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Mizzou’s Justin Krohn is tracking the location of invasive pear trees in Columbia.
Invasive plants are meeting their match.
Driven by the desire to protect Missouri’s ecosystems, a University of Missouri research team created a low-cost method to track the spread of invasive Callery pear trees in mid-Missouri — shedding light on where they are now and where they might be headed.
These trees, known for their rapid growth, ecological harm and unpleasant odor, have overtaken large swaths of the Midwest and Eastern United States, crowding out native species and breaking easily during storms. In response, Missouri’s legislature recently joined other states in banning their sale.
Callery pear trees have recently begun encroaching on Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest — a development that sparked Justin Krohn’s interest.
Now, Krohn — a research project analyst and graduate student at Mizzou — is using satellite imagery available for free for research purposes, combined with machine learning, to locate these invasive trees more affordably than using expensive drones or aircraft imagery.
In a recent study, Krohn explored Columbia, Missouri, with a GPS device to log the exact locations of Callery pear trees. Then, he applied machine learning — a form of artificial intelligence — to satellite images, teaching a model to distinguish these trees from their surroundings based on light reflection.