ReviewThe Mediterranean climate is characterized by hot dry summers and frequent droughts.
Mediterranean crops are frequently subjected to high evapotranspiration demands,
soil water deficits, high temperatures, and photo-oxidative stress. These conditions
will become more severe due to global warming which poses major challenges to the
sustainability of the agricultural sector in Mediterranean countries. Selection of crop
varieties adapted to future climatic conditions and more tolerant to extreme climatic events
is urgently required. Plant phenotyping is a crucial approach to address these challenges.
High-throughput plant phenotyping (HTPP) helps to monitor the performance of improved
genotypes and is one of the most effective strategies to improve the sustainability of
agricultural production. In spite of the remarkable progress in basic knowledge and
technology of plant phenotyping, there are still several practical, financial, and political
constraints to implement HTPP approaches in field and controlled conditions across the
Mediterranean. The European panorama of phenotyping is heterogeneous and integration
of phenotyping data across different scales and translation of “phytotron research” to the
field, and from model species to crops, remain major challenges. Moreover, solutions
specifically tailored to Mediterranean agriculture (e.g., crops and environmental stresses)
are in high demand, as the region is vulnerable to climate change and to desertification
processes. The specific phenotyping requirements of Mediterranean crops have not
yet been fully identified. The high cost of HTPP infrastructures is a major limiting factor,
though the limited availability of skilled personnel may also impair its implementation in
Mediterranean countries. We propose that the lack of suitable phenotyping infrastructures
is hindering the development of new Mediterranean agricultural varieties and will negatively
affect future competitiveness of the agricultural sector. We provide an overview of the
heterogeneous panorama of phenotyping within Mediterranean countries, describing the
state of the art of agricultural production, breeding initiatives, and phenotyping capabilities
in five countries: Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey. We characterize some of the main impediments for development of plant phenotyping in those countries and identify
strategies to overcome barriers and maximize the benefits of phenotyping and modeling
approaches to Mediterranean agriculture and related sustainabilityinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio