Field-measured canopy height may not be as accurate and heritable as believed: evidence from advanced 3D sensing

• Published in: Plant methods Vol. 19; no. 1; p. 39
• Main Authors: Zang, Jingrong, Jin, Shichao, Zhang, Songyin, Li, Qing, Mu, Yue, Li, Ziyu, Li, Shaochen, Wang, Xiao, Su, Yanjun, Jiang, Dong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 02.04.2023; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Accuracy; Aerial photography; Analysis; Backpack laser scanning; Canopies; Canopy height; Comparison; Crop production; Data collection; Data sources; Datasets; Field measurement; Gantry laser scanning; Growth stage; Heritability; Laser applications; Lasers; Leaf area; Leaf area index; Methods; Outliers (statistics); Photogrammetry; Plant breeding; Remote sensing; Scanning; Scanning devices; Sensors; Subgroups; Terrestrial laser scanning; China; United States > US; Gantry laser scanning; Comparison; Digital aerial photogrammetry; Backpack laser scanning; Field measurement; Canopy height; Terrestrial laser scanning
• ISSN: 1746-4811; 1746-4811
• DOI: 10.1186/s13007-023-01012-2

Canopy height (CH) is an important trait for crop breeding and production. The rapid development of 3D sensing technologies shed new light on high-throughput height measurement. However, a systematic comparison of the accuracy and heritability of different 3D sensing technologies is seriously lacking. Moreover, it is questionable whether the field-measured height is as reliable as believed. This study uncovered these issues by comparing traditional height measurement with four advanced 3D sensing technologies, including terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), backpack laser scanning (BLS), gantry laser scanning (GLS), and digital aerial photogrammetry (DAP). A total of 1920 plots covering 120 varieties were selected for comparison. Cross-comparisons of different data sources were performed to evaluate their performances in CH estimation concerning different CH, leaf area index (LAI), and growth stage (GS) groups. Results showed that 1) All 3D sensing data sources had high correlations with field measurement (r > 0.82), while the correlations between different 3D sensing data sources were even better (r > 0.87). 2) The prediction accuracy between different data sources decreased in subgroups of CH, LAI, and GS. 3) Canopy height showed high heritability from all datasets, and 3D sensing datasets had even higher heritability (H  = 0.79-0.89) than FM (field measurement) (H  = 0.77). Finally, outliers of different datasets are analyzed. The results provide novel insights into different methods for canopy height measurement that may ensure the high-quality application of this important trait.