{"id":574891,"date":"2026-04-01T09:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574891\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T09:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:56:16","slug":"low-cost-sensor-system-could-warn-farmers-of-salt-stress-in-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574891\/","title":{"rendered":"Low-Cost Sensor System Could Warn Farmers of Salt Stress in Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. \u2014 Soil salinity is a critical concern in agriculture when excessive soluble salts restrict a plant\u2019s water uptake, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a>, hindering crop growth and reducing yields on roughly 30% of U.S. irrigated land. Caused by irrigation, poor drainage or saltwater intrusion, soil salinity impacts soil structure, reduces fertility and causes economic losses. To help growers identify and mitigate salt stress, in a proof-of-concept study, a team led by Penn State researchers built a low-cost sensor system that detects signals released by plants in trouble.<\/p>\n

The sensor works by detecting specific gases, called volatile organic compounds, emitted by plants. The researchers reported that not only do salt-stressed plants give off different gas patterns than unstressed plants, but that their low-cost sensor system can detect the difference. They reported their findings in IEEE Sensors Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe low-cost sensor system we developed detects volatile organic compounds released by plants when stressed \u2014 think of it like an electronic nose for crops that \u2018smells\u2019 gases put off by plants in distress and can warn\u00a0farmers of salt stress early, before visible damage occurs,\u201d said co-author Francesco Di Gioia<\/a>, Penn State associate professor of vegetable crop science. \u201cSalinity stress is a major issue in many regions and coastal areas around the world, and most vegetable crops are highly susceptible to the accumulation of salts like sodium chloride, which hinder nutrient uptake and decrease productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Study first author Ali Ahmad<\/a>, a researcher and doctoral student at the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain, conducted this research in Di Gioia\u2019s lab in the College of Agricultural Sciences<\/a> as a visiting scholar at Penn State. He selected arugula \u2014 a cruciferous leafy green commonly used raw in salads \u2014 to use in the experiment. It was grown in a hydroponic greenhouse managed by the Department of Plant Science.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe used a hydroponic system for the experiment to be able to control the level of salinity and exclude other factors, to be sure that what we were detecting on the plants’ volatile profile was determined by the difference in salinity levels,\u201d Ahmad said.<\/p>\n

The researchers induced salt stress by adding two different amounts of sodium chloride to the nutrient solutions feeding the plants, creating a moderately stressed group and a strongly stressed group. A third set of plants \u2014 a control group \u2014 was not exposed to salt. Plants were placed under dome enclosures that captured gases they released, measured by low-cost gas sensors at the top of the domes. These sensors measured changes in air chemistry caused by volatile organic compounds released by the plants for eight days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe studied metal-oxide semiconductor sensors because they are small and easy to deploy,\u00a0widely available online and very cheap \u2014 some under $1,\u201d Ahmad said, explaining the sensors detect even miniscule gas changes because they initiate different electrical signals in the semiconductor layer of the sensor. \u201cThat means farmers could potentially deploy many sensors across a field. But before they could become a major tool in precision agriculture, technical improvements are needed in sensor hardware and networks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers reported that the sensors detected different gas patterns depending on salt stress level, with three distinct patterns emitted from the healthy plants, the moderately stressed plants and highly the stressed plants, respectively. The researchers then trained machine learning models \u2014 a type of artificial intelligence (AI) \u2014 to recognize the gas patterns given off by salt-stressed plants.<\/p>\n

To confirm the sensor system\u2019s accuracy, the researchers measured the plants\u2019 physical traits, such as growth, leaf condition and physiological responses, determining that the sensor network achieved up to 99.15% accuracy in identifying plant stress levels. Salt-stressed plants, eventually, exhibited visible signs of distress.<\/p>\n

In related work published in Advanced Sensor Research<\/a>, the research team also evaluated the potential future use of low-cost metal-oxide semiconductor gas sensors for precision agriculture. In precision agriculture, which seeks to grow more crops while using fewer resources such as water, chemicals and energy, sensors could be used to detect plant problems like disease or other non-salt stress early.<\/p>\n

That study by Di Gioia, Ahmad and colleagues suggests the same inexpensive gas sensors used in the more recent salt stress study could detect volatile organic compounds given off by healthy, sick and stressed plants dealing with drought, disease and pests. The ability to detect these different patterns of volatile organic compound emissions, combined with AI, could revolutionize farming \u2014 but only if current technical and practical limitations are overcome, according to Di Gioia.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery inexpensive gas sensors combined with artificial intelligence point to a promising future for smart farming,\u201d said Di Gioia. \u201cBut right now, the technology isn\u2019t fully reliable and there are significant challenges involved in setting up affordable networks, so more research and better data are needed. But if these problems are solved, this approach could become a major tool in precision agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandra Sendra and Jaime Lloret, both with Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain, contributed to both studies. Jinhe Bai and Erin Rosskopf from the U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory in Fort Pierce, Florida, contributed to the second study.<\/p>\n

The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Ministerio de Ciencia, lnnovacion y Universidades\/Agencia Estatal de lnvestigacion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. \u2014 Soil salinity is a critical concern in agriculture when excessive soluble salts restrict a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[220732,49,48,220733,84,5402,220734,220738,220735,220737,220736],"class_list":{"0":"post-574891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-ali-ahmad","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-francesco-di-gioia","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-penn-state","14":"tag-plant-water-uptake","15":"tag-salt-stress-level","16":"tag-soil-salinity","17":"tag-soil-sensor-system","18":"tag-soil-structure"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}