Plant pathologist Katie Gold, an assistant professor at Cornell University, inspects diseased grapes in a field. Gold’s team used a JPL-developed instrument to detect infected crops from the air in one of California’s most important wine grape producing regions. Credits: Allison Usavage
In a case study, scientists
detected the costly infection in cabernet sauvignon grapevines before they
showed symptoms visible to the human eye.
Withering molds, root-rotting
bacteria, viruses, and other plant pathogens destroy an estimated 15 to 30% of
global harvests every year. Early detection can make the difference between a
failed crop and a treatable one. Using an airborne science instrument developed
at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, researchers have found that they can accurately spot
the stealthy signs of a grape disease that inflicts billions of dollars in
annual crop damage. The remote sensing technique could aid ground-based
monitoring for this and other crops.
In a pair of new studies,
researchers from JPL and Cornell University focused on a viral disease called
GLRaV-3 (short for grapevine leafroll-associated virus complex 3). Primarily
spread by insects, GLRaV-3 reduces yields and sours developing fruit, costing
the U.S. wine and grape industry some $3 billion in damage and losses annually.
It typically is detected by labor-intensive vine-by-vine scouting and expensive
molecular testing.
The research team wanted to see if
they could help growers identify GLRaV-3 infections early and from the air by
using machine learning and NASA’s next-generation Airborne Visible/InfraRed
Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-NG). The instrument’s optical sensor,
which records the interaction of sunlight with chemical bonds, has been used to
measure and monitor hazards such as wildfires, oil spills, greenhouse gases,
and air pollution associated with volcanic eruptions.
A drone captured a grateful message written among grapevines by individuals with the wine industry who collaborated on the pathogen-spotting research in the Lodi, California, region. Credits: Aaron Lange/Lodi Winegrape Commission
It was during a 2020 campaign to
map methane leaks in California that plant pathologist Dr. Katie Gold and her
team seized the opportunity to pose a different question: Could AVIRIS-NG
uncover undercover crop infection in one of the state’s most important
grape-producing regions?
“Like humans, sick plants may not
exhibit outward symptoms right away, making early detection the greatest
challenge facing growers,” said Gold, an assistant professor at Cornell
University and senior author of the new studies. In the case of grapevine
leafroll virus, it can take up to a year before a vine betrays the telltale
signs of infection, such as discolored foliage and stunted fruit. However, on
the cellular level, stress is well underway before then, changing how sunlight
interacts with plant tissue.
Aerial Advantage
Mounted in the belly of a research
plane, AVIRIS-NG observed roughly 11,000 acres of vineyards in Lodi,
California. The region – located in the heart of California’s Central Valley –
is a major producer of the state’s premium wine grapes.
The team fed the observations into
computer models they developed and trained to distinguish infection. To help
check the results, industry collaborators scouted more than 300 acres of the
vineyards from the ground for visible viral symptoms while collecting vine
samples for molecular testing.
Gold noted it was a labor-intensive
process, undertaken during a California heat wave. “Without the hard work of
the growers, industry collaborators, and the scouting teams, none of what we
accomplished would have been possible,” she said. Similar efforts will continue
under the NASA Acres Consortium, of which Gold is a lead scientist.
The researchers found that they
were able to differentiate non-infected and infected vines both before and
after they became symptomatic, with the best-performing models achieving 87%
accuracy. Successful early detection of GLRaV-3 could help provide grape
growers up to a year’s warning to intervene.
In a complementary paper, the researchers said their case study shows how
emerging capabilities in air and space can support ground-based pathogen
surveillance efforts. These capabilities include forthcoming missions like
NASA’s Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) – part of the fleet of missions
that will compose the agency’s Earth System
Observatory.
They said that SBG will provide data that could be used in combination with
machine learning for agricultural decision-making at the global scale.
Fernando Romero Galvan, a doctoral
candidate and lead author of both studies, noted that sustainable farming
practices are more important than ever in the face of climate change. “I think
these are exciting times for remote sensing and plant disease detection,” he
said. “Scalable solutions can help growers make data-driven, sustainable crop
management decisions.”
“What we did with this study
targets one area of California for one disease,” said co-author Ryan Pavlick, a
research technologist at JPL. “The ultimate vision that we have is being able
to do this across the planet for many crop diseases and for growers all over
the world.”
Jane J. Lee / Andrew Wang
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Source: NASA Helps Spot Wine Grape Disease From Skies Above California | NASA
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