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Environmental characterisation

A set of climate sensors measure light intensity, relative humidity, air temperature and VPD (Vapour Pressure Deficit) every minute (average stored every 15 minutes).

Measurement of organ temperature

The temperature of the meristem of the organs studied is measured with thermocouples

Measurement of soil water status and transpiration

Scales continuously measure changes in soil water status and transpiration. Differences in weight are attributed to changes in soil water content after correction for the increase in average plant biomass.
The procedure for estimating soil water content generates errors of less than 3 g, i.e. an error of about 6 10-4g

Growth measurement

Rotating displacement sensors continuously measure the elongation rate of leaves (or other essentially one-dimensional growth organs such as maize silks) with a definition ranging from 5 to 15 minutes.
The growth of a leaf is measured via a copper wire attached to each leaf and connected to a pulley and a counterweight. The counterweight does not influence leaf or silk elongation in maize but does affect the growth of rice leaves on the first day after emergence.

The PHENODYNDB information system

The Phenodyn phenotyping platform is associated with the PHENODYNDB information system allowing real-time monitoring of experiments, post-analysis of large datasets (about 700,000 points are generated for each experiment) and identification of genotypic parameters.
Via the web interface users can
    follow the records of all sensors used in an experiment to quickly inspect kinetics to identify problems (e.g. sensor quality) and make decisions (e.g. irrigation),
    obtain a more detailed picture of the experiment through export procedures based on R scripts that synthesise the data (e.g. climatic conditions, growth of all plants for a given genotype, comparison between genotypes),
Procedures for data validation (based on expert rules and statistical tests) are being developed.