Project

Using drones to monitor stress effects

Potato crops will face increasing water and nitrogen limitation. This project aims to quantify the effects of combined drought and nitrogen stress by using drones to monitor potato crop development and its influence on yield.

Project description

Due to the effects of climate change and the environmental issues stemming from nitrogen emissions, potato crops in the Netherlands will experience increasing drought and nitrogen stress in the future. Some potato varieties possess traits which make it more resilient against either drought or nitrogen stress, and enabling it to maintain a higher yield than susceptible varieties. Unfortunately, there is only a limited understanding on how the combination of drought and nitrogen stress affects potato varieties and if the crop traits leading to stress resilience against a single stressor continue to infer resilience against combined stress.

Drones are becoming increasingly common to measure
crop development and allow measurements to be done quickly, and without
disturbing the crop. This is very important, as makes data collection on
large-scale field trials possible and helps minimize environmental effects
which would be present when comparing the results of several, smaller, trials. Due
to the short time needed to take a measurement, we can also collect data more
frequently. Allowing us get a more accurate picture of potato development over
time and a better understanding of how different potato varieties respond to
stress.

Objectives and methods

Objective

This project will quantify the effect of drought and nitrogen stress on potato development by analyzing drone data and using this to explain variance in yield. A particular focus will be on the interaction between drought and nitrogen, i.e., if and how the combination of the two stresses creates an additional effect on potato development and yield.

Field experiments

We have two large-scale field experiments in Friesland and Zeeland with 20 different potato varieties grown under different combinations of irrigation schedules and nitrogen fertilization.

Drones

Data will be collected on a weekly basis with a multispectral and thermal drone. You have the option of collecting this data and flying the drone yourself (we can help you get the necessary drone license and training). The processing of the drone images is outsourced to a specialized company and the in-house data analysis conducted on numeric data.

Data analysis

Appropriate statistical methods are used to describe potato development and compare yield.

Required skills

Basic knowledge of statistics, R/Python programming, fieldwork, and crop physiology is advantageous.

Ideally, you have completed at least one of these courses:

CSA30806 Research Methods in Crop Science
CSA30306 Advanced Crop Physiology
CSA32806 Modelling Functional Diversity in Crop Systems
CSA34806 Advanced Agronomy

Types of research/work

This project includes both fieldwork and data analysis.

Period

The field experiments are running from May to October. It is expected that the thesis student will be available to help with fieldwork for at least three months during the thesis. The exact starting date is negotiable.