Application of Sensors in the Detection of Plant Biotic and Abiotic Stress

Dear Colleagues,

Crop yields are limited by abiotic and biotic stress factors, which are expected to be affected by the ongoing climate change. In a changing world, with growing population and needs for food, crop protection is crucial for the sustainability of our global system of food production.

Detection and diagnosis of plant stress are essential for the development of a more automated and efficient precision agriculture. Especially in the last years, the research community has made strong efforts towards the establishment of methods for stress detection in crop plants, using, particularly, remote sensing.

Plant phenotyping has become a powerful tool for stress detection, based, especially on imaging techniques that monitor physiological traits such as the activities of primary and secondary metabolism, stomatal activity, water content, plant growth by 3D analysis, leaf and canopy structure, etc. These traits can be analyzed by imaging RGB, multi- and hyperspectral reflectance, fluorescence, and thermography. The combination of several of these techniques together with deep learning is increasingly common, as the data complexity increases.

This Special Issue aims to collect papers providing a state-of-the art view of the applications of imaging techniques used in plant phenotyping for the detection of biotic and abiotic stress in plants. Papers addressing stress detection at different scales (greenhouse, field, ecosystem...) will be welcome.

Dr. Marisa Pérez-Bueno
Guest Editor

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