The phenotyping dilemma—the challenges of a diversified phenotyping community

In the past decade, large investments have been made for plant phenotyping in terms of funding, research hours, and high-tech installations in Europe, Australia, North America and Asia. The number of actors in phenotyping has increased rapidly and the focus has gradually shifted from basic to strategic crop research linked to classic agricultural traits. During the recent years, community-wide surveys have pinpointed focus areas, challenges, and bottlenecks in plant phenotyping. Increasing efforts addressing abiotic and biotic stresses associated with the effects of global climate change in mind are developing. Crop wild relatives (CWRs) are important sources for genes for both biotic and abiotic stress tolerance since diversity lost during domestication is vast. Within the last decade, large-scale phenotyping research platforms have been set up and are organized within national phenotyping facilities with a range of high-tech applications in climate rooms, greenhouses and in the field.