Accurate and high resolution albedo data is important for modeling surface melt water runoff on the ice sheet. Contributors to the project include UCLA doctoral students Matthew Cooper and Lincoln Pitcher, UCLA postdoctoral researcher Kang Yang, Rutgers University doctoral student Sasha Leidman and Aberystwyth University doctoral student Johnny Ryan .Researchers at UC Berkeley, including professor Sally Thompson’s group in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, are using UAS as a novel thermal sensing platform. Working with robotics experts at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, the team tested an unmanned system capable of lowering a temperature sensor into a water body to record temperature measurements throughout the column of water — which is useful in, for instance, identifying habitat zones for aquatic species. Initial field experiments that compared in situ temperature measurements with those made from the UAS platform indicate that UAS may support improved high-resolution 3-D thermal mapping of water bodies in a manageable time frame sufficient to resolve diurnal variations . More recent work has confirmed the viability of mapping thermal refugia for cold-water fish species from this platform.UC Berkeley professor Todd Dawson and his redwood science group are using UAS-mounted multi-spectral cameras to create 3-D maps of giant sequoias — trunks, branches and foliage — at higher resolution and with far less labor than was previously possible. The maps were developed through a partnership with Parrot Inc. The company builds the cameras and UAS used in the research,raspberries for containers and partners to manage the software, Pix4D, that was specially designed to analyze the images.
Knowing the total leaf area and above ground biomass of a tree and the structure of its canopy, for instance, allows researchers to calculate daily carbon dioxide and water uptake — important variables in assessing the interactions between trees, soil and atmosphere as the climate changes. A high-resolution map also yields information about a tree’s influences on its immediate environment — how much leaf litter falls to the forest floor, for instance, and to what degree shade from the canopy influences the microclimate around the tree, or the habitats in it. Another application: A precise map of a tree also provides a good estimate of how much carbon is stored in it as woody biomass. This information, in turn, can be combined with information from coarser methods of forest mapping, such as LIDAR, to improve estimates of the carbon stored in a large forested area. Mapping every tree in a forest at a high level of detail isn’t practical. But such maps of a sample of trees can provide good correlations between carbon mass and a variable like tree height, which LIDAR can measure to a high degree of accuracy — yielding a better estimate of the total amount of carbon in the forest.The forests of California are threatened by drought and disturbance. Bark beetle infestations in the state’s coniferous forests are a particularly large concern considering recent drought conditions, the threat of potential forest fires, and climate change. There is a need for both better methods for early detection of beetle infestation, and for visualization tools to help make the case for investments in suppression . High spatial resolution multi-spectral UAS imagery and 3-D data products have proven to be effective for monitoring spectral and structural dynamics of beetle-infested conifers across a variety of ecosystems . Sean Hogan of the UC ANR IGIS program is testing the use of machine learning algorithms applied to UAS imagery to efficiently classify early beetle infestations of ponderosa pines in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills.
Preliminary results indicate that even imagery from a basic GoPro RGB camera can be used to accurately detect bark beetle–induced stress in these trees. Over 34.1 million of California’s 101 million acres are classified as grazed rangelands . The cattle industry contributes significantly to the state’s economy, and the proper management of these rangelands is important for many reasons, including forage production, preservation of natural habitats and the maintenance of downstream water quality. High-quality, timely information on rangeland conditions can guide management decisions, such as when, where and how intensively to graze livestock. UAS enable high-resolution aerial imagery of rangelands to be collected at much greater speed and lower cost than was previously possible. Translating that imagery into information that is useful to range managers, however, remains a challenge. A UC ANR team — including GIS and remote sensing academic coordinator Sean Hogan, UC Davis–based rangeland and restoration specialists Leslie Roche, Elise Gornish and Kenneth Tate, assistant specialist Danny Eastburn and Yolo County livestock and natural resources advisor Morgan Doran — is working on this problem from several angles at research sites in Napa County’s Vaca Mountains, and in Lassen and Modoc counties. Every year, the U.S. government authorizes the U.S. Department of Agriculture to spend tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to support various agricultural and nutrition programs. Two in particular provoke both ire and unqualified support among elected representatives and other observers: the Food Stamp Program , which is operated by the Food and Nutrition Service , and the commodity support program, which is operated by the Farm Services Agency . This is partly due to the fact that the amounts spent are significant, but also because the potential impacts of these programs are questionable and extremely difficult to evaluate.
The Food Stamp Program is designed to augment the food budgets of qualified recipients, allowing them to purchase more food; the commodity support program ensures that commodity growers receive no less than a certain minimum price for their crops,even though market prices often fall significantly below that “price floor.” U.S. citizens and some permanent resident aliens are qualified to participate in the FSP if they meet the following criteria: a gross monthly income below 130% of the federal poverty level, and a net monthly income below 100% of the federal poverty level ; less than $2,000 in “countable resources,” such as a bank account; the ability to meet work requirements for able-bodied adults; and the ability to provide a Social Security number for all household members. In 2003, the USDA distributed a total of $21.4 billion in food stamp benefits to a monthly average of 9.2 million low-income households; each received an average of $195 per month . Although the food stamp program has been shown to marginally increase the quantity of food consumed by participants, a review of the dietary impacts of U.S. food assistance programs found that “there is no convincing body of evidence that [the FSP] improves the overall quality of the recipients’ diet, although there is some indication that it has increased the intake of some nutrients” . While the correlation between income level and fruit and vegetable intake has not been examined,blueberries in pots the proportion of consumers who eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily is lower among black than white Americans; likewise, those with less than a high school education consume fewer servings than college graduates . Essentially all Americans, and not just food stamp recipients, would benefit from purchasing and consuming more healthful food products. Increasing the purchasing power of low-income Americans, however, is of particular importance due to the fact that calories are most cheaply available in the form of added fats and sugars, while nutrient dense foods are often significantly more expensive by comparison . Besides not improving participants’ dietary quality, the food stamp program also doesn’t serve those eligible to receive benefits particularly well: in 2003, only 61% of those eligible nationwide participated in the program, and in California only 39% of those eligible participated . Low participation rates represent, in the case of California alone, between $650 million and $1.49 billion in lost federal dollars annually . There are several explanations for these participation rates. Potential food stamp recipients often lack knowledge about eligibility criteria. In addition, the application process is notoriously difficult and dehumanizing, and the benefits are often perceived as not being worth the hassle. There is also persistent, and often well-founded, fear among immigrant communities that undocumented family members will be exposed to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service by the application process for eligible individuals, such as U.S.- born children. California’s large immigrant community is an important factor contributing to the state’s low food stamp participation rate.Direct commodity support payments are subsidies paid directly by the USDA-FSA to growers of crops such as corn, wheat, cotton, soybeans and rice to offset low prices in the marketplace. These price supports do not in all likelihood significantly affect the retail price of food products, because only a small portion of that price is attributable to the cost of subsidized ingredients.
For example, the cost of high-fructose corn syrup in Coca-Cola or of corn in a box of Corn Chex represents only about 1% or less of the retail price. However, subsidies depress commodity market prices by raising production levels above demand. By keeping commodity prices artificially low, price supports also encourage the use of commodities in processed foods and as animal feed. Because subsidy payments are directly linked to farm production levels and total farm revenues, the program also encourages overproduction . The program is popular among large-scale commodity growers, who can receive millions of dollars each year, and legislators eager to show support for American farmers. It was therefore surprising to many that in early 2005 President Bush proposed placing a cap on commodity support payments of $250,000 per grower. With the recent defeat of the Grassley-Dorgan amendment in the Senate, which would have established a $250,000 cap on payments, whether that cap will be established will have to wait until the debate on the 2007 Farm Bill begins in earnest . Direct commodity payments are enormous and highly concentrated among the largest and most profitable growers. For example, $107.3 billion was paid out between 1995 and 2003, with 87% of the $11.5 billion spent in 2003 going to the top 20% of recipients . Agricultural production in California is skewed heavily toward specialty crops such as fruits, vegetables and nuts, which do not qualify to receive direct payments. As a result, fewer California growers are eligible to receive commodity subsidies. In 2003, close to 20% did — mostly growers of rice, cotton and wheat; they received roughly 6%, or $672 million, of the U.S. total commodity payments in a similarly concentrated fashion .The food stamp and commodity support programs illustrate that U.S. agricultural and nutrition policies are not specifically designed to promote health or good eating habits. A considerable proportion of commodity payments, for example, is directed to crops that are used primarily to produce calories in the form of added fats or sugars or as feed for livestock. What’s more, the bulk of these payments goes to very large growers of commodities that are overproduced to such an extent that subsidies are necessary to offset low market prices. Similarly, the food stamp program supplements the incomes of millions of low-income Americans so that they can afford to purchase an adequate amount of calories, but does very little to influence the nutritional quality of their diets. Unhealthful diets and inadequate fruit and vegetable intakes are the norm among most Americans, and diet-related chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity disproportionately affect low-income Americans. Making healthful foods more widely available and less expensive to consumers would help bring agriculture and nutrition policies into accord with public health goals, and would be good public policy . USDA Economic Research Service researchers recently highlighted the potential “unintended consequences” of policies to combat obesity — such as listing the number of calories on menus at fast-food restaurants or levying taxes on snack foods — and concluded that such policies would in all likelihood not cause consumers to choose healthier foods . These researchers also examined the relative importance of economic and behavioral factors in influencing fruit and vegetable choices . Research has demonstrated that cost significantly influences consumer food choices, especially among low-income consumers, and that retail price reductions are an effective method to increase the purchase of more healthful foods .There is no question that the food stamp and commodity support programs would distribute payments quite differently if the goals of both were explicitly to promote better eating habits among U.S. consumers. Increasing the level of benefits or expanding food stamp eligibility criteria is always a contentious and politically difficult issue.