The delicate fiber design shows the root of the sugarcane immersed in a two-centimeter plate of water (at left). The image above, in red, shows the same plant digitally enhanced to indicate, among other dimensions, its length, diameter and natural surface area. “This data is important in determining the effectiveness of fertilizers and biostimulants that enable the root to absorb more water, make more efficient use of soil nutrients and increase productivity,” explains Paulo Lazzarini, a master’s candidate in the Soil and Plant Nutrition Program at the University of São Paulo’s (USP) Luiz de Queiroz School of Agriculture (Esalq). Lazzarini, PhD candidate José Marcos Leite, and lab technician Hugo Batagello built a special enclosure to create the high-resolution photograph of the sugarcane root.
Photographs provided by Paulo Lazzarini and José Marcos Leite of Esalq-USP
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