Dr Daniel Rodriguez1
1The University of Queensland, QAAFI, Gatton, Australia
Biography:
Prof. Daniel Rodriguez was trained as a crop eco-physiologist and bio-physicist at Wageningen University, specialising in the development and application of system modelling approaches. In Australia he pioneered the use of proximal sensing of crops to detect nitrogen and water stresses, and more recently in the development of functional phenotyping approaches of rooting systems in the field. He has 30 years of experience running large multidisciplinary projects that involve multiple agencies.
Under an increasing frequency and intensity drought and heat stresses, the architecture, anatomy, and function of the root system offer untapped opportunities for breeding and agronomy to increase yield and yield stability. Though, so far, the lack of quick, cheap, accurate and functional high throughput root phenotyping approaches in the field has limited our capacity to develop valuable traits and products.
Abstract:
Here we present results from two years of field trials at Gatton Queensland Australia, in which root growth and function traits were measured for six contrasting chickpea cultivars grown under eight contrasting environments. These environments resulted from the combination of two seasons, two times of sowing and two levels of supplementary irrigation. The high throughput root phenotyping tools developed by Zhao et al., (2022) for sorghum were applied to chickpea. The approach involves using electromagnetic induction (EMI) sensors (DualEM 21S), drone imagery, and crop eco-physiology principles, to quantify changes in the layered soil water, to derive 3D functional indices of root traits in the soil profile (0-1.5m). We already showed that these indices are closely related to root length density in the field (Zhao et al., 2023a), and to differences in yield components and their stability (Zhao et al., 2023b). The relationships between the mean value and plasticity of root traits and yield components show opportunity for breeding to develop chickpea cultivars better adapted to specific seasons and soil conditions, and the opportunity for agronomy to design crops bottom up, i.e., matching rooting systems to soils and expected seasonal conditions.