AUTHOR=Beauchêne Katia , Leroy Fabien , Fournier Antoine , Huet Céline , Bonnefoy Michel , Lorgeou Josiane , de Solan Benoît , Piquemal Benoît , Thomas Samuel , Cohan Jean-Pierre 

TITLE=Management and Characterization of Abiotic Stress via PhénoField®, a High-Throughput Field Phenotyping Platform

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2019

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.00904

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2019.00904

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=In order to evaluate water deficit in field conditions, researchers or breeders must set up large experimentation networks in very restrictive field environments. Experience shows that half of the field trials are not relevant because of climatic conditions that do not allow the stress scenario to be tested. The PhénoField® platform is the first field based infrastructure in the European Union to ensure protection against rainfall for a large number of plots, coupled with the non-invasive acquisition of crops’ phenotype. In this paper, we will highlight the PhenoField® production capability using data from 2017-wheat trial. Firstly, to carrying out experiments on protection, automatic mobile rainout shelters allow fine management of fertilizer or irrigation supply management by driving daily the intensity and period of the application of the desired limiting factor on the evaluated crop. This management is based on micro-meteorological measurements coupled with a simulation of a carbon, water and nitrogen crop budget. Furthermore, high-throughput plant-phenotyping under controlled conditions is well advanced and comparable evaluation in field conditions is enabled through phenotyping gantries equipped with various optical sensors. This approach, giving access to either similar or innovative variables based on manual measurement, is moreover distinguished by its capacity for dynamic analysis. Thus, the interactions between genotypes and the environment can be deciphered and better detailed since this gives access not only to the environmental data but also to plant responses to limiting hydric and nitrogen conditions. Further data analyses provide access to curve parameters, all the more integrative and relevant of plant behavior under stressful conditions. The innovative approach of the PhénoField® platform consists in the use of automatic irrigating rainout shelters coupled with high throughput field phenotyping to complete conventional phenotyping and micrometeorological densified measurements. It opens the way to improving specific categories of crop models, the fine characterization of variety behavior throughout the development cycle and the evaluation of particular sensors better suited to a specific research question.