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Title: Differentiating stress to wheat fields induced by Diuraphis noxia from other stress causing factors

Author
item BACKOULOU, GEORGES - Oklahoma State University
item Elliott, Norman - Norm
item GILES, KRISTOPHER - Oklahoma State University
item RAO, MAHESH - Humboldt State University

Submitted to: Journal of Economic Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/5/2012
Publication Date: 1/2/2013
Citation: Backoulou, G.F., Elliott, N.C., Giles, K.L., Rao, M.N. 2013. Differentiating stress to wheat fields induced by Diuraphis noxia from other stress causing factors. Journal of Economic Entomology. 90:47-53.

Interpretive Summary: The objective of this study was to develop a method to differentiate two categories of stress to wheat fields, stress induced by the Russian wheat aphid, Diuraphis noxia (Mordvilko), and stress caused by other factors. The study used a set of 11 statistics describing the shape, size and distribution of stressed areas in the wheat fields derived from multispectral imagery of the fields. The analytical method is quite involved and technically complex to describe, but the end result of the analysis was that 92% of the 50 study wheat fields were correctly classified according to the primary cause of stress (D. noxia or other factors).

Technical Abstract: The objective of this study was to develop a method to differentiate two categories of stress to wheat fields, stress induced by the Russian wheat aphid, Diuraphis noxia (Mordvilko), and stress caused by other factors. The study used a set of 11 spatial pattern metrics derived from multispectral imagery acquired with a MS3100-CIR digital camera. Discriminate function analysis was used to determine whether the set of 11 spatial pattern metrics derived from thematic maps could differentiate the categories of stress. The thematic maps were created using GIS from a multispectral image of each wheat field. The image was subjected to unsupervised classification, the result of which was a thematic map of each wheat field with two categories, one for areas of stressed wheat and one for areas of healthy wheat. The discriminate function analysis classified correctly 92% of the validation fields according to the primary cause of stress (D. noxia or other factors), and classified correctly 100% of the fields.