Automated Image Analysis for Separating Plant Roots from Soil Debris Elutriated from Soil Cores

Dowdy, R. H.; Smucker, A. J. M.; Dolan, M. S.; Ferguson, Joseph C.

doi:10.1007/978-94-011-5270-9_63

Cited by 17 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…They concluded that core-break method and trench profile methods delivered no reliable data for comparing rooting intensities between soils and between different crops. Newer and more sophisticated techniques such as automated imaging analyses (Dowdy et al 1998), portable minirhizotron, color scanner system (Pan et al 1998), and image analysis (Kimura et al 1999) are also used for the estimation of root growth, mass and length measurements. However, these have not been widely accepted due to the requirement of expensive equipment and/or special skills.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses of biomass to the addition of water, nitrogen and phosphorus in Keerqin sandy grassland, Inner Mongolia, China

Zeng

Jiang

et al. 2009

Journal of Forestry Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The effects of water, nitrogen and phosphorus on productivity of sandy grassland were investigated with a fully factorial experiment to find out the main factors limiting natural restoration of grassland productivity in the southeastern Keerqin sandy land. In total, eight treatments were designed as water addition (W), nitrogen fertilizer addition (N), phosphorus fertilizer addition (P), water + nitrogen fertilizer addition (WN), water + phosphorus fertilizer addition (WP), nitrogen fertilizer + phosphorus fertilizer addition (NP), water + nitrogen fertilizer + phosphorus fertilizer addition (WNP) and control (CK). Each treatment was replicated six times and randomly assigned to 48 plots (4 m × 4 m) that were separated by a 2-m buffer. Results show that restoration of productivity is only limited by nitrogen factor for sandy grassland of Keerqin sandy land and not limited by water and phosphorus. Relative to CK plots, the biomass and the aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) of all the plots added with nitrogen fertilizer were significantly enhanced (P < 0.05) in 2005 growing season.Grass root mass is dominant in underground biomass. The present study possibly underestimates net primary productivity of grassland in northern China, due to limitation of underground biomass measurements.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses of biomass to the addition of water, nitrogen and phosphorus in Keerqin sandy grassland, Inner Mongolia, China

Zeng

Jiang

et al. 2009

Journal of Forestry Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Root and shoot samples were placed into vials, dried at 65 -C, then weighed for tissue dry mass. Root length was measured by the method described by Dowdy et al (1998). Fresh roots were combined from two wells, washed, and placed into 10% methanol solution.…”

Section: Microplatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microsystems for Rapid Evaluation of Plant Growth Response to Organic Amendments

Clapp¹,

Shenker

Hayes

et al. 2008

Soil Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Organic matter (OM)-based amendments offered to farmers vary greatly in their source, properties, and effectiveness. Some of these are produced from natural organic resources, whereas others originate from recycled organic waste, in part as an environment-friendly low-cost alternative to waste disposal. Stimulatory effects of OM on plant growth have been noticed in many systems, but a few reports have indicated negative effects. Many factors and interactions dictate plant response to these materials, and not all are well understood. Procedures that can be used to evaluate OM composition and characteristics that might affect plant growth are complicated and expensive. Deleterious effects of OM additions are frequently associated with a nonmature status of the decomposing material, but maturity is difficult to define. Evaluation of humic substances (HS)-based products is even more complex and needs improvement of the available methodologies. This article presents two simple versatile bioassay methods carried out in microplates or pouches for screening and evaluating soluble organic products for agronomic and horticultural use. To illustrate the two methods, we present microplate experiments with creeping bentgrass (Agrostis palustris Huds.) that provide an evaluation of plant response to N rates spanning from deficient to excessive levels (0.9-57.6 mg N L j1 ) and to 11 different soluble HS products. The pouch method is presented by soybean (Glycine max L.) and corn (Zea mays L.) experiments that evaluate plant response to two HS and determine whether it is related to Fe or Zn mediation by the tested substances. The two methods are shown to be sensitive for nutritional factors and could effectively rank various OM materials from being deleterious to stimulatory to plant growth. (Soil Science 2008;173:342-349)

show abstract

“…Several authors have proposed approaches for automatic measurement of root length and diameter (Nater et al 1992;Murphy and Smucker 1995;Dowdy et al 1998;Zeng et al 2010), and dedicated commercial and freeware applications are available. NIH-Image is a general public domain software frequently used in root research, in which task-specific macros can be added to the program.…”

Section: Image Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After thresholding, roots may be distinguished from any bright non-root objects if specific interval values of length, length-to-diameter ratio and elongation index (perimeter 2 /area) are adopted (Dowdy et al 1998;Murphy and Smucker 1995). Root length may be estimated as fibre length with the perimeter and area of root objects (Vamerali et al 2003b); alternatively, length may be represented by the area of 1-pixel wide root segments yielded by skeletonisation or boundary-erosion algorithms, suitably corrected by the coefficient 1.12 to take random root orientation into account (Smit et al 1994b).…”

Section: Image Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minirhizotrons in Modern Root Studies

2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent years, minirhizotrons have received increasing interest in field studies for characterising several biological processes, such as fine root production, root longevity, mycorrhization and parasitism, as collecting repeated video or digital images allows the fate of individual roots to be followed in time.This review summarises recent technical improvements in root observation and imaging, comparing results from various construction materials and installation angles. Both glass and transparent acrylic or polycarbonate tubes have shown a relatively low influence on root behaviour; tilted tubes are preferred to vertically oriented ones, in order to avoid artefacts, and to horizontal ones, which involve considerable soil disturbance during positioning in their surroundings in the open field. Precise camera positioning systems and new high-resolution (600 DPI and more) digital sensors are currently replacing external-tracked tubes and analog sensors, enhancing image capturing and quality. This allows for frequent root observation throughout the plant cycle and seasons, required for accurate estimation of root dynamics.Although manual and semi-automatic image analysis requires timing and tedious work, in the last few years minirhizotron systems have been increasingly used, thanks to fundamental advances in image analysis. The development of new algorithms for root detection and measurement in minirhizotron images has speeded up processing and research. The most interesting results in image analysis derive from the integration of luminance intensity-and geometry-based root vs. non-root classifiers. Discrepancies still remain between minirhizotron data and

show abstract

Automated Image Analysis for Separating Plant Roots from Soil Debris Elutriated from Soil Cores

Cited by 17 publications

References 6 publications

Responses of biomass to the addition of water, nitrogen and phosphorus in Keerqin sandy grassland, Inner Mongolia, China

Responses of biomass to the addition of water, nitrogen and phosphorus in Keerqin sandy grassland, Inner Mongolia, China

Microsystems for Rapid Evaluation of Plant Growth Response to Organic Amendments

Minirhizotrons in Modern Root Studies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About