Abstract

Underground monitoring of root morphology and their interactions with the environment is critical to understand the overall performance of a plant. Such understanding allows plant breeders to develop plants that are resilient to the adverse effects of climate change and potentially even improve yields for food, fuel, and fiber. We propose and experimentally demonstrate the use of fiber Bragg grating-based fiber optic sensors as a non-destructive technology to measure width and depth of a root-like object and monitor the change in groundwater level as an indicator for soil-water content. Low-cost and continuous remote monitoring analyzed the spectral shift induced optical power change in the fiber optic sensors.