Soybean rust, caused by the pathogen Phakopsora pachyrhizi and often referred to as Australasian or Asian rust, is a serious disease of soybean that causes crop losses in many parts of the world, including Asia, India, Africa, Australia, and most recently South America. Much concern has arisen because of the rapid spread of soybean rust around the world within the past ten years. Yield losses from Asian soybean rust can range from 10 to 90% depending on environmental conditions and treatment strategies. There is a critical need to understand the current condition of the crop biosecurity system, baseline the various components, and seek ways to enhance the responsiveness of the overall system. The work builds on the observation that it is possible to detect pre-visual stress in soybeans two weeks prior to visible symptoms appearing on the plant. This is due to the fact that a plant's cellular structure is the dominant factor in controlling leaf reflectance in the near infrared range. Remote sensing can then be used to assess the condition of crops. An assessment of current capabilities will be provided by a remote sensing and geospatial technology baseline, which will provide a historical perspective on the progression of soybean rust in South America (environmental, meteorological, cultural, temporal), define the current state-of-the-art for direct and indirect measurements of soybean rust, define the full spectrum (optical, thermal, radar backscatter) characteristics of the disease progression, inventory and assess disease vector models, and provide a conceptual demonstration of the components of the system in an integrated form, including the interplay between social and organizational responses to crop safety threats.
Results from this project will lead to new strategies to detect this pathogen early and monitor subsequent disease progression that are likely to be critical components to limiting the economic impact of this disease on U.S. soybean production. The architecture of the system can be adapted to other agents as well. This interdisciplinary research engages not only faculty and technicians, but also undergraduates.
