Underground monitoring of root morphology and their interactions with
the environment is critical to understand the overall performance of a
plant. Such understanding allows plant breeders to develop plants that
are resilient to the adverse effects of climate change and potentially
even improve yields for food, fuel, and fiber. We propose and
experimentally demonstrate the use of fiber Bragg grating-based fiber
optic sensors as a non-destructive technology to measure width and depth
of a root-like object and monitor the change in groundwater level as an
indicator for soil-water content. Low-cost and continuous remote
monitoring analyzed the spectral shift induced optical power change in
the fiber optic sensors.