title: Computer reconstruction of plant growth and chlorophyll fluorescence emission in three spatial dimensions.
abstract: Plant leaves grow and change their orientation as well their emission of chlorophyll fluorescence in time. All these dynamic plant properties can be semi-automatically monitored by a 3D imaging system that generates plant models by the method of coded light illumination, fluorescence imaging and computer 3D reconstruction. Here, we describe the essentials of the method, as well as the system hardware. We show that the technique can reconstruct, with a high fidelity, the leaf size, the leaf angle and the plant height. The method fails with wilted plants when leaves overlap obscuring their true area. This effect, naturally, also interferes when the method is applied to measure plant growth under water stress. The method is, however, very potent in capturing the plant dynamics under mild stress and without stress. The 3D reconstruction is also highly effective in correcting geometrical factors that distort measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence emission of naturally positioned plant leaves.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant, Soil and Environmental Science, University of Firenze, Viale delle Idee, 30 50019-Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy. chandra.bellasio@plantsci.cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: Chandra
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bellasio
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Olejníčková
authors.forename: Radek
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tesař
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sebela
authors.forename: Ladislav
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nedbal
mesh_terms: D002212:Capsicum / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development*; D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000378:metabolism*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D027805:Phaseolus / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D002734:Chlorophyll