High-Throughput Phenotyping of Canopy Closure in Genetically Diverse Soynam Families Using Ground-Based Digital Imagery.

Canopy development plays a critical role in the fraction of light intercepted by soybean throughout the growing season. Crop growth and yield are largely influenced by the amount of light that canopies accumulate. Competitive soybean genotypes exhibit canopies with a rapid rate of development and full closure between adjacent rows. Ground based digital imagery has the ability to distinguish vegetation from the soil background and produces a phenotype that is related to the percent and rate of canopy closure between rows.  This cheap, precise method of high-throughput phenotying allows for the rapid identification of genotypically distinct recombinant inbred lines in SoyNAM families. Digital images were recorded weekly for all 6400 SoyNAM plots during the period from emergence to full canopy closure in West Lafayette IN, 2013. This procedure was repeated during the 2014 season.  Results show the ability to rapidly identify variation in canopy coverage from genetic differences in diverse populations.