Spatial and Texture Analysis of Root System Distribution with Earth Mover's Distance (STARSEED)

Abstract

PurposeRoot system architectures are complex and challenging to characterize effectively for agronomic and ecological discovery. MethodsWe propose a new method, Spatial and Texture Analysis of Root SystEm distribution with Earth movers Distance (STARSEED), for comparing root system distributions that incorporates spatial information through a novel application of the Earth Movers Distance (EMD). ResultsWe illustrate that the approach captures the response of sesame root systems for different genotypes and soil moisture levels. STARSEED provides quantitative and visual insights into changes that occur in root architectures across experimental treatments. ConclusionSTARSEED can be generalized to other plants and provides insight into root system architecture development and response to varying growth conditions not captured by existing root architecture metrics and models. The code and data for our experiments are publicly available: https://github.com/GatorSense/STARSEED.