Tracking Darwin's footprints but with LiDAR for booting up the 3D and even beyond-3D understanding of plant intelligence

• Published in: Remote sensing of environment Vol. 311; p. 114246
• Main Author: Lin, Yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.09.2024
• Subjects: botany; cognition; environment; fluorescence; lidar; Light detection and ranging (LiDAR); phenotype; Plant intelligence (PI); Plant structure phenotyping; Remote/proximal sensing (R/PS); Three-dimensional (3D) cognition of PI; Plant intelligence (PI); Light detection and ranging (LiDAR); Plant structure phenotyping; Three-dimensional (3D) cognition of PI; Remote/proximal sensing (R/PS)
• ISSN: 0034-4257
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2024.114246

As an emerging subject of the implication on revolutionizing many fields from botany to life science, plant intelligence (PI) has been actively studied but also trapped in debate. Inspired by those earlier botanists such as Darwin conceiving this concept when observing plants outdoors, we propose to track Darwin's footprints – go again to the wild where plants show higher-fold adapting performance than in labs for arousing a re-cognition of PI. However, this plan must face a basic challenge on in-situ plant phenotyping, especially in structure, which serves as the three-dimensional (3D) phenomenological display of varying PI behaviors. Aiming at this core bottleneck, we suggest to go but with 3D remote/proximal sensing (R/PS) devices such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) – a state-of-the-art technology of fully but fine mapping plants, for starting a 3D cognition of PI. Further, to decode the mechanism of PI occurring, we preview the next-generation (e.g., hyperspectral, fluorescence, and polarization) LiDAR with the latent capacity on all-round phenotyping of plants. Their derived 3D biochemical, physiological, and biophysical functional traits can arouse a beyond-3D cognition of PI. Overall, this theoretical prospect, with the available R/PS technology traced for upgrading PI from conceptual debating to mechanistic understanding, can advance the PI field into its 3D and even beyond-3D times and bring the PI and PI-relevant sciences such as sustainability cognition to breathe new life. •The emerging but controversial field of plant intelligence (PI) now needs innovation.•Tracking Darwin's footprints in the wild is proposed to boot up a re-cognition of PI.•Going to the wild again but with LiDAR is suggested to promote a 3D cognition of PI.•Next-generation LiDAR is previewed to further initiate a beyond-3D cognition of PI.•These discipline-level perspectives can drive PI and its sciences to breath new life.