Virginia Tech is looking for a doctoral candidate in crop physiology to work at the Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Suffolk on a project related to drought tolerance in peanuts.
The project, which runs through 2019, is in collaboration with a physiologist and peanut breeder at North Carolina State University and is focused on identifying peanut lines with drought tolerance for the mid-Atlantic region.
Research will be conducted using rainout shelters, and irrigated and non-irrigated trials in farmers’ fields in Virginia.
Whole-plant physiological mechanisms of interest include, but are not limited to, photosynthesis, transpiration and water use, stomatal conductance, and various vegetation indices such as NDVI, Canopy temperature, and other digital vegetation indices. These indices will be collected with sensors on the ground and on an unmanned aerial octocopter platform.
To explain the physiological mechanisms at the molecular level, two RIL (F6:7) families were developed and are ready for phenotyping and genotyping in collaboration with faculty in the plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Sciences (PPWS) department at Virginia Tech.
The student researcher ideally would start in May or June of this year.
Contact Maria Balota (mbalota@vt.edu) and/or apply to the Graduate Programs of the PPWS department.