{"id":26962,"date":"2025-07-08T13:08:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T07:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=26962"},"modified":"2025-07-08T13:08:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T07:23:43","slug":"new-land-grant-research-detects-dicamba-damage-from-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/new-land-grant-research-detects-dicamba-damage-from-the-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"New land grant research detects dicamba damage from the sky"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign crop scientists were able to detect subtle dicamba herbicide damage on soybeans from sensors mounted on drones, a step toward detection from space.\u00a0From left, Aaron Hager, Dylan Kerr, and Marty Williams. Credit: College of ACES, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

URBANA, Ill.<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Drones can now detect subtle soybean canopy damage from dicamba at\u00a0one ten-thousandth<\/em>\u00a0of the herbicide\u2019s label rate\u2014simulating vapor drift\u2014eight days after application. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This advancement in remote sensing from the\u00a0University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign<\/a>\u00a0provides a science-based tool to accurately detect and report crop damage at the field scale, reducing human error and bias.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a tool\u00a0Aaron Hager<\/a>\u00a0has been calling for since dicamba-tolerant soybeans\u2014and the accompanying surge in dicamba use and off-target damage\u2014arrived on the scene in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe would have an annual teleconference with the Environmental Protection Agency where they would ask how extensive the damage was and whether their label modifications were making a difference. They were relying on pesticide misuse complaints, but there are a lot of factors going into whether someone makes a complaint,\u201d said Hager, professor in the\u00a0Department of Crop Sciences<\/a>\u00a0and an\u00a0Illinois Extension<\/a>\u00a0Specialist; both units are part of the\u00a0College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences<\/a>\u00a0at Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn the last call we did in 2020, we still didn\u2019t have a way to quantify the magnitude of what was really happening,\u201d he said. \u201cNow we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hager and his colleagues calibrated sophisticated cameras mounted on drones to detect damage on sensitive soybean canopies treated with one ten-thousandth, one three-thousandth, one-thousandth, and one three-hundredth of dicamba\u2019s label rate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These rates represent exposure from vapor drift, or volatilized dicamba, at one extreme and particle drift at the other. After flying drones over the fields and assessing the damage, the team reported their findings in\u00a0Pest Management Science<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe really wanted to make sure we could differentiate damage representing volatilized dicamba at that one ten-thousandth rate from an untreated or dicamba-tolerant soybean field, and we were able to do that,\u201d said the study\u2019s first author,\u00a0Dylan Kerr<\/a>, a doctoral candidate in crop sciences.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time, the team showed that symptoms can be detected eight days after exposure, even at the lowest level. Symptoms, which were rated using a previously published standardized scale, increased in severity with increasing dicamba exposure levels and with time. Although none of the exposure levels were strong enough to kill dicamba-sensitive soybean plants, all treated fields showed worsening symptoms by day 29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re using sensors to detect things the human eye can’t see. I mean, we all know what a cupped-up soybean plant looks like after dicamba drift, but we don’t always know when that exposure took place,\u201d Hager said. \u201cThis gives us a better idea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that they\u2019ve isolated the spectral signature of dicamba injury in soybeans, the team is scaling up. They\u2019re working to analyze satellite imagery to detect damage across wider swaths of the Midwest. With a bit of tuning, they think they\u2019ll be able to detect damage in other species as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve learned here could absolutely be used to develop a protocol for drones to fly out and detect drift. But we always knew we\u2019d be scaling up and using multi-spectral sensors to understand larger patterns across the landscape,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cCould we monitor tree and shrub canopies with this? Sure, it would be the same thing: ground truth where we see damage and where we don\u2019t, and eventually detect it from space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers say the drone and eventual satellite tools could empower growers and policymakers to better protect sensitive plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of growers are fatigued after filing complaints and not seeing any response. And you have urban communities asking, \u2018What\u2019s going on with my trees or the ornamentals in my yard?\u2019 It\u2019s critical for us as public sector scientists to figure out the extent of this problem using research-based evidence,\u201d said co-author\u00a0Marty Williams<\/a>, adjunct professor in crop sciences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to push any sort of agenda or take sides. We\u2019re just asking the question, figuring out the answer, and sharing it. I think this is a beautiful example of what public sector research is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study, \u201cSoybean (Glycine max L.) canopy response to simulated dicamba vapor drift using unmanned aerial sensing<\/a>,\u201d is published in Pest Management Science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

URBANA, Ill.\u00a0\u2014 Drones can now detect subtle soybean canopy damage from dicamba at\u00a0one ten-thousandth\u00a0of the herbicide\u2019s label rate\u2014simulating vapor drift\u2014eight days after application. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image.webp",700,473,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-200x200.webp",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-675x456.webp",675,456,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image.webp",700,473,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image.webp",700,473,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image.webp",700,473,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image.webp",700,473,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image.webp",700,473,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image.webp",700,473,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-600x473.webp",600,473,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-600x473.webp",600,473,true],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image.webp",700,473,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-550x360.webp",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-95x65.webp",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-640x473.webp",640,473,true],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-96x96.webp",96,96,true],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-150x101.webp",150,101,true]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Agriculture<\/a>","tag_info":"Agriculture","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26964,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26962\/revisions\/26964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}