and our understanding of molecular basis of GxE is minimal. To address this limitation, we are collaborating with engineers to construct new types of sensors to automatically collect large volumes of phenotypic data. Some of these new sensors and high-throughput, high-resolution, image-based field-based phenotyping systems will be described.
