Crop Water Status Monitoring by Terahertz Imaging

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that terahertz imaging can reliably measure water content in winter wheat leaves, offering both destructive and non-destructive methods with high accuracy, and reveals regional differences in water loss during dehydration.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of terahertz imaging for precise water status monitoring in crops, highlighting its potential for agricultural water management.

Findings

High correlation between THz transmission and water content.

Regional differences in water loss during dehydration.

Effective non-destructive water measurement method.

Abstract

We demonstrate the reliability and applicability of THz imaging for destructive and non-destructive water status monitoring of winter wheat leaves. Based on the measured THz transmission amplitude, we find that the water loss in the distal region is less than that in the basal region during the nature dehydration process. A high correlation is shown between the transmitted THz signal and water content level measured by gravimetric weighing method during dehydration and after rehydration. The obtained results show that the water content in winter wheat leaves can be measured destructively and non-destructively with a high accuracy, using terahertz waves in a transmission geometry.