Drought trial of different turfgrass varieties at the Tifton campus, University of Georgia. Photo credit: Bingru Huang.
Zoysiagrass is a popular lawn choice because it looks great and handles heat fairly well—but it still struggles in dry conditions. A new study is using drones and advanced imaging technology to find out which types of zoysiagrass do best when water is scarce.
Bingru Huang, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Biology and an affiliate of the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute, is a co-author of the study, which was published in The Plant Phenome Journal. The research team used drones equipped with special cameras to take detailed pictures of grass in a test field. These images captured how the grass reflects different types of light—a clue to how healthy or stressed the plants are. You can read the full study here.
Some grasses reflected light in ways that showed they were better at surviving without water. These grasses stayed greener and healthier during drought, especially compared to others that dried out quickly. Using this method, the team could pick out the best-performing types just by analyzing light patterns from the drone images.
The study also used machine learning (a kind of computer analysis) to predict how good the grass looked based on this light data. The predictions were very accurate—almost as good as trained people walking through the field and scoring each patch by hand.
This work could help scientists breed turfgrass that stays green longer and uses less water, which matters more than ever as climate change leads to hotter and drier weather.
“Drought is becoming more common, and we need solutions that don’t rely on constant watering,” said Huang. “This technology helps us quickly spot which grasses can survive tough conditions, so we can bring those options to homeowners, golf courses, and public parks.”
This article was written with assistance from AI, was reviewed and edited by Oliver Stringham, and was reviewed by Bingru Huang, a co-author of the study.
