scholarly journals Imaging plant responses to water deficit using electrical resistivity tomography

2020 ◽  
Vol 454 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 261-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sathyanarayan Rao ◽  
Nolwenn Lesparre ◽  
Adrián Flores-Orozco ◽  
Florian Wagner ◽  
Andreas Kemna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Resistivity ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Water Deficit ◽  
Water Uptake ◽  
White Clover ◽  
Electrical Resistivity Tomography ◽  
Root Water Uptake ◽  
Soil Water Depletion ◽  
Resistivity Tomography ◽  
Water Depletion

Abstract Background and aims Monitoring root water uptake dynamics under water deficit (WD) conditions in fields are crucial to assess plant drought tolerance. In this study, we investigate the ability of Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) to capture specific soil water depletion induced by root water uptake. Methods A combination of surface and depth electrodes with a high spatial resolution (10 cm) was used to map 2-D changes of bulk soil electrical conductivity (EC) in an agronomic trial with different herbaceous species. A synthetic experiment was performed with a mechanistic model to assess the ability of the electrode configuration to discriminate abstraction patterns due to roots. The impact of root segments was incorporated in the forward electrical model using the power-law mixing model. Results The time-lapse analysis of the synthetic ERT experiment shows that different root water uptake patterns can be delineated for measurements collected under WD conditions but not under wet conditions. Three indices were found (depletion amount, maximum depth, and spread), which allow capturing plant-specific water signatures based moisture profile changes derived from EC profiles. When root electrical properties were incorporated in the synthetic experiments, it led to the wrong estimation of the amount of water depletion, but a correct ranking of plants depletion depth. When applied to the filed data, our indices showed that Cocksfoot and Ryegrass had shallower soil water depletion zones than white clover and white clover combined with Ryegrass. However, in terms of water depletion amount, Cocksfoot consumed the largest amount of water, followed by White Clover, Ryegrass+White Clover mixture, and Ryegrass. Conclusion ERT is a well-suited method for phenotyping root water uptake ability in field trials under WD conditions.

scholarly journals Time-lapse monitoring of root water uptake using electrical resistivity tomography and Mise-à-la-Masse: a vineyard infiltration experiment

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Mary ◽  
Luca Peruzzo ◽  
Jacopo Boaga ◽  
Nicola Cenni ◽  
Myriam Schmutz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Resistivity ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Soil Water Content ◽  
Water Uptake ◽  
Electrical Resistivity Tomography ◽  
Time Lapse ◽  
Root Water Uptake ◽  
Resistivity Tomography ◽  
Infiltration Experiment

Abstract. This paper presents a time-lapse application of electrical methods (Electrical Resistivity Tomography – ERT – and Mise-à-la-Masse – MALM) for monitoring plant roots and their activity (root water uptake) during a controlled infiltration experiment. The use of non-invasive geophysical monitoring is of increasing interest as these techniques provide time-lapse imaging of processes that otherwise can only be measured at few specific spatial locations. The experiment here described was conducted in a vineyard in Bordeaux (France) and was focused on the behaviour of two neighbouring grapevines. The joint application of ERT and MALM has several advantages. While ERT in time-lapse mode is sensitive to changes in soil electrical resistivity and thus to the factors controlling it (mainly soil water content, in this context), MALM uses DC current injected in a tree stem to image where the plant-root system is in effective electrical contact with the soil at locations that are likely to be the same where root water uptake (RWU) takes place. Thus ERT and MALM provide complementary information about the root structure and activity. The experiment shows that the region of likely electrical current sources produced by MALM does not change significantly during the infiltration study time in spite of the strong changes of electrical resistivity caused by changes in soil water content. This fact, together with the evidence that current injection in the soil produces totally different patterns, corroborates the idea that this application of MALM highlights the active root density in the soil. When considering the electrical resistivity changes (as measured by ERT) inside the stationary volume of active roots delineated by MALM, the overall tendency is towards a resistivity increase, which can be linked to a decrease in soil water content caused by root water uptake. On the contrary, when considering the soil volume outside the MALM-derived root water uptake region, the electrical resistivity tends to decrease as an effect of soil water content increase caused by the infiltration. The results are particularly promising, and the method can be applied to a variety of scales including the laboratory scale where direct evidence of roots structure and root water uptake can help corroborate the approach. Once fully validated, the joint use of MALM and ERT can be used as a valuable tool to study the activity of roots under a wide variety of field conditions.

scholarly journals Time-lapse monitoring of root water uptake using electrical resistivity tomography and mise-à-la-masse: a vineyard infiltration experiment

SOIL ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Mary ◽  
Luca Peruzzo ◽  
Jacopo Boaga ◽  
Nicola Cenni ◽  
Myriam Schmutz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Resistivity ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Soil Water Content ◽  
Water Uptake ◽  
Electrical Resistivity Tomography ◽  
Time Lapse ◽  
Root Water Uptake ◽  
Root Structure ◽  
Resistivity Tomography

Abstract. This paper presents a time-lapse application of electrical methods (electrical resistivity tomography, ERT; and mise-à-la-masse, MALM) for monitoring plant roots and their activity (root water uptake) during a controlled infiltration experiment. The use of non-invasive geophysical monitoring is of increasing interest as these techniques provide time-lapse imaging of processes that otherwise can only be measured at few specific spatial locations. The experiment here described was conducted in a vineyard in Bordeaux (France) and was focused on the behaviour of two neighbouring grapevines. The joint application of ERT and MALM has several advantages. While ERT in time-lapse mode is sensitive to changes in soil electrical resistivity and thus to the factors controlling it (mainly soil water content, in this context), MALM uses DC current injected into a tree stem to image where the plant root system is in effective electrical contact with the soil at locations that are likely to be the same where root water uptake (RWU) takes place. Thus, ERT and MALM provide complementary information about the root structure and activity. The experiment shows that the region of likely electrical current sources produced by MALM does not change significantly during the infiltration time in spite of the strong changes of electrical resistivity caused by changes in soil water content. Ultimately, the interpretation of the current source distribution strengthened the hypothesis of using current as a proxy for root detection. This fact, together with the evidence that current injection in the soil and in the stem produces totally different voltage patterns, corroborates the idea that this application of MALM highlights the active root density in the soil. When considering the electrical resistivity changes (as measured by ERT) inside the stationary volume of active roots delineated by MALM, the overall tendency is towards a resistivity increase during irrigation time, which can be linked to a decrease in soil water content caused by root water uptake. On the contrary, when considering the soil volume outside the MALM-derived root water uptake region, the electrical resistivity tends to decrease as an effect of soil water content increase caused by the infiltration. The use of a simplified infiltration model confirms at least qualitatively this behaviour. The monitoring results are particularly promising, and the method can be applied to a variety of scales including the laboratory scale where direct evidence of root structure and root water uptake can help corroborate the approach. Once fully validated, the joint use of MALM and ERT can be used as a valuable tool to study the activity of roots under a wide variety of field conditions.

Soil water depletion by oak trees and the influence of root water uptake on the moisture content spatial statistics

1997 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 611-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Katul ◽  
Philip Todd ◽  
Diane Pataki ◽  
Zbigniew J. Kabala ◽  
Ram Oren
Keyword(s):  
Moisture Content ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Spatial Statistics ◽  
Water Uptake ◽  
Root Water Uptake ◽  
Soil Water Depletion ◽  
Water Depletion ◽  
Oak Trees

scholarly journals Small-scale characterization of vine plant root water uptake via 3-D electrical resistivity tomography and mise-à-la-masse method

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 5427-5444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Mary ◽  
Luca Peruzzo ◽  
Jacopo Boaga ◽  
Myriam Schmutz ◽  
Yuxin Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Resistivity ◽  
Root System ◽  
Field Data ◽  
Electrical Resistivity Tomography ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Plant Root ◽  
Root Water Uptake ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Noninvasive Methods ◽  
Resistivity Tomography

Abstract. The investigation of plant roots is inherently difficult and often neglected. Being out of sight, roots are often out of mind. Nevertheless, roots play a key role in the exchange of mass and energy between soil and the atmosphere, in addition to the many practical applications in agriculture. In this paper, we propose a method for roots imaging based on the joint use of two electrical noninvasive methods: electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and mise-à-la-masse (MALM). The approach is based on the key assumption that the plant root system acts as an electrically conductive body, so that injecting electrical current into the plant stem will ultimately result in the injection of current into the subsoil through the root system, and particularly through the root terminations via hair roots. Evidence from field data, showing that voltage distribution is very different whether current is injected into the tree stem or in the ground, strongly supports this hypothesis. The proposed procedure involves a stepwise inversion of both ERT and MALM data that ultimately leads to the identification of electrical resistivity (ER) distribution and of the current injection root distribution in the three-dimensional soil space. This, in turn, is a proxy to the active (hair) root density in the ground. We tested the proposed procedure on synthetic data and, more importantly, on field data collected in a vineyard, where the estimated depth of the root zone proved to be in agreement with literature on similar crops. The proposed noninvasive approach is a step forward towards a better quantification of root structure and functioning.

scholarly journals Correction to: Imaging plant responses to water deficit using electrical resistivity tomography

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sathyanarayan Rao ◽  
Nolwenn Lesparre ◽  
Adrián Flores-Orozco ◽  
Florian Wagner ◽  
Andreas Kemna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Resistivity ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Water Deficit ◽  
Electrical Resistivity Tomography ◽  
Plant Responses ◽  
Resistivity Tomography

The article “Imaging plant responses to water deficit using electrical resistivity tomography”, written by Sathyanarayan Rao, Nolwenn Lesparre, Adrián Flores-Orozco, Florian Wagner, Andreas Kemna and Mathieu Javaux, was originally published Online First without Open Access.

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