Agronomic Characterization and Time-Series UAV Phenotyping to Support Field Pea Breeding in Iowa

Yanben Shen, Joscif Raigne, Asheesh Singh, Arti Singh

Field pea has gained interest in the Midwest U.S. and has the potential to benefit Iowa cropping systems. This study evaluated 17 accessions and 7 Canadian varieties for agronomic and seed yield performance. This study found that PI accession trials exhibit genetic diversity in phenology and canopy traits, whereas the Canadian elite varieties demonstrated great yield potential under Iowa conditions. The accession genotypes matured between 75 DAP (late June) and 95 DAP (late July) across six site-years. The top-yielding Canadian varieties averaged 1961 kg/ha across two site-years. To comprehensively assess field pea performance, this study extracted time-series Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)-derived traits, assessed UAV-derived traits, and evaluated their correlations with multiple agronomic traits and yield. The results found that UAV-derived time-series canopy area was the most yield-relevant trait (r = 0.63) among all UAV-derived canopy features, vegetation indices, and manually collected measurements. Compared with yield, UAV-derived canopy area showed higher selection reliability (H2 = 0.87, CV = 13.46%), making it suitable for phenotypic selection and accelerating Midwest…