Thermal imaging: The digital eye facilitates high-throughput phenotyping traits of plant growth and stress responses

Plant phenotyping is important for plants to cope with environmental changes and ensure plant health. Imaging techniques are perceived as the most critical and reliable tools for studying plant phenotypes. Thermal imaging has opened up new opportunities for nondestructive imaging of plant phenotyping. However, a comprehensive summary of thermal imaging in plant phenotyping is still lacking. Here we discuss the progress and future prospects of thermal imaging for assessing plant growth and stress responses. First, we classify thermal imaging into ground-based and aerial platforms based on their adaptability to different experimental environments (including laboratory, greenhouse, and field). It is convenient to collect phenotypic information of different dimensions. Second, in order to enhance the efficiency of thermal image processing, automatic algorithms based on deep learning are employed instead of traditional manual methods, greatly reducing the time cost of experiments. Considering its ease of implementation, handling and instant response, thermal imaging has been widely used in research on environmental stress, crop yield, and seed vigor. We have found that thermal imaging can detect thermal energy dissipation caused by living organisms (e.g., pests, viruses, bacteria, fungi, and oomycetes), enabling early disease diagnosis. It also recognizes changes leaf surface temperatures resulting from reduced transpiration rates caused by nutrient deficiency, drought, salinity, or freezing. Furthermore, thermal imaging predicts crop yield under different water states and forecasts the viability of dormant seeds after water absorption by monitoring temperature changes in the seeds. This work will assist biologists and agronomists in studying plant phenotypes and serve a guide for breeders to develop high-yielding, stress-tolerant, and superior crops.