Phenomic prediction in drought-stressed faba bean across spectral, structural, and fused canopy predictors

Abstract

Abstract Background Faba bean is an important grain legume in temperate cropping systems because it provides protein-rich seed and contributes biological nitrogen fixation. However, its productivity is highly sensitive to drought, and breeding for improved drought performance is constrained by complex genotype by environment interactions and the difficulty of measuring relevant traits at scale. This study evaluated whether scanner-derived vegetation indices (VI), 3D canopy traits, and their combination can predict key agronomic and physiological traits in drought-stressed faba bean, and how predictive ability changes when information is used from single dates or cumulatively across the season. Results Predictive performance was strongly trait dependent and varied with predictor set and temporal strategy. Combined VI + 3D predictors generally produced the highest and most consistent predictive ability for major traits. Total grain yield reached 0.75 under cumulative VI + 3D prediction at 93 days after sowing (DAS 93), cumulative water uptake peaked at 0.80 at DAS 97, and total straw biomass reached 0.66 at DAS 104. In contrast, some component traits were predicted equally well or better by 3D information alone, including grain number with 0.70 and pod number with 0.55 under cumulative 3D prediction. Useful prediction windows also differed among traits, with broad late-season windows for major agronomic traits but narrower, more stage-specific windows for productive tillers, thousand kernel weight, and water-use efficiency. Conclusion Phenomic prediction under drought in faba bean was strongly shaped by trait type, predictor composition, and temporal design. Combined VI + 3D predictors were most effective for integrative traits, whereas several component traits were predicted equally well or better by 3D information alone. These findings highlight the potential of scanner-based multisensor phenotyping to support drought-related selection in faba bean breeding.

Plant phenotyping relevance

スキャナー由来のスペクトル指標と3Dキャノピー形質を用いたマルチセンサー表現型解析・予測が研究の中心であり、乾燥ストレス下の収量、バイオマス、水利用などの植物形質を技術的に評価している。

Code and data availability

The supplied blocks describe the faba bean phenotyping experiment and cite generic R packages, but contain no public phenotype/trait dataset, scan/point-cloud data, author analysis code, or trained model with an explicit availability statement or authors' public URL. All URLs in the bibliography are generic software/cr

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