Measuring plant biomass remotely using drones in arid landscapes

Abstract

Measurement of variation in plant biomass is essential for answering many ecological and evolutionary questions. Quantitative estimates require plant destruction for laboratory analyses, while field studies use allometric approaches based on simple measurement of plant dimensions.We estimated the biomass of individual shrub-sized plants, using a low-cost unmanned aerial system (drone), enabling rapid data collection and non-destructive sampling. We compared volume measurement (a surrogate for biomass) and sampling time, from the simple dimension measurements and drone, to accurate laboratory-derived biomass weights. We focused on three Australian plant species which are ecologically important to their terrestrial and floodplain ecosystems: porcupine grass Triodia scariosa , Queensland bluebush Chenopodium auricomum , and lignum Duma florulenta .Estimated volume from the drone was more accurate than simple dimension measurements for porcupine grass and Queensland bluebush, compared to estimates from laboratory analyses but, not for lignum. The latter had a sparse canopy, with thin branches, few vestigial leaves and a similar color to the ground. Data collection and analysis consistently required more time for the drone method than the simple dimension measurements, but this would improve with automation.The drone method promises considerable potential for some plant species, allowing data to be collected over large spatial scales and, in time series, increasing opportunities to answer complex ecological and evolutionary questions and monitor the state of ecosystems and plant populations.

Plant phenotyping relevance

ドローン画像から個体の体積を推定し、植物バイオマスの代理指標として実測値と比較検証する手法開発が研究の中心である。

Code and data availability

The article's Data Availability Statement points to a public Dryad deposit containing the paper's biomass/volume measurement data. Software tools cited (Pix4D, CloudCompare, rLiDAR) are generic third-party libraries, not authors' analysis code, and no author code or image repository is disclosed.