Plant Eco-Air

Precision agricultural tools, especially scalable approaches using drones for image capture, can support targeted management of crop fields. A current limitation is that imaging, even using hyperspectral sensors, is best at identifying plant stress responses in a later stage (hours - days) when there is bulk damage to plant parts. Plant volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are predictable indicators of early-stage (seconds - hours) plant stress. Plant Eco-Air is aiming at developing a scalable drone-based system for crop monitoring and protection using VOCs as early warning indicators of plant stress caused by insect herbivory.

We want to:

• identify predictable volatile indicators (in maize);
• develop a drone-based system for volatile sampling;
• demonstrate drone-based monitoring of VOC indicators.

Plant Eco-Air is a collaboration between external page Spatial Genetics Group (UZH) and ERL and it is supported by the external page Syngenta-PSC Fellowships.

Detection of volatile indicators by drone sampling.