1/6/12, 11:27

Recent advances in sensing plant diseases for precision crop protection

Esta revisión resume los últimos conocimientos en el uso de sensores ópticos, no invasivos, para la detección, identificación y cuantificación de las enfermedades de las plantas a diferentes escalas. Los tipos de sensores más prometedores son la termografía, la fluorescencia de la clorofila y los sensores hiperespectrales.

Anne-Katrin Mahlein, Erich-Christian Oerke, Ulrike Steiner & Heinz-Wilhelm Dehne

Eur J Plant Pathol, 133: 197–209 (2012)

Near-range and remote sensing techniques have demonstrated a high potential in detecting diseases and in monitoring crop stands for sub-areas with infected plants. The occurrence of plant diseases depends on specific environmental and epidemiological factors; diseases, therefore, often have a patchy distribution in the field. This review outlines recent insights in the use of non-invasive optical sensors for the detection, identification and quantification of plant diseases on different scales. Most promising sensor types are thermography, chlorophyll fluorescence and hyperspectral sensors. For the detection and monitoring of plant disease, imaging systems are preferable to non-imaging systems. Differences and key benefits of these techniques are outlined. To utilise the full potential of these highly sophisticated, innovative technologies and high dimensional, complex data for precision crop protection, a multi-disciplinary approach— including plant pathology, engineering, and informatics—is required. Besides precision crop protection, plant phenotyping for resistance breeding or fungicide screening can be optimized by these innovative technologies.