A Hyperspectral Library of Foliar Diseases of Wheat.

Abstract

This work established a hyperspectral library of important foliar diseases of wheat in time series to detect spectral changes from infection to symptom appearance induced by different pathogens. The data was generated under controlled conditions at the leaf-scale. The transition from healthy to diseased leaf tissue was assessed, spectral shifts were identified and used in combination with histological investigations to define developmental stages in pathogenesis for each disease. The spectral signatures of each plant disease that are indicative of a certain developmental stage during pathogenesis - defined as turning points - were combined into a spectral library. Different machine learning analysis methods were applied and compared to test the potential of this library for the detection and quantification of foliar diseases in hyperspectral images. All evaluated classifiers provided a high accuracy for the detection and identification for both the biotrophic fungi and the necrotrophic fungi of up to 99%. The potential of applying spectral analysis methods, in combination with a spectral library for the detection and identification of plant diseases is demonstrated. Further evaluation and development of these algorithms should contribute to a robust detection and identification system for plant diseases at different developmental stages and the promotion and development of site-specific management techniques of plant diseases under field conditions.