Nature Ecrogrow

When 3.9 µmol/kg per day of L or Z for 24 to 101 weeks were supplemented, the rhesus monkeys showed significant increases in their corresponding serum, retinal, and adipose tissue concentrations. In their retina samples, L and meso-Z, but not Z, appeared in the L-supplemented group, while only Z was found in the group supplemented with Z. In humans, a study investigating the serum and macular responses of L, Z, and meso-Z from dietary supplements found that 13.13 mg/d for 12 weeks provided maximum MPOD improvement, whereas 7.44 mg/d was the amount that increased serum levels at the highest efficacy. These and other studies support the need for dietary recommendations for L and Z, particularly as conditionally essential nutrients due to their protective effects on eye health. Lutein and Z fulfill many criteria as essential nutrients, including high concentrations in select tissues, biological plausibility for eye health, depletion outcomes such as vision impairment in primates, and inverse associations with certain diseases. In addition to their role in eye health, L and Z are involved in cognitive function at all stages of life. A randomized controlled trial reported that L and Z supplementation improved neural efficiency and learning performance by increasing the interaction of numerous brain regions in older adults.

Other reports have demonstrated an association between L intake or circulating levels and preserving age-related cognitive decline, dutch bucket for tomatoes reducing the risks of certain cancers, coronary heart disease, stroke, metabolic syndrome, and achieving higher levels of physical activity. A systematic review of in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro studies concluded that L may benefit vascular health by improving endothelial function, reducing inflammation, regulating favorable lipid profiles, and maintaining glucose homeostasis. Systematic reviews summarizing the amount of L needed for cognitive functions and enhancement of gray matter volume estimated that at least 10 mg/d for 12 months could be beneficial. Age must be considered when creating DRI values, since MPOD values are lower in older compared to younger individuals. Whether the proposed intake of L and Z should be based on the amount that can reduce AMD risk, benefit visual maturation in newborns, protect cognitive health, or reduce the risk of other diseases requires further consideration. Sex differences in AMD prevalence must also be considered, especially in relation to pregnancy and lactation, as discussed above. Nevertheless, L and Z are not included for DRI consideration due to inadequate details from food databases, limited large-scale dietary intake studies, and insufficient knowledge regarding their metabolism and biological functions. 

Many continue to advocate for a DRI for L, since it satisfies all nine criteria for bio-active compounds. A rich dietary source of L and Z is goji berry, , also called wolfberry or Gou Qi Zi. The bright orange-red colored oval fruit, has been used for millennia in traditional Chinese medicine for its role in visual health, to provide immunoregulatory, neuro-protective, and anti-inflammatory benefits, and to help regulate liver and kidney meridians . Commercially-available goji berries and their products come primarily from the Ningxia and Xinjiang autonomous regions in western China. Goji berry is known for its high amount of carotenoids, with the Z content higher than any other known food.140,141 In addition to carotenoids, other bioactive compounds found in goji berries include Lycium barbarum polysaccharides , flavonoids, vitamins, minerals, betaine,cerebrosides, phenolic acids, and certain amino acids which may also support the overall health of the eye, particularly when working synergistically. Although the TCM use of goji berry also includes the leaves and bark of the plant, this review will discuss the potential benefits of the fruit on eye health. In addition to a robust amount of Z, goji berries contain modest amounts of β-cryptoxanthin, β- carotene, neoxanthin and L. 

The Z and L content among different varieties of dried goji berries cultivated in Ningxia province ranged from 25 to 152 mg/100g, and 0.3 to 1.9 mg/100g, respectively.143 According to the United States Department of Agriculture food database, one serving of goji berries is 28 g, which would provide up to 42.6 mg of L + Z, depending on the cultivar. Moreover, the predominant form of Z in goji berries is a dipalmitate, found with a diester linkage. The ratio of Z dipalmitate to total carotenoids was up to 55% and 88%, in fresh and dried goji berry fruit, respectively. This esterified form of Z showed a significantly higher intestinal absorption than monoester and free Z due to the high efficacy of hydrolysis, mainly by carboxyl ester lipase. Plasma Z was significantly increased in individuals consuming 15g goji berries daily for 28 days in comparison to those on a habitual diet.  Participants consuming 5 mg of Z dipalmitate extracted from goji berries showed a higher plasma Z concentration than when they consumed the same amount as unesterified Z over a nine to 24 hour period. The high Z content of goji berries has been proposed as a dietary source to reduce the risk of AMD, although studies are limited. In one study, circulating Z levels were significantly higher in healthy older individuals who consumed 10 mg of Z extract from goji berries daily for 90 days. No change in macular pigmentation or soft drusen was observed, but MPOD was not measured. In an uncontrolled trial, individuals with early stage AMD who consume a beverage containing 12 mg of L and 2 mg of Z derived from marigold flower and goji berry, respectively, daily for five months, showed higher circulating levels of L and Z, lower intraocular pressures, and better best-corrected visual acuity scores. Unfortunately, the study lacked a control group, did not test the effect of Z separately, and did not clarify whether the form of Z extracted from goji berry was the dipalmitate. Another study investigating the effects of an herbal formula among healthy adults with dry eyes noted that those chewing tablets containing L , Z , extracts from blackcurrant, chrysanthemum, and goji berry showed dose-dependent reductions in eye fatigue symptoms, improved tear secretion as well as MPOD, compared to placebo. The basis of this formula was derived from TCM, so the multi component formulation could not directly inform the role of any single ingredient. A study in patients with early AMD reported that the MPOD was significantly higher in those consuming 25 g/day of goji berries for 90 days, compared to their baseline levels and to a habitual diet control group. The BCVA was also significantly improved in the goji berry group compared to their baseline values.We recently reported that MPOD and skin carotenoid scores were increased in healthy middle-aged individuals consuming 28 g/day of goji berries five times a day for 90 days compared to a group taking a supplement with 6 mg of L and 4 mg of Z.These results illustrate that MPOD levels can increase in healthy individuals even without early signs of AMD. While these results are encouraging, longer intervention periods with a larger number of participants are necessary. In addition to AMD, goji berries have been studied as a therapy for retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited retinal disease. Patients who consume 0.35 g/d of LBP for 12 months showed a significant improvement in visual acuity and macular thickness, compared to control subjects who did not consume L or Z.156 Examples of human studies that evaluated the effects of supplements containing goji berries on retinal health are shown in Table 1. Based on preclinical evidence, potential benefits of goji berry intake on glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy may also exist. Goji berry extract ameliorated the high glucose-induced blood-retinal barrier disruption in human retinal pigment epithelial cells.Studies reported that LBP showed significant neuroprotective effects over retinal ganglion cells in male C57BL/6N mice and Sprague-Dawley rats with ocular hypertension.In db/db mice, goji berry extract restored the thickness of the retina, the ganglion cell number, blueberry grow pot and the integrity of RPE after daily intake over eight weeks.Although research on the upper limit of goji berry intake is scarce, goji berry allergy risk has been associated with the existence of cross-reactivity to nonspecific lipid transfer proteins from peaches, tomatoes, tobacco, tree nuts, and select pollens.In addition, bleeding symptoms after consuming goji berry juice, tea, or wine have been described in case reports among patients taking warfarin, an anticoagulant medicine.

Although the potential value of foods high in L and Z during pregnancy and lactation has been discussed above, the utilization of goji berry products during these unique periods in a woman’s life needs special caution. Clinical studies of goji berries on eye health have been conducted primarily in Asia, with emerging research reported from Italy, Lithuania, and Switzerland.Potential gene-nutrient interactions must be considered when comparing results from Asian with Caucasian populations.Macular xanthophylls cannot be synthesized de novo in primates. The oxidative defense and blue light filtering characters of L, Z, and meso-Z are important for visual function and potentially reducing the risk of AMD. Because L and Z storage in the maternal body during pregnancy and lactation may become depleted due to active transfer to the offspring, more attention to safe and robust intake of foods and dietary supplements containing these xanthophylls is warranted. Since many infant formula products are not fortified with L or Z, addition of these two xanthophylls should also be considered. The impact of foods and dietary supplements rich in L and Z on MPOD and visual function among AMD patients and in healthy individuals deserves further attention. Since Z may play a different role than L in terms of macular pigment development or protection, better analytical techniques are needed to reassess food composition databases to distinguish these compounds, with greater attention paid to Z as a stand-alone food component, rather than grouping it with other xanthophylls. Goji berries have the highest known content of Z of any commonly consumed food, which also comes in a unique dipalmitate form. Given the increasing rates of AMD worldwide, goji berries, along with L and Z supplements, may help reduce this escalation. As of 2010, safe and accessible drinking water has been explicitly recognized as a human right by the United Nations General Assembly and deemed essential for public health and economic prosperity. Despite this designation, 785 million people lack essential drinking water services globally, and at least two billion people use drinking water sources contaminated with feces. Diseases like cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis, typhoid, and polio are linked to such sources of contamination . Despite the risks associated with a lack of essential water services, many drinking water utilities face challenges meeting regulations due to limited water supply, strict budgets, high demands due to population growth, aging infrastructure, and increasingly strict regulations for water quality. Analytical testing and water quality monitoring must be carried out regularly to ensure water is free from priority biological and chemical contamination. Unfortunately, these methods often take multiple days to conduct, in which case contaminated water may already have had negative impacts on public health. These challenges can contribute to public water utilities violating regulations established by the EPA, increasing interest in solutions such as point-of-use filtration, and real-time water quality monitoring. Even if violations are not observed from water utilities there is still potential for contamination between treatment and the tap. This contamination can source back to community water system’s distributional networks and property owner’s premise plumbing . Before reaching taps, consumers can install POU drinking water treatment systems in their water supply lines to provide on-site treatment to the water they consume. These systems encompass many treatment technologies such as membranes, filtration, UV disinfection, activated carbon, etc. The utility of implementing POU filtration shows in its ability to reduce contamination’s acute and chronic health effects. Still, there is little evidence of commercially available technologies to improve the “smartness” of point-of-use water systems in terms of their ability to perform tasks such as monitoring and reporting on water quality Possible ways to enhance the smartness of point-of-use filters include integrating Internet of Things enabled sensor technologies. Commercially available sensors measure parameters including pH, oxidation-reduction potential , and electrical conductivity , which can all be affected by chemical and biological contaminants—making these parameters effective indicators for the overall water quality as well as capable of detecting changes in water quality. When combined with the integrated circuit microcontrollers and micro processing technologies that have emerged in the last decade, there has become a platform for developing robust and customizable data loggers for relatively low costs.

Scientists hypothesized that cocoa may be an influencing factor in the low prevalence of CVD in this population, due to its high concentration of flavonoids. The primary flavonoids in cocoa are flavanols, including monomeric catechins, epicatechin, and polymeric procyanidins. Cocoa also contains methylxanthines, i.e., theobromine and caffeine, which remain in flavanol-poor cocoa butter and cocoa solids after pressing. The effect of cocoa flavanols on vascular function was first reported more than two decades ago. Extending the observations about cocoa flavanols to broader dietary patters, studies exploring the association between the intake of flavonoids and the risk of CVD have yielded inconsistent results, suggesting that certain sub-classes may be more effective than others in terms of cardio-protection. Some observational studies have shown that the dietary intake of flavanols was associated with a decreased risk of CVD and ischemic heart diseases. Epidemiological studies have reported that a moderate amount of chocolate consumption was associated with a decreased risk of CVD. A Cochrane meta-analysis concluded that the consumption of flavanol-rich chocolate and cocoa products had a small but statistically significant effect on reducing systolic and diastolic blood pressure, both by 1.76 mmHg. 

Similarly, another systematic review and meta-analysis included acute and short-term randomized controlled trials concluded that chocolate, cocoa, vertical hydroponic nft system and flavanol intake significantly improved vasodilation function as measured by flow-mediated dilatation , reduced diastolic blood pressure by 1.6 mmHg, and marginally improved the serum cholesterol profile. However, these results were strongest among individuals with moderately elevated blood pressure and untreated hypertension. The vasodilation function in healthy males, measured by FMD, was significantly increased one to four hours after taking a cocoa drink containing 917 mg of cocoa flavanols, compared to baseline values and to those consuming a control beverage with 37 mg of flavanols. The pattern of improvement in FMD from the flavanol-rich cocoa beverage was closely mirrored when participants also consumed 1 or 2 mg/kg of body weight of -epicatechin dissolved in water, suggesting -epicatechin and its metabolites were the main contributors of the vascular effects. Additional research from the same study found that while -epicatechin is a primary contributor to the vasodilation function, dimeric and oligomeric procyanidins that are metabolized by the gut microbiome may also contribute to the vasculo-protection.

In healthy young men, daily intake of a cocoa extract containing 130 mg of -epicatechin and 560 mg of procyanidins for 30 days significantly improved FMD and reduced blood pressure and arterial stiffness as measured by pulse wave velocity , while 20 mg of -epicatechin and 540 mg procyanidins, or a control capsule, did not. However, total cholesterol was decreased after in both groups consuming cocoa, suggesting synergistic effects of -epicatechin and procyanidins, possibly through gut microbiome-mediated catabolism. Cocoa also contains methylxanthines, which are biologically active. While the intake of theobromine and caffeine alone did not result in a significant change in vascular endothelial function measures,interestingly, the combination of methylxanthines plus a high cocoa flavanol drink induced a significant improvement in FMD response than the beverage only. In addition, plasma metabolites of -epicatechin were higher after consuming the flavanol-rich cocoa drink with methylxanthines than when the flavanols were consumed alone, indicating a likely interaction between theobromine, caffeine, and cocoa flavanols on vascular function. Several molecular mechanisms regarding the effects of flavanols on blood pressure and vasodilation have been proposed.

Flavanols such as -epicatechin can increase nitric oxide production directly by increasing endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression. The release of NO consequently increases intracellular cGMP which then induces a relaxation of vascular smooth muscle cells. The increased eNOS activation may also be modulated by flavanols through a calcium/calmodulin pathway by increasing the intracellular calcium concentration, or by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B -dependent eNOS phosphorylation. In addition, -epicatechin has been shown to down-regulate the expression of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase by inhibiting the synthesis of vasoconstrictors such as endothelin-1, and therefore increase the utilization of NO. Flavanols may also directly inhibit angiotensin-converting enzyme activity, which increases NO production. Apart from modulating NO production, flavanols may also induce the release of endothelium-derived relaxing factors such as hydrogen peroxide and prostacyclin. Cocoa flavanols also benefit cardiovascular health by inhibiting platelet activation and adhesion. In healthy individuals, platelet aggregation induced by collagen and adenosine diphosphate, and the expression of P-selectin, was significantly decreased compared to a placebo group after the daily intake of 234 mg of cocoa flavanols and procyanidins for 28 days. Some studies have reported that the reduction in platelet aggregation was not different between flavanol-rich darkchocolate or low-flavanol dark chocolate mixed with white chocolate, suggesting potential antiadhesive effects from methylxanthines. While the exact mechanisms to explain the interaction between flavanols and platelets are still under investigation, proposed mechanisms from in vitro and ex vivo models include an inhibition in the expression of endothelial adhesion molecules , and the down-regulation of pro-inflammatory factors such as interleukin -6 and tumor necrosis factor-α, which also decrease the recruitment of other proinflammatory compounds. Mango originated from the Indian subcontinent and has been cultivated for thousands of years. The bark, leaves, roots, and flowers of the tree, and the peel, kernel, and pulp of the fruit, have been used in traditional medicine in tropical and sub-tropical regions throughout the world. The bark and leaves have been used for treating diarrhea and diabetes in Bangladesh, and Ghana, with the pulp and kernel used for hemorrhaging in the lungs and intestines in India. Mango fruit is a rich source of fiber, vitamins C and E, folate, potassium, β-carotene, and phenolic compounds. Dietary intake of vitamins C and E, and β-carotene, are associated with reduced risks for CVD.  Major phenolic compounds reported in mango pulp include mangiferin, quercetin, kaempferol, myricetin, catechin, gallic acid, ferulic acid, protocatechuic acid, and chlorogenic acid.23,57 One study observed that a higher mango intake was associated with improved nutrient intakes, diet quality, and body mass index , factors known to reduce the risk of CVD.58 Clinical trials also suggest that mango fruit may have protective effects against the development of CVD. Daily intake of 200g of fresh-cut Ataulfo mango for 30 daysdecreased blood lipids and increased the plasma antioxidant capacity in healthy adults. In obese men and women aged 20-50 years, supplementation of 10 g/d freeze-dried mango pulp for 12 weeks decreased blood glucose levels but not inflammatory or any cholesterol markers. Another study reported that the daily intake of 400 g of fresh frozen mango pulp significantly decreased systolic blood pressure only in individuals with a BMI of 18-26.2 kg/m2 . In contrast, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1, IL-8, and mitochondrial pyruvate carrier-1 were significantly reduced in individuals when the BMI was partitioned as > 28.9 kg/m2 . In addition, in participants with impaired glucose sensitivity, the supplementation of 100 or 300 mg/d of mango fruit powder with 250 ml water daily for four weeks significantly increased the vasodilation of arteries as measured by the reactive hyperemia index compared to a placebo group. Mangiferin is a unique compound in mango that has been studied for its vasculo protective effects .

A mango bark extract with a high concentration of mangiferin decreased cholesterol in plasma and liver, and reduced oxidative stress in mice. A subsequent human study showed that the daily intake of 900 mg of Vimang® for 90 days reduced a measure of serum oxidative stress compared to a control group among older individuals. In both the animal and human studies, the marker of oxidative stress, nft hydroponic system while considered valid at the time of the study, is now viewed with limitations. In overweight hyperlipidemic individuals, the daily intake of 150 mg of mangiferin for 12 weeks significantly improved lipid profiles and glucose homeostasis. In hyperuricemic rats, mangiferin intake significantly reduced SBP, serum uric acid and inflammatory markers, and increased the expression of eNOS. One potential mechanism to help explain the vasodilatory effect of mangiferin may be due to the increased expression of eNOS, and therefore enhanced the production of NO. Reports have shown that the composition of phenolic compounds in mango varied significantly among different varieties. Mango varieties with high polyphenol content, such as Ataulfo, may play a more prominent role in cardiovascular health, but the interaction between the polyphenols, carotenoids and other bioactive compounds in mango must be considered. Further studies may also focus on the potential effects of mango by-products on metabolic health, since the total concentration of phenolic compounds is higher in the kernel, peel, leaves, and bark compared to the edible fruit. Such explorations may be useful in processing what is considered as agricultural waste into useful extracts.Low-bush blueberry and high-bush blueberry are two common species originally grown in North America. Native Americans have a long folklore history of using both types of blueberry plants to treat rheumatism and infection.  Anthocyanins are responsible for the red, blue, and purple color in ripe berries. Blueberries are one of the most abundant sources of anthocyanins in commonly consumed fruits. The total anthocyanin level in fresh blueberries is significant, reaching up to 487 mg/100g. Blueberries also contain appreciable amounts of proanthocyanidins and hydroxycinnamic acids , along with vitamins and minerals, fiber, and small quantities of flavonols and flavanols. Epidemiological studies suggest that a higher dietary anthocyanin intake is associated with a lower risk of hypertension, and reduced arterial stiffness in women, though these studies do not specify blueberries as the sole source of these bioactives. A meta-analysis of 19 cohort studies reported that the dietary intake of anthocyanins was associated with a decreased risk of coronary heart disease and CVD mortality, but not myocardial infarction, stroke, or total CVD risk. The effects of blueberries on markers of CVD risk have been studied. In obese postmenopausal women with pre- and stage I-hypertension, daily consumption of 22 g of freeze-dried blueberry powder containing 469 mg of anthocyanins for eight weeks significantly reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 7 mmHg and 5 mmHg, respectively, and arterial stiffness measured by brachial-ankle PWV, compared to their baseline values or to a placebo group. In healthy males, FMD was significantly increased one, two, and six hours after the intake of 34, 57, and 80 g of blueberry powder mixed in water , compared to a control drink. However, no changes were seen in arterial stiffness measures. In addition, the increase in polyphenol metabolites and decrease in neutrophil NADPH oxidase in plasma were correlated to FMD, suggesting that the phenolic metabolites after blueberry powder consumption effectively improved vasodilation functions by elevating the bio-availability of NO through inhibition of NADPH oxidase. Later the research group identified that the FMD improvements were mainly due to anthocyanin metabolites. The blood pressures of overweight and obese smokers who consumed 250 g of blueberries for three weeks showed no significant changes from baseline values . Among mid-aged women who were at risk for type II diabetes, daily consumption of 240 ml of wild blueberry juice with 314 mg of anthocyanins forseven days significantly improved serum nitrates and nitrites, but no change were noted for in glucose metabolism parameters, cholesterols, inflammatory markers, platelet adhesion molecules, vasodilation, or blood pressure, compared to baseline and the placebo group. Taken together, the above results suggest that clinical trials with blueberries may need require a few weeks or longer of regular intake in order to observe clinically significant changes. Similar to blueberries, the American-cranberry is also a plant that is native to North America and has a long history of botanical uses by indigenous people, such as for urinary tract disorders and diarrhea. Cranberries are rich in numerous phenolic compounds, including A-type procyanidins, anthocyanins, flavanols, benzoic acid, and ursolic acid. Due to the extremely low sugar and high tart and astringency nature, cranberry products often contain added sugar or are blended with other fruits to improve palatability. To date, no systematic reviews or meta-analysis has noted an efficacy of cranberries in reducing CVD risks. However, potential cardio-protective effects may exist due to mechanisms discussed above.Goji berry , also termed wolfberry or Gou Chi Zi, has been used in TCM for its “eye-brightening” effects for millennia. In Chinese culture, goji berries can be consumed as a snack, an ingredient in soup, or as a tea alternative. Goji berries have the highest known content of Z of any commonly consumed food. In addition, goji berries also contain modest amounts of β-cryptoxanthin, β-carotene, neoxanthin and L.

Looking more closely at pest management, soil fumigation is the highest cost category for conventional production at $3,302 per acre, with weed control, another labor-intensive practice, the highest cost in second year and organic strawberries at $1,212 and $2,506 per acre, respectively . However, for organic strawberries the cost to control insects ran a close second at $2,488 per acre, which was dominated by control for lygus bug with a bug vacuum, and two-spotted spider mite with the release of predatory mites. By comparison, estimated costs for insect control in conventional strawberries were lower at $702 per acre and still lower at $579 in second year conventional berries.Raspberry and blackberry production were not routinely studied in years prior to 2003. Since then, several primocane-bearing raspberry and floricane-bearing blackberry cost and return analyses have been performed, with the most recent studies conducted in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Both studies detail establishment and first year production and harvest costs for not-yet-fully-mature crops. For raspberries, first year of production includes a $12,460 per acre construction, stackable planters management and investment cost for protective tunnels. Costs for a mature raspberry crop are analyzed in the second production year and total $48,210 per acre .

For blackberries, costs for a mature crop are shown for the second through fifth production years, and total $43,406 per acre per year. Harvest costs again represent the vast majority of total costs, at 81% and 71% of total costs for raspberries and blackberries, respectively. For raspberries, cultural costs represented a much smaller share of total costs at $4,656 per acre, roughly half of which was for trellis and tunnel management. Blackberry cultural costs totaled $5,709 per acre, of which over half was for pruning and training canes.Each study also includes an analysis of potential net returns to growers above operating, cash and total costs for a range of yields and prices. When evaluating net returns above total costs, gains are shown for higher yield and price points; losses are also documented at many lower yields and prices . Farms with productive soils, experienced managers, optimal production conditions and robust market plans generally realize higher net returns. In contrast, farms with less-than-optimal production conditions, reduced yields, poor fruit quality or inexperienced managers may contribute to lower net returns. Results from the strawberry analyses show that on a per acre basis, organic strawberries tend to be more profitable than conventional berries, even with lower yields.

Organic price premiums explain the result; in this example price per tray for organic strawberries ranged from $12 to $18, while price per tray for conventional berries ranged from $7.30 to $11.30. Prices for second year conventional strawberries were slightly lower still to account for a portion of the crop that was diverted to the freezer market. Net returns for both caneberries were mostly positive. Other noteworthy entries in all recent berry studies include per acre costs for pest control advisers , management of invasive pests and food safety and regulatory programs for water and air quality. Though each alone represents a relatively small portion of total costs, they provide readers with insights into the changing nature of berry production activities and costs over time.Cultural practices in the berry industry have evolved to address changes in soil, water and pest management needs. Based on historical trends, and to meet both industry needs and consumer demands, we expect to see new varieties continually developed over time. Businesses have responded to consumer and market demands for fresh, safe and organic products by implementing food safety programs and/or transitioning more lands to organic production.

Water and air quality programs have been developed to comply with state regulatory requirements. In the past, growers customarily hired those with expertise in financial and market management; they now also enlist the support of experts in food safety, organic agriculture and environmental quality to assist with farm management. But challenges remain, and management of key agricultural risks — including those for production, finances, marketing, legal and human resources — have become increasingly important. Invasive pests pose significant management and regulatory constraints and increase production, financial and market risks. Two recent examples are light brown apple moth and spotted wing drosophila . LBAM infestations can lead to loss of part or all of the crop because of field closure from regulatory actions, increasing production and financial risk. SWD presents substantial market risk to growers in that its larvae can infest fruit and render the crop unsaleable. Growers minimize the risk of loss from these two organisms with the routine use of PCAs. PCAs monitor fields more frequently than growers alone would be able to do, identify pests and recommend actions, for example, the use of pheromone mating disruption for LBAM and field sanitation for SWD. Since their introduction, the soil fumigants CP and MB have unquestionably contributed to the expansion of the berry industry. However, the full phaseout of MB as a pest management tool — it will no longer be available for use in berry production after 2016 — presents both production and financial risks. While a substantial research commitment has been made to finding alternatives to MB, nothing has yet come close to offering the same level of protection from the large-scale loss to soil pathogens or the gains in productivity associated with the application of CP and MB as synergistic preplant fumigants. We anticipate that the berry industry will adapt to the MB phaseout by using alternative fumigants and preplant soil treatments, but these are likely to carry a higher level of risk for berry production in the short term and may lead to a decrease in planted acreage and production. However, this may also stimulate an even more robust research agenda directed towards soilborne diseases and plant health to minimize disruption to the industry. Reliance on fumigants as the primary strategy for pest management is almost certainly a thing of the past. Instead, adoption of integrated approaches, including alternatives to fumigants, to manage diseases, weeds and other pests will be key to sustaining berry production over the longer term . Labor is also a current and significant challenge for growers of berry crops. Social and demographic changes in Mexico — the source of a majority of the area’s agricultural labor — have resulted in markedly lower immigration rates into the United States, a shrinking labor pool and upward competition and wage pressures for the agricultural workers who remain . In recent years, growers have reported difficulty in securing and retaining sufficient numbers of workers to ensure timely and effective farm operations. The lower production figures seen in strawberries in 2014 may in part have been the result of an insufficient labor pool from which to draw . However, no known regional employment or wage data are available to specifically document this. Some growers minimize labor risk by paying higher wages and providing year-round employment when possible. However, these strategies can be difficult for some businesses to justify economically. Arguably, the area’s berry industry, and agriculture more generally, stacking pots increasingly face political risk. Immigration legislation that may assist with the current labor challenge languishes at the federal level, with major policy changes unlikely before 2017 . Farming practices are under ever more scrutiny by consumers, local municipalities and state and federal agencies. Soil fumigants and pesticide use have been the focus of many intense debates and discussions, especially in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. At the time of this writing, several new regulations related to pesticide application notifications, pesticide and fumigant application buffer zones and worker safety have been proposed by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation or the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency but have not yet been finalized. It is anticipated that implementation will begin in 2017, with full compliance required in 2018. And, as California struggles through a fifth year of drought, water use, quality and cost has become a more robust part of the local, state and federal discourse, with directives issued and new legislation proposed. Compliance with each new directive or regulation presents production and logistical challenges for growers and can be costly to manage. Although it is unlikely that regulatory pressures will lessen in the future, there is every expectation that growers will continue to adjust business practices to meet or exceed any new requirements or standards. The economic sustainability of individual farming operations and the area’s berry industry in total will ultimately be impacted by and continue to evolve with the ever changing business environment, and by an array of risks and challenges.Bunch grapes , notably European , are considered among the major fruit crops worldwide, producing roughly 70–80 million tons each year . Cultivars of V. vinifera L. are used for wine, juice, and table grape production. Grape berries are classified as non-climacteric fruits, exhibiting a double-sigmoid developmental pattern with two rapid growth phases: the berry formation and the ripening phase , separated by an intermediate lag phase called the green plateau . The exponential increase in berry size characterizes both growth stages , but not the lag one . During phases and , also known as immature stages, organic acids, mainly tartrate and malate, accumulate leading to induction of acidity levels . At the end of the lag phase, a step-change point takes place known as veraison, where acidity starts to decline while sugars, mostly glucose and fructose, as well as anthocyanins in colored varieties, increase. Of particular interest are phenolic compounds, which are major and ubiquitous plant secondary metabolites derived from the shikimate/phenylpropanoid and polyketide pathways, with three utmost categories: proanthocyanidins , also known as condensed tannins, the gallo- and ellagitannins , and the phlorotannins . Such diversity of polyphenols, with more than 8000 structural variants, bestows them a wide range of biological functions ranging from growth, development, and protection inside the plant to, to some extent, human-related issues . In grapevines, the accumulation pattern of phenolic compounds, along with the aforementioned berry attributes, distinguishes each of the berry phases throughout berry development . Indeed, berry quality and sensory characteristics are notably defined by its polyphenol content . Remarkably, astringency is among the hardest sensory traits to depict and interpret as many intricate processes underpinning its perception . For instance, a sensory characterisation of the astringency of 11 varietals of Italian red wine revealed that neither total phenols nor PAs can predict how all astringency subtleties will be perceived . It is worth noting that the amounts, compositions, and proportions of polyphenols in a given species may vary widely depending on several factors, such as genotypic variations, developmental stages, and environmental circumstances . Scarlet Royal is a mid-season ripening table grape variety, producing seedless, red-skinned, oval-shaped, firm, and moderate to large berries with a sweet to neutral flavor . In the San Joaquin Valley, California, it typically ripens in mid to late August, filling the harvest window between Flame Seedless and Crimson Seedless, and has thus become a very popular red table grape variety in California. However, an undesirable astringent taste has been observed occasionally in some cases. In fact, the economic value of grapevines depends substantially on the environmental conditions, including climate, soil, cultural practices, cultivar, and rootstock. Hence, the term “terroir” is used in viticulture to describe the effect of such an interactive ecosystem on grapevine and wine quality . The current study aimed to understand the underlying mechanism of astringency development in Scarlet Royal berries at two contrasting vineyards . The first location produces well-colored, non-astringent berries; however, the second site yields astringent taste, poorly colored berries . The data showed a large variation in berry astringency within the same vineyard and from year to year. The data illustrated that the divergence in berry astringency stemmed from alterations in its polyphenol composition , most notably tannins. Additionally, the ripening stage was the most distinguishing platform for such variation between both vineyards. We were able to determine the tannins’ threshold level that causes the Scarlet Royal astringency taste to be ~ 400 mg/L. Given the changes in the levels of polyphenols during berry ripening, the question was raised: what is the mechanism governing the distinctive tannins accumulation pattern between V7-berries and V9-berries, and hence astringency diversity?

Future studies which directly compare climatic variables and mortality of A. glauca – of various ages – across ecoregions during extreme drought would therefore be of great value, and may elucidate a better understanding of the driving factors and relative vulnerabilities of plants in high-risk ecosystems.Consistent with our hypothesis, plants located at lower elevations generally experienced more physiological stress and greater dieback severity than those at higher elevations. However, there was also considerable variability within sites and along the elevational gradient. We hypothesize this is due to the extreme heterogeneity of the Santa Ynez mountain landscape, and that certain landscape features outside the scope of this study may act as refugia for A. glauca resilience. Since A. glauca is a relatively shallowly-rooted species, variables such as slope, aspect, slope angle, concavity, and rockiness – all of which vary greatly across the region and influence temperature, water availability, or both – likely impact shrub functioning and vulnerability to drought on a very local scale. In considering long-term predictions, it is possible that while some stands of A. glauca may suffer high levels of dieback and even mortality during extreme drought, populations as a whole may be resilient because of microsite and landscape heterogeneity.Although higher elevations in our study area historically record greater rainfall, we found this trend to be slightly disrupted during our study period: rainfall at the highest elevation site was lower than at the intermediate site from 2015-16 to 2018-19 . Furthermore, nft channel while elevation is known to influence temperature such that lower elevations are generally hotter than higher ones within a region, human-induced climate warming has been shown in some cases to occur more rapidly at higher than at lower elevations.

For instance, Giambelluca et al. found more rapid warming at elevations above 800m in Hawaii, and a review by Pepin et al. found enhanced warming with elevation in high mountain regions globally . Therefore, higher elevation sites in our study may also be experiencing more warming. We do not have temperature records for our six sites so we cannot separate temperature trends or anomalies from other elevational impacts. Nonetheless, the lack of a consistent elevation effect could be due not only to the confounding effects of other topographic features , but also to lower rainfall and increased warming in some higher elevation sites. From the early studies of Whittaker ecologists have long recognized the influence of aspect on plant composition and vegetation dynamics in montane environments. Yet rarely have investigators tied performance or mortality of individuals within a species population to subtle differences in aspect that occur within a single population . Here we found that aspect was the strongest predictor of dieback over time, with plants in SW aspects showing greater dieback than plants on more north-facing aspects. This influence of aspect may be the result of direct negative effects of sun exposure and higher temperatures ina semi-arid environment or maybe indirect whereby influences of aspect are mediated through aspect-effects on soil and microbes. For example, Gilliam et al. 2015 demonstrated greater soil organic matter accumulation and different microbial community composition in N facing compared to S facing slopes. Regardless of mechanism, the finding that SW aspect is detrimental to these plants could be important for restoration practitioners seeking to identify promising sites on the landscape where restoration of individual species may be more successful .

Another source of variability both within the landscape region we studied, and across Southern California chaparral, which was not directly measured in this study, is the occurrence of fog. The Santa Barbara region experiences predictable fog in May and June, and late summer cloud shading and fog events have been demonstrated to reduce vapor pressure deficit , slow plant seasonal water loss and provide direct foliar uptake of water . We observed significant variation in fog intensity between sites, particularly at night during the early summer months , even between sites on a given night. Sites C and D in particular often experienced heavy fog drip, while other sites remained dry. We found plants saturated by fog to exhibit higher water potentials on such nights, similar to findings in Mahall et al. , suggesting that fog drip may be sufficient enough to percolate to shallow roots. As mentioned previously, A. glauca is considered to be a relatively shallowly rooted chaparral shrub species and has been shown to be sensitive to even small changes in rainfall . Additionally, some coastal California shrub species have been shown to exhibit foliar water uptake from fog , though this has not yet been demonstrated for A. glauca. Regardless, variations in summer fog patterns have previously been shown to influence late-season water potentials in other Arctostaphylos spp. , possibly causing populations with greater exposure to fog to have higher “safety margins” with which to avoid cavitation . Similarly, Emery et al. have shown that fog can reduce the rate of water loss in coastal shrublands in California. Mortality of A. glauca during drought documented in other studies occurred in more interior sites, with less fog influence.

Thus, we believe the role of local and regional variation in fog occurrence in A. glauca drought resistance warrants further research.While dieback severity increased over time, the fact that no new plant-level mortality was observed during the study supports previous findings that A. glauca are resilient to prolonged drought. The relatively more mesic climate of Santa Barbara may have contributed to resiliency in our study, compared to studies in more xeric shrubland regions that reported high mortality of A. glauca during the same drought . Landscape heterogeneity, while likely confounding some of our results, may also be advantageous in creating differential water availability across the landscape, thus providing refuges that can ultimately allow resilience of A. glauca populations in a region. However, severe and widespread dieback, like that which we observed, still represents a threat to healthy ecosystem functioning, and has implications for fuel management in regions that are already fire-prone. Lower elevations and exposed, southwesterly slopes may continue to seethe highest levels of dieback during future drought events, and thus should be identified as high-risk and potential focus areas for management.Supported metal catalysts consisting of finely dispersed metal nanoparticles on high-surface-area supports are key in realizing cleaner and more efficient chemical conversions by lowering the energy cost and increasing the selectivity to the desired product. Efficient use of precious metals is facilitated by dispersing the catalytically active metal in sub-10 nm parti-cles. Preventing the growth of these small NPs into larger agglomerates, for example, at elevated temperatures and pressures, is challenging and remains a major cause of catalyst deactivation. Traditionally, high surface-area supports are used to retard NP sintering by increasing the interparticle spacing. Most prominent approaches are to distribute the particles in well-defined mesoporous supports, to encapsulate the individual NPs in porous oxides, to induce a thin metal oxide coating via strong metal-support interactions, or by incorporating the NPs in a microporous framework, such as, for example, zeolites. These designs drastically increase the thermal stability of the NPs and successfully protect the particles from sintering and Oswald ripening during catalysis. However, the encapsulation can lead to a partial loss of catalytic activity due to blockage of the NP surface by the surrounding metal oxide. A key challenge is to mitigate this effect, hydroponic nft and to develop methodologies to probe the chemical accessibility of the NPs in these novel catalyst designs. An emerging class of materials developed by our group that addresses this challenge is raspberry-colloid-templated catalysts . The RCT materials exhibit exceptional thermal and catalytic stability, while maintaining high catalytic activity and selectivity. The material design consists of an ordered macroporous metal oxide framework with sub 10-nm metal NPs distributed at the pore walls. The colloidal preparation approach that involves infiltration of the metal oxide precursor into the assembled sacrificial colloids decorated with catalytic NPs offers high versatility of the structural design, that is, particle size, metal composition, metal oxide composition, and micro- and macro-porosity can be tuned independently. The robust, macroporous matrix allows facile mass transport throughout the catalyst. So far, the potential of the RCTs for thermal catalysis has been demonstrated in selective alkyne hydrogenation, HD exchange, CO oxidation, oxidative alcohol coupling, and the oxidation of volatile organic compounds. A unique feature of the RCT catalysts is their excellent stability during catalysis and thermal treatment, allowing long catalyst lifetimes and facile reactivation via thermal treatment. A particularly noteworthy finding by Shirman et al. is the observation that not only the stability but also the activity of the RCT catalysts can be strongly enhanced compared to commercial catalysts, allowing drastic reductions in precious metal use and in energy cost in oxidation catalysis.

The origin of the superior thermal stability of the RCT catalyst has remained an open question thus far. Furthermore, the crystal structure and accessibility of the catalytic NPs, in particular at their interface with the support, are still unknown despite the relevance of these properties to understanding the origin of sinter-resistance of these materials and their activity in catalysis. Here, by using theoretical modeling, 3D electron microscopy, and epitaxial overgrowth, we assess the NP embedding, the crystal structure, and the chemical accessibility of the metal NPs in RCT catalysts and discuss the implications of these structural characteristics for the catalysts’ functional properties, and in particular for NP stability.The RCT preparation relies on multi-step synthetic route . The first step comprised the preparation of the metal NPs and amidine-functionalized polystyrene colloids . Here, the metal particles consisted of 96 atom % Au and 4 atom % of Pd, abbreviated as Au96Pd4, and were capped with polyvinylpyrrolidone . However, the desired composition, size, and shape of both the NPs as well as the size and functional surface groups of the PS colloids can be readily altered, independent of the subsequent synthesis steps, allowing a tailored design of catalysts for specific chemical reactions. Next, the metal NPs were attached to the PS colloids, yielding so-called raspberry colloids . An ordered colloidal crystal of raspberry colloids assembled by solvent evaporation was infiltrated with a pre-hydrolyzed silica sol-gel solution . In the final step, the PS template and stabilizing ligands were removed via calcination , generating an ordered macroporous silica support with metal NPs decorating the pore walls. Additionally, the high-temperature calcination ensured the mixing of Pd and Au into a homogeneous alloy. The resulting RCT catalyst contained ≈5 wt.% bimetallic Au96Pd4 NPs as determined with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry . The weight loading closely matches the theoretical weight loading of 4.8 wt.% calculated based on the synthesis parameters, indicating that no metal leaching occurred during the RCT preparation. The sinter-resistance of the NPs in the RCT catalyst is evident from the overlapping size distributions before and after thermal treatment at 800 °C in static air . The average particle sizes before and after treatment closely match and are 7.5 ± 2.5 and 7.4 ± 2.4 nm, respectively. Additional long-term stability experiments show that thermally treating the catalyst for 10 h in either oxidizing or reducing gas atmospheres does not lead to particle growth . These findings are in line with previous reports in which particle growth was not pronounced in RCT catalysts at temperatures up to 950 °C, and in strong contrast to significant agglomeration and growth of NP in silica-supported catalysts in which the NPs were introduced after the macroporous silica framework was prepared. Thermal treatment of the latter already led to particle growth to > 20 nm after thermal treatment at 500 °C in static air. In addition to the thermal stability of the NPs during synthesis and in oxidizing and reducing atmospheres, the long-term stability and sinter resistance of the PdAu and Pd NP RCT catalysts have been demonstrated for a range of reactions under catalytic conditions: CO oxidation, methanol oxidation, 1-hexyne hydrogenation, and oxidation of simulated exhaust mixtures. It has been shown that the sinter resistance is maintained in RCT catalysts even at high metal loadings and small NP sizes. We postulated that the infiltration step in the synthesis procedure is crucial in determining the NP–silica interface and the degree of NP embedding into the matrix after calcination. More specifically, the geometry of the NP pocket within the silica support is defined by the wetting of the surfaces of the gold NPs and PS colloids by the infiltrating silica sol-gel solution.

Infection and dieback severity varied considerably across the landscape, however, there is some evidence to suggest that populations at lower elevations may be at highest risk for severe dieback, either due to increased water stress, close proximity to fungal inoculum sources, or both. Additionally, shrubs located on southwest-facing slopes may also be more vulnerable due to increased sun exposure and thus environmental stress. Management efforts may want to focus on these areas when this region experiences future drought. Finally, although extreme dieback was recorded throughout the study, none of the observed shrubs succumbed to mortality. This may be the result of overall physiological resiliency, and the ability of adult shrubs to allocate resources to keep portions of the canopy alive. It could also be that the region’s slightly more mesic climate offers a climatic buffer that prevented shrubs from reaching their mortality thresholds. More research is needed to identify these exact mechanisms and thresholds in A. glauca. Collectively, the results of this dissertation work provide valuable knowledge on the severe dieback of an important chaparral shrub during an historic drought, with the potential for ecologically and economically costly consequences. Additionally, the data I present provide insight into the scale and progression of A. glauca dieback in a chaparral system, and potential patterns of future dieback in the face of predicted climate change. Future research that seeks to further resolve landscape and environmental variables contributing to plant stress would help in identifying these patterns.

Heterogeneity and rugged topography across the landscape, round garden pot while likely beneficial for the resilience of regional A. glauca populations during drought, presents significant challenges for on-the-ground monitoring. Out of necessity for safe access , many of the plants surveyed were located on the outer boundaries of stands, where edge effects may have been a factor. Monitoring intact, undisturbed stands using drones would yield valuable additional insight into the extent of disease deeper into stands and in stands on steep terrain or that are outside of normal visual range. The challenges of working in rugged landscapes covered in impenetrable vegetation highlight the need for using and refining remote sensing technologies, such as drone imaging, Light Detection and Ranging , and hyperspectral imaging as monitoring tools. Large-scale, long-term monitoring using these tools would allow researchers to retrieve data in areas that have previously been inaccessible, while also gaining a larger scale understanding of drought impacts. They ultimately will enable future studies to reveal more nuanced patterns across the landscape and between years of varying climatic conditions.Plant pest and disease outbreaks play a major role in shaping ecosystems around the world. Outbreaks can alter ecosystem structure and function, often with substantial consequences . Over the past 200 years, pest/disease outbreaks have increased due to mass exchange of biological materials from global trade and a rise in unusual climate events resulting from global climate change .

Prolonged climate irregularities can subject plants to environmental stress outside of their normal resistance thresholds and make them susceptible to pests and pathogens . For example, the increase in extreme droughts, defined here as greater in intensity and duration than historical drought regimes, has been directly linked to enhanced mortality in woody plant systems worldwide, often in association with pest/pathogen outbreaks . Plant disease outbreaks are often economically costly , and can result in loss of ecosystem services in natural ecosystems. With global trade continuing to spread pests and pathogens, and global change-type drought events predicted to increase , incidences of plant disease outbreaks are expected to increase. Understanding the role of drought and pathogens in plant dieback and mortality is therefore of critical importance. Latent fungal pathogens are of particular concern for natural ecosystems yet their ecological roles remain poorly understood. These pathogens can live as asymptomatic endophytes within their hosts and remain undetected for long periods of time . The Botryosphaeriaceae fungi, a groupthat causes considerable damage to hundreds of agricultural, ornamental, and naturally occurring host species around the world , includes many latent fungal pathogens that are difficult to detect in wild plant populations. Members of this diverse family can occur as endophytes, pathogens, and saprophytes on diverse woody hosts . They are best known as pathogens that cause leaf spots, cankers, severe branch dieback, and death in economically important hosts such as grapevines , avocado , and eucalyptus . While Bot. fungi are rapidly becoming one of the most important agents of disease in agricultural plant hosts , relatively few studies have been conducted on these pathogens in natural systems .

The Bot. fungi have a long history of taxonomic confusion, in part due to indistinctive morphological characteristics among species and from other fungal taxa, as well as historically poor and inconsistent descriptions early on in their discovery . Furthermore, Bot. host specificity and pathogenicity can vary widely among species and across geographical regions, complicating our understanding of their influence in various host species and across systems . While advances in molecular sequencing and data basing have added clarity in this area , challenges remain in understanding the diversity and pathogenicity of Bot. species among hosts and across regions. As a result, there is a dearth of knowledge on their ecological roles, particularly in native ecosystems.One consistent finding is that disease outbreaks from Bot. fungi in agriculture are often associated with environmental stress, such as extreme heat fluctuations and drought . Furthermore, studies have shown latent pathogens like Bots cause more damage to water-stressed hosts , and some Bot. species have been shown to grow well in water potentials much lower than what their plant hosts can tolerate , suggesting drought conditions increase virulence by these pathogens. Therefore, regions that have historically dry climates or experience periodic extreme drought may be especially vulnerable to disease outbreaks from latent pathogens as they are predicted to experience an increase in drought events due to climate change . Mediterranean-type climate areas are projected to be global change “hot spots” , and dry shrublands are predicted to experience some of the most rapid increases in mean temperatures . Indeed, recent drought-related morality in California’s semi-arid Mediterranean climate shrublands has provided support for these predictions . Furthermore, the combination of dense human settlement and agricultural lands in close proximity to many natural shrubland habitats in southern California creates a likely pathway for exotic pathogen introductions and movement of pathogens from agricultural settings into wildland species. Not surprisingly, Bot. species have been retrieved on a variety of native chaparral shrub species in California, including Ceanothus spp. , Malosma laurina , and other species of Arctostaphylos . Understanding the response of native species and these pathogens to extreme weather conditions will help to predict future vegetation change and potential species losses . From 2011-2018, southern California experienced one of the most severe droughts in recorded history, with 2014 being the driest in the past 1,200 years . Field observations in winter 2014 identified high levels of branch dieback, and in some cases mortality, large round plant pots in a common ecologically important shrub, Arctostaphylos glauca in coastal California. Two well-known Bot. species were isolated from the symptomatic shrubs . Like other members of the Bot. family, both N. australe and B. dothidea infect a broad range of hosts, and are known to be responsible for disease outbreaks associated environmental stress in agricultural species . While B. dothidea is well established in California, with over 35 different host species having been identified , phylogenic evidence suggests N. australe may be more recently introduced . Its impact on shrublands of California has not been quantified.

Preliminary observations suggested high levels of branch dieback, and in some cases mortality, at lower elevation sites and along exposed ridges compared to higher elevations in coastal montane settings. We hypothesized that identifiable patterns would exist in the distribution of B. dothidea and N. australe across these landscapes that correlate with branch dieback and environmental variables associated with drought stress. Manzanita dieback has previously been causally associated with Bot. infection . A greenhouse experiment by Drake-Schultheis et al. , revealed that drought enhances onset of stress symptoms and mortality in young A. glauca inoculated with N. australe compared to shrubs subjected to drought or inoculation alone. However, to the authors’ knowledge no previous quantitative studies exist on the distribution of Bot. species in California shrubland environments with Mediterranean climates. To better understand the occurrence, distribution, and severity of Bot. infections in chaparral shrublands, we surveyed infection in A. glauca between April and September 2019. We also collected data on site elevation, aspect, and average percent canopy dieback at each site sampled for infection. While a variety of landscape variables are likely to influence plant stress at any given site , we focused on elevation because A. glauca already tends to occur mostly on xeric and rocky soils of exposed slopes, and therefore elevation was presumed to be the most significant factor influencing precipitation and water availability in this setting. Also, other studies have used elevation as a proxy for climate variation . We also recorded aspect of each sampled shrub since it influences sun exposure, temperature, and water stress. To test our hypothesis that Bot. fungi and level of stress each played a role in extensive canopy dieback in A. glauca, the following questions were addressed: What is the distribution of Bot. infection in A. glauca stands across the chaparral landscape in coastal Santa Barbara County? How do levels of infection by the two Bot. fungi, N. australe and B. dothidea, compare across elevation? and How do stand-level infection and elevation correlate with dieback severity? We predicted N. australe and B. dothidea to be presentacross all sites and elevations, but also that N. australe, having been previously isolated with high frequency in the area , would likewise have the greatest incidence in this study. Furthermore, we expected levels of Bot. infection and dieback severity to be greater at lower elevations compared to higher elevations, because lower sites typically receive less annual rainfall, thus exacerbating drought stress. This study presents the first quantitative survey summarizing the severity and distribution of Bot. fungi in natural shrublands, and seeks to identify important patterns of infection and dieback in A. glauca to predict future vulnerabilities across the landscape.The study sites were located on the generally south-facing coastal slopes of the Santa Ynez Mountains in Santa Barbara, California, USA . The sites range from a lower elevation of ~550m to an upper elevation of ~1145m, and cover an area of ~47km2 . This region is characterized by a Mediterranean climate, with wet winters and hot, dry summers. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 68.4cm at lower elevations to 90.6cm at upper elevations . During the 2013-2014 wet season, which was two years into a multiyear drought and one of the driest years on record in California , these areas received only 24.8cm and 31.6cm precipitation, respectively .Sites were initially randomly generated from polygons drawn in the field around relatively pure stands of A. glauca , and Drake-Schultheis, unpublished data. Polygons were then categorized according to elevation , and numbered within their respective elevation categories. Ten sites per elevation zone were randomly selected using random number generator for a total of 30 sites. When necessary, some randomly generated sites were substituted with nearby stands that were more accessible. Furthermore, any randomly selected sites that were discovered to be in recent fire scars were exchanged for nearby stands that contained intact, mature A. glauca.Elevation data were collected in situ using Altimeter GPS Pro and corroborated using Google Earth . Aspect was recorded in situ in degrees, then converted to radians and transformed to linear data for analysis of “southwestness” using cos according to Beers et al. . This yielded aspect values ranging from -1 to 1 , which were then used for modeling the effects of aspect on shrub dieback and Bot. infection. Sites were demarcated by >50% A. glauca cover within a stand, as determined by visual on the-ground assessments where the tops of the canopies could be viewed. Stand dieback was then visually estimated by two-to-three people as the percent of “non-green” vegetation compared to live, green vegetation within the defined boundaries of a site . Categories of NGV included yellow, brown, and black leaves, and bare/defoliated canopy, and percentages were summed to reflect total NGV within a site.

As wind turbines account for a major proportion of the wind farm initial investment, previous researches mainly focused on optimizing the number and locations of wind turbines. In [6] and [7], the genetic algorithm was proposed to iteratively optimize gridded turbine layouts on flat terrains. In [8] and [9], the greedy algorithm was introduced to search for the optimal gridded turbine layouts on hilly wind farms. The modified particle swarm optimization algorithm was applied to solve the turbine layout optimization problem in a continuous solution space. The civil works include the construction of access roads, turbine foundations, crane hard-standings, cable-trenching, and substation buildings. Their cost can be substantial. Access roads are greatly influenced by topographic characteristics, and their cost is much higher for hilly or mountainous wind farms than plain ones. A comparative strategy and the minimum spanning tree were proposed to search for the shortest road network for wind farms in flat areas. In [11], the Euclidean Steiner tree was introduced to further reduce the length of the road network. However, these methods are not directly applicable to hilly or mountainous wind farms where the road gradient must be considered to build winding roads capable of accommodating significant weight. Wind farms are generally constructed in rural areas with challenging topography. With the rapid expansion of wind farms, black plastic planting pots new farms have to be built in hills or mountains, where designing suitable access roads for construction, turbine erection and maintenance is not straight forward.

It is necessary to know roughly which route should be chosen to connect turbines and how much they will cost, while placing turbines at the peaks for high energy production. The selection of appropriate access roads is essential for the overall planning of the wind farm construction. A well-chosen road network can also reduce the wind farm construction period and lower the environmental impact. In this paper, the constraints on the maximal gradient of access roads are guaranteed when developing an automatic contour-based road-network design model. The design of access roads and the evaluation of their cost are simultaneously considered in the process of optimizing turbine layouts, which results in a more technically feasible and economically beneficial micrositing of wind farms. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section II proposes an automatic model for road network design. The problem of wind farm micrositing is formulated in Section III. Section IV gives the simulation results. Finally, Section V makes some concluding remarks.In civil engineering, a feasible route between the starting and end points is selected by establishing a series of control points on the terrain. Using these control points as an initial alignment, the horizontal and vertical curves are then located, subject to the road design constraints including geometric specifications and environmental requirements. Heuristic optimization algorithms such as the genetic algorithm, the Tabu search, and the simulated annealing algorithm have been applied to optimize horizontal and vertical alignments of roads. These algorithms depend on a high-resolution digital elevation model to support the analysis of road design features such as ground slopes and other landform characteristics.

The calculation of an optimal route between two given locations is time consuming and could even take several hours. The micrositing optimization process usually involves hundreds or thousands of iterations to evaluate the wake effects between turbines and to update the turbine layout. The process without road design is already intensive. If a complex road network for the whole farm needs to be designed in each iteration by the aforementioned heuristic optimization algorithms, the computation burden is prohibitive and even impossible. In this paper, only the control points of access roads are selected during the micrositing optimization process. Such a relatively simple and functional road design is suitable for low-volume access roads, which are mainly for wind farm construction and maintenance. It is also adequate for the design at the strategic and tactical level. Based on the above assumption, a fast automatic method for road-network design is developed to estimate the cost of access roads during the optimization of wind farm micrositing.Forest engineers usually use large-scale contour maps to select preliminary routes with dividers to connect two locations, a process known as route projection. Control points of a road can be selected during the route projection process. In this paper, contour lines as a group of nested closed curves are chosen to store topographic information of wind farms. A distinct advantage of the contour-line data over a digital elevation model is that the vector representation lends itself to the object-oriented modeling of terrains, which provides a natural mechanism for sorting terrains and facilitates the search through a contour map.

Given a technically feasible gradient, a route is projected from the starting point toward the end across adjacent contour lines. This process can be efficiently automated with a mathematical model. The basic idea of the route projection process is to determine the projected route segment between two neighboring contour lines, as the elevation of the terrain rises continuously. Every projected segment of the route must begin from a point on a contour line and end on another one.Two comparative cases are studied to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed road network design model and the significance of road network optimization for farms in hills or mountains. Due to the randomness of genetic algorithms, ten independent runs are performed for each case. Table IV summarizes the results, including the best, average, and worst values of the best solutions achieved in each independent run. In Case 1, the micrositing problem is solved in a two-stage manner, i.e., we first search for an optimized turbine layout without considering access roads and then design the road network for the given layout. The best configuration of the wind farm is shown in Fig. 7, where the blue triangle represents the entrance of the wind farm, red points mean the locations of wind turbines, and black polylines are the designed road network. In Case 2, the turbine layout and its corresponding road network are optimized simultaneously, i.e., in each optimization iteration, the road network design model is performed for every individual turbine layout generated by the genetic algorithm. The best configuration of the wind farm is shown in Fig. 8. The simulation results of both cases are summarized in Table IV. Note that, the simulations for both cases are time consuming. The simulations were carried out in an IBM Blade Center HS22 with 12 Intel Xeon X5650 CPUs at a frequency 2.66 GHz. Parallel computing was employed to speed up the simulation progress. In each run of the 10 independent simulations, 12 CPUs were utilized simultaneously and each CPU was responsible for each wind direction. Even with the parallel computing Fig. 7. Best wind farm configuration of Case 1. technique, plant plastic pots the running time for each simulation is still around 7–10 h. For both turbine layouts, reasonable road networks with feasible winding roads are obtained, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed road network design model. Comparing Figs. 7 and 8, it is clear that the configuration of the road network depends on the turbine layout and the farm topology considerably. Therefore, to create a cost-effective road network, it is necessary to consider these two parts simultaneously during the microsting optimization process. Indeed, since the road network is simultaneously considered in Case 2, while the cost of the road network is ignored in Case 1, Case 2 consistently has a higher net present value than Case 1 in all independent runs. In the simulations, the net present value is determined by the annual energy production and the length of the road network.Methane released into the atmosphere as a result of agricultural activity, such as enteric fermentation and anaerobic digestion, significantly contributes to overall greenhouse gas emissions in the United States . The California Air Resources Board attributes approximately 60 % of recent anthropogenic CH4 emissions in California to agriculture, with 45 % of CH4 emissions directly related to dairy farm activity for 2013 . Reduction strategies proposed by CARB seek to lower California’s CH4 emissions to 40 % below 2013 rates by 2030 , thereby emphasizing the need for accurate methods to directly quantify the contribution of different CH4 sources within agricultural operations. Estimates of CH4 emissions due to dairy livestock can be calculated using inventory emission factors combined with activity data on animal populations, animal types, and details about feed intake in a particular country . Other methods to estimate CH4 emissions from ruminants involve direct atmospheric measurements.

Emissions from dairy farms have been estimated in the Los Angeles Basin, California, using downwind airborne flux measurements . Farmscale measurements of CH4 have been made using a variety of techniques and instruments, such as open-path infrared spectrometers , tunable-infrared direct absorption spectroscopy , and column measurements employing solar absorption spectrometers with comparisons to cavity ring-down spectrometers . Several studies of various CH4 sources assert that inventory-based calculations tend to underestimate emissions compared to atmospheric observations and modeling . Atmospheric studies have often used specific gases as tracers to distinguish a sample of interest from background conditions or interferences. Tracer gases released at known rates have been employed in experiments looking at chemical transport , dispersion , source allocation , and model verification using mobile laboratories , radiosondes, sampling towers, and ground-based equipment. Application of tracer gases in agricultural studies have involved insertion of a sulfur hexafluoride permeation tube into the rumen of a cow with subsequent collection of time-integrated breath samples . Inverse-dispersion techniques have employed line-source releases of SF6 within a dairy farm combined with open-path measurements to understand whole-site emissions . Release of a tracer gas directly into the atmosphere, 2–3 m above ground level, can be used to determine and distinguish CH4 emissions from various sources within a site . This study quantifies CH4 emissions using the well-established tracer flux ratio method at two dairy farms over the course of 8 summer days . Controlled releases of tracer gas from various areas on each farm mixed with site-derived emissions were observed by an instrumented aircraft and mobile laboratory . Using this technique provided the flexibility to estimate entire dairy farm emissions and apportion emissions among sources on multiple scales. Uncertainty in measurements from low-flying airborne studies has been attributed to the need to extrapolate results below the minimum safe flight heights as regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration . Prior to this study, Aerodyne Research, Inc. performed controlled ground releases of ethane in Colorado and Arkansas, while Scientific Aviation made measurements in a similar aircraft to the one used in this study . The original release rate of C2H6 was estimated via a refined mass balance technique, with a +2 % difference observed during tests in Colorado and +24 % difference in Arkansas as described in Conley et al. . These releases did not correspond to any CH4 source but demonstrated the feasibility of using a low-flying aircraft to successfully quantify flow rates from controlled tracer gas releases. Using tracer flux ratio in this study, we again utilized the aircraft to detect emitted tracer gas and then compared with dairy farm emissions to evaluate CH4 emission rates. This field study was originally focused on estimating CH4 emissions from dairy farms and distinguishing on-site sources using established techniques . An intentional effort was made to align measurement time windows of the mobile laboratory and aircraft for the purpose of inter-comparison between the tracer flux ratio and mass balance methods. As a result, the aircraft was exposed to several hours of ground-released tracer gas. Due to this overlap in time, we were able to further assess the viability of observing enhanced concentrations of a ground-released tracer gas from an aircraft at low flow rates, compare CH4 and C2H6 enhancements emitted from within dairy farms via tracer flux ratio to determine emission rates, and directly compare the application of tracer flux ratio methodology to simultaneous ground and airborne measurements of the same air mass.In a collaborative effort, SA and ARI attempted a flight-based tracer release experiment to quantify CH4 emissions from two dairy farms in central California. This study reanalyzes data collected as part of an Environmental Defense Fund coordinated project that occurred in June 2016 . ARI employed tracer flux ratio methodology with two tracer gases and a mobile laboratory, while SA conducted a mass balance experiment from a light aircraft.

While surveys often provide a way to overcome time and budget constraints to learn about farmer knowledge, this study suggests that to achieve specificity and depth in analysis of farmer knowledge requires an interactive approach that includes – at a minimum – relationship building, multiple field visits, and in-depth, multi-hour interviews. Accessing farmer knowledge necessitates locally interactive research; this knowledge may or may not be immediately generalizable or scalable without further locally interactive assessment in other farming regions.The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 was foreshadowed by earlier epidemics of new or re-emerging diseases such as SARS , influenza , Middle East Respiratory Syndrome , Ebola , and Zika affecting localized regions . These events showed that novel and well-known viral diseases alike can pose a threat to global health. In 2014, an article published in Nature Medicine stated that the Ebola outbreak should have been “a wake-up call to the research and pharmaceutical communities, and to federal governments, of the continuing need to invest resources in the study and cure of emerging infectious diseases” . Recommendations and even new regulations have been implemented to reduce the risk of zoonotic viral infections , but the extent to which these recommendations are applied and enforced on a regional and, more importantly, local level remains unclear. Furthermore, large plastic gardening pots most vaccine programs for SARS, MERS, and Zika are still awaiting the fulfillment of clinical trials, sometimes more than 5 years after their initiation, due to the lack of patients .

In light of this situation, and despite the call to action, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has resulted in nearly 20 million infections and more than 700,000 deaths at the time of writing based on the Johns Hopkins University Hospital global database. The economic impact of the pandemic is difficult to assess, but support programs are likely to cost more than €4 trillion in the United States and EU alone. Given the immense impact at both the personal and economic levels, this review considers how the plant-based production of recombinant proteins can contribute to a global response in such an emergency scenario. Several recent publications describe in broad terms how plant-made countermeasures against SARSCoV-2 can contribute to the global COVID-19 response . This review will focus primarily on process development, manufacturing considerations, and evolving regulations to identify gaps and research needs, as well as regulatory processes and/or infrastructure investments that can help to build a more resilient pandemic response system. We first highlight the technical capabilities of plants, such as the speed of transient expression, making them attractive as a first-line response to counter pandemics, and then we discuss the regulatory pathway for plant-made pharmaceuticals in more detail. Next, we briefly present the types of plant-derived proteins that are relevant for the prevention, treatment, or diagnosis of disease. This sets the stage for our assessment of the requirements in terms of production costs and capacity to mount a coherent response to a pandemic, given currently available infrastructure and the intellectual property landscape. We conclude by comparing plant-based expression with conventional cell culture and highlight where investments are needed to adequately respond to pandemic diseases in the future.

Due to the quickly evolving information about the pandemic, our statements are supported in some instances by data obtained from web sites . Accordingly, the scientific reliability has to be treated with caution in these cases.A major advantage of plants in this respect is the ability to test multiple product candidates and expression cassettes in parallel by the simple injection or infiltration of leaves or leaf sections with a panel of Agrobacterium tumefaciens clones carrying each variant cassette as part of the transferred DNA in a binary transformation vector . This procedure does not require sterile conditions, transfection reagents, or skilled staff, and can, therefore, be conducted in standard bio-safety level 1 laboratories all over the world. The method can produce samples of even complex proteins such as glycosylated monoclonal antibodies for analysis ~14 days after the protein sequence is available. With product accumulation in the range of 0.1–4.0 g kg−1 biomass , larger-scale quantities can be supplied after 4–8 weeks , making this approach ideal for emergency responses to sudden disease outbreaks. Potential bottlenecks include the preparation of sufficiently large candidate libraries, ideally in an automated manner as described for conventional expression systems, and the infiltration of plants with a large number of candidates. Also, leaf-based expression can result in a coefficient of variation >20% in terms of recombinant protein accumulation, which reduces the reliability of expression data . The variability issue has been addressed to some extent by a parallelized leaf-disc assay at the cost of a further reduction in sample throughput .

The reproducibility of screening was improved in 2018 by the development of plant cell pack technology, in which plant cell suspension cultures deprived of medium are used to form a plant tissue surrogate that can be infiltrated with A. tumefaciens in a 96-well microtiter plate format to produce milligram quantities of protein in an automated, high-throughput manner. The costs can be as low as €0.50 per 60-mg sample with a product accumulation of ~100 mg kg−1 and can typically result in a CV of <5% . These costs include the fermenter-based upstream production of plant cells as well as all materials and labor. The system can be integrated with the cloning of large candidate libraries, allowing a throughput of >1,000 samples per week, and protein is produced 3 days after infiltration. The translatability of cell pack data to intact plants was successfully demonstrated for three mAbs and several other proteins, including a toxin . Therefore, cell packs allow the rapid and automated screening of product candidates such as vaccines and diagnostic reagents. In addition to recombinant proteins, the technology can, in principle, also be used to produce virus-like particles based on plant viruses, which further broadens its applicability for screening and product evaluation but, to our knowledge, according results had not been published as of September 2020. In the future, plant cell packs could be combined with a recently developed method for rapid gene transfer to plant cells using carbon nanotubes . Such a combination would not be dependent on bacteria for cloning or gene transfer to plant cells , thereby reducing the overall duration of the process by an additional 2–3 days . For the rapid screening of even larger numbers of candidates, cost-efficient cell-free lysates based on plant cells have been developed and are commercially available in a ready-to-use kit format. Proteins can be synthesized in ~24 h, potentially in 384-well plates, and the yields expressed as recombinant protein mass per volume of cell lysate can reach 3 mg ml−1 . Given costs of ~€1,160  ml−1 according to the manufacturer LenioBio , this translates to ~€400 mg−1 protein, an order of magnitude less expensive than the SP6 system , which achieves 0.1 mg ml−1 at a cost of ~€360  ml−1 based on the company’s claims. Protocol duration and necessary labor are comparable between the two systems and so are the proteins used to demonstrate high expression, e.g., luciferase. However, the scalability of the plantcell lysates is currently limited to several hundred milliliters, and transferability to intact plants has yet to be demonstrated, i.e., information about how well product accumulation in lysates correlates with that in plant tissues. Such correlations can then form the basis to scale-up lysate-based production to good manufacturing practice -compliant manufacturing in plants using existing facilities. Therefore, the cell packs are currently the most appealing screening system due to their favorable balance of speed, throughput, large plastic growing pots and translatability to whole plants for large-scale production. In any pandemic, the pathogen genome has to be sequenced, made publically available, and freely disseminated in the global scientific community to accelerate therapeutic and vaccine development. Once sequence information is available, a high priority is the rapid development, synthesis, and distribution of DNA sequences coding for individual viral open reading frames. These reagents are not only important for screening subunit vaccine targets but also as enabling tools for research into the structure, function, stability, and detection of the virus .

Because many viral pathogens mutate over time, the sequencing of clinical virus samples is equally important to enable the development of countermeasures to keep pace with virus evolution . To ensure the broadest impact, the gene constructs must be codon optimized for expression in a variety of hosts ; cloned into plasmids with appropriate promoters, purification tags, and watermark sequences to identify them as synthetic and so that their origin can be verified ; and made widely available at minimal cost to researchers around the world. Not-for-profit plasmid repositories, such as Addgene and DNASU, in cooperation with global academic and industry contributors, play an important role in providing and sharing these reagents. However, the availability of codon-optimized genes for plants and the corresponding expression systems is often limited . For example, there were 41,247 mammalian, 16,560 bacterial, and 4,721 yeast expression vectors in the Addgene collection as of August 2020, but only 1,821 for plants, none of which contained SARS-CoV-2 proteins. Sharing plant-optimized SARS-CoV-2 synthetic biology resources among the academic and industry research community working on PMPs would further accelerate the response to this pandemic disease. Screening and process development can also be expedited by using modeling tools to identify relevant parameter combinations for experimental testing. For example, initial attempts have been made to establish correlations between genetic elements or protein structures and product accumulation in plants . Similarly, heuristic and model-based predictions can be used to optimize downstream processing unit operations including chromatography . Because protein accumulation often depends on multiple parameters, it is typically more challenging to model than chromatography and probably needs to rely on data-driven rather than mechanistic models. Based on results obtained for antibody production, a combination of descriptive and mechanistic models can reduce the number of experiments and thus the development time by 75% , which is a substantial gain when trying to counteract a global pandemic such as COVID-19. These models are particularly useful if combined with the high-throughput experiments described above. Techno-economic assessment computer aided design tools, based on engineering process models, can be used to design and size process equipment, solve material and energy balances, generate process flow sheets, establish scheduling, and identify process bottlenecks. TEA models have been developed and are publicly available for a variety of plant-based bio-manufacturing facilities, including whole plant and plant cell bioreactor processes for production of mAbs , antiviral lectins , therapeutics , and antimicrobial peptides . These tools are particularly useful for the development of new processes because they can indicate which areas would benefit most from focused research and development efforts to increase throughput, reduce process mass intensity, and minimize overall production costs.The rapid production of protein-based countermeasures for SARS-CoV-2 will most likely, at least initially, require bio-manufacturing processes based on transient expression rather than stable transgenic lines. Options include the transient transfection of mammalian cells , baculovirus-infected insect cell expression systems , cell-free expression systems for in vitro transcription and translation , and transient expression in plants . The longer term production of these countermeasures may rely on mammalian or plant cell lines and/or transgenic plants, in which the expression cassette has been stably integrated into. The speed of transient expression in plants allows the rapid adaptation of a product even when the process has already reached manufacturing scale. For example, decisions about the nature of the recombinant protein product can be made as little as 2 weeks before harvest because the cultivation of bacteria takes less than 7 days and the post-infiltration incubation of plants takes ~5–7 days. By using large-scale cryo-stocks of ready-to-use A. tumefaciens, the decision can be delayed until the day of infiltration and thus 5–7 days before harvesting the biomass . This flexibility is desirable in an early pandemic scenario because the latest information on improved drug properties can be channeled directly into production, for example, to produce gram quantities of protein that are required for safety assessment, pre-clinical and clinical testing, or even compassionate use if the fatality rate of a disease is high . Although infiltration is typically a discontinuous process requiring stainless-steel equipment due to the vacuum that must be applied to plants submerged in the bacterial suspension, most other steps in the production of PMPs can be designed for continuous operation, incorporating single-use equipment and thus complying with the proposed concept for bio-facilities of the future .

For Wichman and Norman et al. , the detour apparatus consisted of an arena with a starting compartment in the center, across from a holding compartment. The starting compartment consisted of three walls, two opaque and one of wire mesh, so that the holding compartment was visible through the wire mesh. Opposite the wire mesh screen was an opening in the back of the compartment allowing access to the rest of the arena. The holding compartment consisting of a screen so that its contents could be seen by the individual in the starting compartment. The test chick was placed in the central starting compartment and two of its companions from it home pen were placed in the holding compartment. To solve this task, the chicks had to walk away from the familiar chicks, out of the central staring compartment, and around this compartment to reach their companions. Wichman tested ninety 3 day old chicks on a detour test to evaluate their spatial ability. The young chicks had not yet developed perching behavior at the time they were tested. As with the radial arm experiment, all birds were raised in three different rearing environments: control, floor enrichment, and hanging enrichment. The time it took chicks to reach their companions was recorded or, if the chick was unable to successfully complete the task, square pot the trial elapsed at 10 minutes.Forty out of the ninety chicks successfully solved the detour task, however, no relationship was found between onset of perching behavior and the performance of the chicks on the detour test.

This result suggests that the detour test is not a good predictor of early perching behavior in pullets. Additionally, there was no significant effect of rearing environment complexity on the success of chicks in the detour task. Norman et al. also employed a detour task in order to assess if early access to elevated structures affects spatial working memory and route planning in laying hens. They raised chicks from one day of age in either a control or enriched treatment. The control treatment had no elevated structures and the enriched treatment had eight wooden perches arranged in an A-frame structure. In addition to the perches the enriched treatment also had a ramp leading up a platform placed on the second rung of perches. Norman et al tested 48 chicks from both rearing treatments on a detour task at either 14-15 days of age or 28-29 days of age. The test chick was placed in the starting compartment and two of its companions from their home pen were placed in the holding compartment. If the chick left the start box and began walking around the compartment, but then reentered the center of the arena, this was considered an orientation error. Chicks were given a maximum of 5 minutes to complete the task. Out of the 96 birds tested, 67 completed the detour task. There was no significant difference between treatment groups for the number of orientation errors, however the latency to complete the task was significantly shorter for the enriched as compared to the control chicks.

Morris also used a detour task to assess birds from two different rearing treatments on their spatial reasoning . For this study, the unenriched condition included shavings, a hanging feeder, and a nipple line drinker. The enriched treatment included two perches, three live plants for cover, a dust bathing box, two hanging party decorations, and hidden meal worms. At 10 weeks of age 42 birds were tested on a detour task. The target consisted of three familiar birds from their home pen. A barrier was located at the other end of the arena and was made of a mesh screen with an opening on the far-left side, across from the target. The test bird was placed in a starting location behind the barrier and was given 3 to 5 minutes to acclimate in a mesh enclosure. Once the enclosure was lifted, the birds were given 5 minutes to reach their companions. The latency of each test bird to navigate around the barrier and come within 0.5 m of the target was recorded. No significant differences between treatment groups in time taken to reach companions were found. These results contradict the finding from Norman et al. that birds with accesses to vertical structures at a young age did have a shorter latency to complete the detour task than birds without access to vertical structures. It is possible that the difference in these results could be due to the different rearing environments and detour design of these two experiments. The design of the detour task in Morris differed from the design of Norman et al. and Wichman . Instead of the chick walking away from the companion chicks to reach the goal, the Morris design required the chicks to walk towards the companions with them in view at all times through a mesh screen.

The birds were unable to take the most direct route, a diagonal path across the arena, but were not required to walk away from the target at any point to successfully solve the task. Due to this, the Morris detour task does differ from the classic detour task used by Wichman and Norman et al. . However, the inconsistent results between Wichman and Norman et al. should be taken into account when interpreting the impact of rearing environment on performance in a detour task. Due to the varying results across these studies, it is difficult to make definitive conclusions. However, the lack of relationship found by Wichman between early success on the detour task and onset of perching behavior suggests this task may not be relevant to use of vertical space.There is growing evidence in the literature that vertical complexity of the rearing environment of pullets can impact spatial abilities of domestic laying hens. However, tasks such as the hole board test, radial maze, and detour task only test spatial navigation and memory and this is done on a single geometric plane, the ground. Adult hens utilize three dimensional space and therefore their spatial cognitive abilities should also be investigated in relation to depth. While these tasks evaluate spatial memory in hens, a useful skill for finding resources in the aviary, they are not appropriate for assessing visual perception as it relates to navigating around structures in the aviary. In contrast, the jump test does use three-dimensional space and does not directly test spatial memory, making it more relevant to the use of vertical space in commercial aviaries. However, due to the increasing physical difficulty of this test, visual perception and physical skill cannot be separated. There is a great need to study the depth perception of laying hens in relation to complexity of rearing treatment by using both a floor test and a test that utilizes three dimensional space. This methodology would allow for the comparison of performance on both two-dimensional and a three-dimensional test, square plastic plant pots providing greater evidence for the translation of floor tests of spatial cognition to the use of vertical space. It is also important to investigate depth perception as this aspect of spatial cognition has not been specifically evaluated in relation to rearing environment. Adequate perception of depth seems to be vital for gauging the distance to fly or jump between perches and platforms in an aviary. Without proper depth perception, collisions and falls would be likely to occur due to misjudgment of distances.The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of how rearing environment impacts the cognitive and spatial development of laying hens by examining the development of depth perception. Laying hens reared in three environments of differing vertical complexity were tested on a Y-maze and visual cliff task to evaluate depth perception acuity. Both tasks utilize hens’ motivation to escape after being caught and handled, by offering them the option to exit the experimental apparatuses. Previous studies have used food or social rewards in spatial cognition tasks. In this study, variance in responses due to appetite or sociality was removed by utilizing the hens’ motivation to escape. The Y-maze uses arms of varying lengths to determine if the bird can assess distance and choose the shortest path to escape. The visual cliff was used to evaluate perception of depth as well as method of crossing the visual cliff. In order to account for the disadvantages associated with the traditional visual cliff test, the plexiglass was illuminated and the table was covered with a canopy to reduce reflection.

Additionally, a perch was added in the center of the table, 15 cm above the plexiglass. This prevented tactile information from pecking the glass and the birds’ feet, further concealing the plexiglass. These tests offer greater insight into the topic of spatial cognitive development by examining a previously overlooked, yet relevant aspect of spatial cognition: depth perception.Data Collection At each of three time points a sample of 150 Dekalb White hens were tested . Due to camera malfunctions, video data from three birds were excluded from the visual cliff data set. An equal number of birds were randomly selected from each of three rearing treatments. All birds were tested on the Y-maze task the first week and the visual cliff the second week of testing. Birds were caught from their home pen just prior to testing by corralling them with a metal catch pen. All trials were recorded using a Sony Action Camera and specific behaviors were coded from the video data using Noldus Observer XT . Y-Maze The Y-maze was constructed out of 1 m high wooden boards and included a starting chamber and two arms . The starting chamber was 40 cm long and 60 cm wide, with a guillotine door. The two arms of the maze were 60 cm wide and were joined at a 50o vertex. The arms were adjustable in length so that each arm could be either 30 cm or 90 cm long. The maze was covered by soft, plastic black mesh, preventing the birds from flying out. Both arms were open at the end, allowing the bird the choice to escape into an arena via one of the arms. Chalk lines were drawn where the entrance met each arm of the maze to indicate that the bird had entered an arm of the maze. Additional lines were also drawn at 30 cm from the entrance to mark the point the bird had chosen that side of the maze. Birds were tested with two consecutive trials where the length of each arm varied so that the birds are presented with a 1:3 ratio and a 1:1 ratio .The Y-maze was randomly configured into one of three different orientations: equal length arms or unequal with either the right or left arm being shorter in length. The equal configuration had a 1:1 ratio , while the unequal configuration consisted of a 1:3 ratio . A bird was randomly selected, caught using a catch pen, and assigned an ID number. The bird was then placed into the entrance of the maze facing the vertex of the two arms of the maze. When the bird was placed, a timer was started and the guillotine door of the entrance was closed behind them. If the subject had not exited the maze after two minutes had elapsed, the guillotine door was lifted and then immediately closed to encourage movement of the bird out of the maze. Trials ended after the bird had successfully crossed one of the 30 cm lines or after 2.5 minutes had elapsed. Trials were then repeated once more with the same individual so that each bird was presented with both the equal and the unequal configuration. Time spent in each arm, exit choice, and frequency of flying within or out of maze was recorded . The exit choice was considered correct if, when presented with arms of different lengths, the bird chose the shortest path to the arena . Visual Cliff Two visual cliff tables were used. A small table was used for the 8-week-old pullets while a larger table was used for the 16 and 30-week-old birds . This allowed for the proportions of the table to remain consistent as the birds grew.

The price premium is significant for almond and alfalfa . However, organic almonds suffer from an average 20% of yield loss, which hinders the transition . For alfalfa, the price depends on the organic status as well as quality, which is hard to control for organic growers due to weed and pest pressures . The z-test results in Table 1.3 and Table 1.4 show that the coefficients of Organicare similar to or larger, in absolute value, than those in the full sample estimation, which implies that the difference between two production systems are larger in the sub-sample than full sample.Differences in environmental impacts between organic and conventional production vary across crops. The full-sample regression is estimated for selected crops individually, except for lettuce where an additional time dummy is added to split the sample in half, to highlight important patterns of pesticide use in conventional and organic production. The specifications without grower or field fixed effects provide similar results and therefore results are not presented here for individual crops. The PURE index values are plotted for conventional and organic lettuce fields in Figure 1.4. The risk index from pesticides used in conventional lettuce fields decreased since growers have gradually transitioned from organophosphates to pyrethroid and neonicotinoid insecticides over the past twenty years and organophosphate insecticides are more toxic than their pyrethroid and neonicotinoid alternatives . Prior to 2005, diazinon was the most used insecticide in conventional lettuce production while the usage of lambda-cyhalothrin , was limited in lettuce.

However, by 2015, blueberry grow bag size lambda-cyhalothrin was the most used insecticide in conventional lettuce fields while fewer than 30 acres of lettuce were treated with diazinon. Consistent with these changes, in Table 1.5, the coefficients for Organic × 06_15 are significant and positive showing that the difference in the environmental impacts from pes-ticides use between conventional and organic lettuce production decreased in the second half of the study period. In Table 1.6, differences in environmental impacts between conventional and organic strawberries are largely driven by the environmental impacts of pre-plant soil fumigation, which is used by conventional but not organic strawberry growers. Soil fumigation is a common practice for managing pathogens, nematodes, and weeds in conventional strawberry fields. While soil fumigants are most commonly regulated because of their negative effects on human health via the impact on air quality and ozone layer, most soil fumigants are also highly toxic to earthworms . Accordingly, the PUREindex for soil is large. Consequently organic strawberry production achieves a 78% reduction in the environmental impact on soil. Conventional strawberry production also poses higher impacts on surface water because several AIs are highly toxic to fish and aquatic invertebrates , including abamectin for controlling spider mites , malathion for white flies , and pyraclostrobin for gray mold . As a result, the coefficient of Organic for surface water is larger than average. The difference in the PURE index for air is smaller because azadirachtin and clarified neem oil, two primary AIs contributing to VOC emissions in the nonattainment area of Ventura , a major strawberry producing county, together accounted for 18% of treated acreage for organic strawberries.

Comparing the results in Table 1.7 with other tables in this section, organic processing tomato production reduces the environmental impact on air by a larger percentage than all organic production on average. The key difference between processing tomatoes and other crops is that processing tomatoes are more threatened by diseases than by insects or nematodes . The two most common diseases are powdery mildew and bacterial speck, which are treated with sulfur and copper hydroxide respectively in organic production . In 2015, the acreage treated with these two AIs accounted for 42% of total acreage treated for organic processing tomatoes. In comparison, the share of sulfur-and copper hydroxide-treated acreage is below 10% for production of lettuce and strawberries and 25% for all organic crops. These two AIs have lower VOC emissions than other AIs used in organic production such as pyrethrins, azadirachtin, and clarified neem oil, which together accounted for nearly 30% of treated acreage for organic lettuce and strawberries, 18% for organic processing tomatoes, and 18% for all crops. However, the impact is increasing as indicated by the positive coefficient for the variable Organic × Year. Wine grape production occurs in many regions in California, and pest and disease pressures vary across production regions due to different climate and soil conditions. In the North Coast production region, which includes Napa and Sonoma counties among others, powdery mildew is a common disease because the fungus prefers a cooler temperatures, ideally around 21◦C, to grow . Measured by treated acreage, 9 out of the 10 most used AIs are fungicides targeting powdery mildew in this area. In the San Joaquin Valley, in contrast, powdery mildew is rarely seen because of high temperatures. Due in part to the large number of frost-free days per growing season, insects are the primary concern .

For wine grapes, the most used AIs beside sulfur are abamectin targeting spider mites, imidacloprid targeting vine mealybugs, and methoxyfenozide targeting lepidoptera . These insecticide AIs aremore toxic for humans, earthworms, and honeybees and have larger VOC emissions than the fungicides used for powdery mildew , so the estimated intercept in Table 1.8 is larger in the San Joaquin Valley than in Napa and Sonoma counties and the state as a whole for groundwater, soil air, and pollinators. Powdery mildews in grapes are often treated with sulfur . In 2015, table, wine, and raisin grapes accounted for 77% of acreage treated with sulfur among all crops. To control powdery mildew, organic growers also rely on bio-ingredients such as Bacillus pumilus and Bacillus subtilis, which have larger VOC emissions than sulfur and mineral oils. Thus, organic wine grapes growers in Napa and Sonoma counties only achieve a 38% reduction in the PURE index for air while the reduction in the San Joaquin Valley is 45%.Using a consistent index, this essay quantifies the environmental impacts of pesticide use in conventional and organic fields and how they have changed over time. Information from this analysis could benefit organic crop production worldwide because California is an important production region with a diverse set of crops and environmental conditions. Previous studies rarely focused on the use of specific AIs or the change in the structure of pesticide use when evaluating the environmental impact of organic agriculture. To the best of my knowledge, the PUR database has never been used to compare pesticide use for conventional and organic production. The U.S. organic agriculture sector has grown significantly over the past two decades, after the launch of the NOP in 2002. Organic farming has the potential to continue to ex-pand in the future. Pesticides are essential for both conventional and organic crop production. However, pesticide use is not static. The pesticide portfolio changed dramatically for both farming systems in the study period. Based on field-level pesticide application information, this essay shows that the environmental impact of pesticide use on air increased in organic fields due to the adoption of new chemicals and the reduction in the use of sulfur, which has zero VOC emissions. Pesticides used in organic agriculture had lower environmental impacts per acre on surface water, groundwater, soil, air, blueberry box and pollinators depending on the pesticide portfolios for conventional and organic growers. However, the difference between two systems is decreasing over time for all five dimensions. Notably, they had almost the same level of VOC emissions in 2015. In both production systems, increases in growers’ total acreage were associated with increases in the environmental impacts of pesticide use in all dimensions. Increases in grower experience were associated with increases in the environmental impacts of pesticide use to surface water and groundwater, and decreases in the impacts on soil, air, and pollinators. The magnitude of effects of these two variables is smaller than the effect of the organic status of the field. Pesticide use in organic agriculture has evolved to have greater environmental impacts over time. This is consistent with findings in Läpple and Van Rensburg , who showed that late adopters, those who adopted organic farming after the launch of government supporting program, are more likely to be profit-driven and less likely to be environmentally concerned than early adopters. New policy instruments could alter the current situation.

When reviewing pesticide and fertilizer AIs used in organic agriculture, the NOSB could focus on environmental criteria such as VOC emissions, which has not been considered previously. Such policy instruments could partially offset the negative environmental impacts of pesticide used in organic fields. Whether organic farming is the most cost-effective way to reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture remains unclear because the changes in PURE index values does not directly translate to a one-dimensional environmental or food safety benefit that is comparable across commodities or farming methods. An alternative approach to reducing environmental impacts is to regulate pesticide use directly, which could have a significant cost. For example, the ban of methyl bromide was estimated to result in an annual revenue loss of $234 million and a 10% revenue loss for the strawberry industry in California . However, as the result shows, the PURE air index for strawberry did not decrease in conventional production after the ban. In addition, the groundwater index value increased because alternatives to methyl bromide have a greater impact on groundwater. In previous studies, demographic variables, such as gender and education, were shown to be determinants of the adoption of organic farming . Here, these characteristics are addressed by using time-invariant grower fixed effects. More information regarding the determinants of pesticide use decisions might be revealed if those characteristics data were available. Future research could focus on impacts on human health rather then the environment and cal-culate the monetary value of reduced mortality and morbidity of converting to organic production. And, estimating the value of improved environmental quality associated with organic agriculture, identified in this essay, is another research direction. While pesticide use remains important for both farming systems, another caveat is that this essay does not investigate the environmental impacts of non-chemical pest management practices, such as biological, cultural, and mechanical/physical controls. However, if one were to pursue that direction by collecting data on non-chemical practices, the analysis would necessarily be done on a relatively small scale, unlike the comprehensive data used here.Organic agriculture has been proposed as an essential part of sustainable food systems . In 2016, over 5 million acres of land were certified organic in the United States, which generated over $7.5 billion worth of agricultural products. California is the leading state as a producer of organic crops in the United States, accounting for 12% of organic cropland and 51% of crop sales value in 2016 . According to Willer and Lernoud , the United States is the largest market for organic products and accounted for 43% of global organic retail sales in 2017. Organic land use data for California have been collected for a limited number of years by two government agencies, the United States Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Food and Agriculture . Farm-level acreage and location information are not publicly available from either source. Detailed crop acreage data would facilitate further investigation of key topics such as the spatial distribution of organic fields, which previously could be studied only at a very small geographic scale using other data sources . In this context, California’s unique Pesticide Use Report database serves as an alternative source of very detailed and long-term data, which allows the identification of individual organic fields based on their historical pesticide use records. The PUR database contains information on all commercial agricultural pesticide use in California since 1990, including information on the chemicals used, crops and acreages for millions of individual applications. Pesticide use patterns for organic fields and their environmental impacts have not been studied previously. Existing studies often evaluate the environmental performance of organic agriculture as a system, rather than focusing on specific farming practices . To the best of my knowledge, no study has quantitatively described pesticide use in organic agriculture or assessed its environmental impacts for ecosystems on a large scale across numerous crops and over a long time period .

Furthermore, if woody annual increments were considered this proportion would be even lower. Likewise the observed 1.7 Mg ha−1 in fruit represents ~14% of total biomass , which is within 10% of other studies in the region at similar vine densities. More importantly, this study reports the fraction of C that could be recovered from wine making and returned to the soil for potential long term storage. However, this study is restricted to the agronomic and environmental conditions of the site, and the methodology would require validation and potential adjustment in other locations and conditions. Few studies have conducted a thorough evaluation of below ground vine biomass in vineyards, although Elderfield did estimate that fine roots contributed 20–30% of total NPP and that C was responsible for 45% of that dry matter. More recently, Brunori et al. studied the capability of grapevines to efficiently store C throughout the growing season and found that root systems contributed to between 9 and 26% of the total vine C fixation in a model Vitis vinifera sativa L. cv Merlot/berlandieri rupestris vineyard. The results of our study provide a utilitarian analysis of C storage in mature wine grape vines, including above and below ground fractions and annual vs. perennial allocations. Such information constitutes the basic unit of measurement from which one can then estimate the contribution of wine grapes to C budgets at multiple scales— fruit, plant or vineyard level—and by region, sector, or in mixed crop analyses. Our study builds on earlier research that focused on the basic physiology, development and allocation of biomass in vines. Previous research has also examined vineyard-level carbon at the landscape level with coarser estimates of the absolute C storage capacity of vines of different ages, pe grow bag as well as the relative contribution of vines and woody biomass in natural vegetation in mixed vineyard-wild land landscapes.

The combination of findings from those studies, together with the more precise and complete carbon-by-vine structure assessment provided here, mean that managers now have access to methods and analytical tools that allow precise and detailed C estimates from the individual vine to whole-farm scales. As carbon accounting in vineyard landscapes becomes more sophisticated, widespread and economically relevant, such vineyard-level analyses will become increasingly important for informing management decisions. The greater vine-level measuring precision that this study affords should also translate into improved scaled-up C assessments . In California alone, for example, there are more than 230,000 ha are planted in vines. Given that for many, if not most of those hectares, the exact number of individual vines is known, it is easy to see how improvements in vine-level measuring accuracy can have benefits from the individual farmer to the entire sector. Previous efforts to develop rough allometric woody biomass equations for vines notwithstanding, there is still a need to improve our precision in estimating of how biomass changes with different parameters. Because the present analysis was conducted for 15 year old Cabernet vines, there is now a need for calibrating how vine C varies with age, varietal and training system. There is also uncertainty around the influence of grafting onto root stock on C accumulation in vines. As mentioned in the methods, the vines in this study were not grafted—an artifact of the root-limiting duripan approximately 50 cm below the soil surface. The site’s location on the flat, valley bottom of a river floodplain also means that its topography, while typical of other vineyard sites per se, created conditions that limit soil depth, drainage and decomposition. As such, the physical conditions examined here may differ significantly from more hilly regions in California, such as Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Similarly, the lack of a surrounding natural vegetation buffer at this site compared to other vineyards may mean that the ecological conditions of the soil communities may or may not have been broadly typical of those found in other vineyard sites.

Thus, to the extent that future studies can document the degree to which such parameters influence C accumulation in vines or across sites, they will improve the accuracy and utility of C estimation methods and enable viticulturists to be among the first sectors in agriculture for which accurate C accounting is an industry wide possibility. The current study was also designed to complement a growing body of research focusing on soil-vine interactions. Woody carbon reserves and sugar accumulation play a supportive role in grape quality, the main determinant of crop value in wine grapes. The extent to which biomass production, especially in below ground reservoirs, relates to soil carbon is of immediate interest for those focused on nutrient cycling, plant health and fruit production, as well as for those concerned with C storage. The soil-vine interface may also be the area where management techniques can have the highest impact on C stocks and harvest potential. We expect the below ground estimates of root biomass and C provided here will be helpful in this regard and for developing a more thorough understanding of below ground C stores at the landscape level. For example, Williams et al. estimated this component to be the largest reservoir of C in the vineyard landscape they examined, but they did not include root biomass in their calculations. Others have assumed root systems to be ~30% of vine biomass based on the reported biomass values for roots, trunk, and cordons. With the contribution of this study, the magnitude of the below ground reservoir can now be updated.Wine is a commodity of worldwide importance, and vineyards constitute a significant land use and contribution to economies across Mediterranean biome and beyond. Like orchards and tree plantations, grapevines are a perennial crop that stores C long-term in woody tissue, thereby helping to mitigate GHG emissions. Our study provides estimates of C in grape vines by vine component, as well as a simple measurement tool kit that growers can use to estimate the C in their vines and vineyard blocks. The equations presented here represent some of the first allometric models for estimating grapevine C from berries to blocks, with the hope that widespread use and refinement of these techniques may lead to recognition and credit for the C storage potential of vineyards and other perennial woody crops, such as orchards. The successful implementation of these methods, if applied widely to multiple cropping systems, could improve the precision of measurement and the understanding of C in agricultural systems relative to other human activities.Ultra-high-energy neutrino astronomy expands the opportunity to learn more about the fierce processes of astronomical objects. Neutrinos are ideal messengers because they have negligible mass, are neutral in charge, and, due to the fact that they only interact through the weak force, have a low interaction probability. Once created, these properties allow them to travel through space unhindered by intervening matter or radiation such as dust, gas, and electromagnetic fields. The same properties also make them challenging to detect. Even at the extreme energies relevant to radio neutrino detectors, neutrinos rarely interact with matter. When this feature is combined with the low expected fluxes, and stringent experimental upper limits have been published by the IceCube Collaboration, the detector architecture must incorporate large volumes of target material.

A rough estimate suggests that instrumented volumes must reach of order one teraton to observe a few neutrinos per year for commonly discussed theoretical models of neutrino production. Radio based neutrinos experiments have been successfully explored in the past with pilot arrays such as the ARA experiment and the ARIANNA experiment, the latter being the focal point of this paper. These efforts helped focus in on the radio techniques required to operate in extremely cold and harsh conditions. While these experiments showed the technical feasibility, they were too small to measure the low neutrino flux. Undeterred, several radio-based experiments in development are further illustrating the capabilities of this detection method, such as ARIANNA-200, the radio component of IceCube-Gen2 , the Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland, Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection, Taiwan Astroparticle Radiowave Observatory for Geo-synchrotron Emissions, growing bags and Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations, a successor to ANITA. These experiments exploit various target materials such as ice, water, mountains, and air. The challenge for experimenters is to reach the teraton detection volumes at a reasonable cost. One of the most promising methods for observing UHE neutrinos in large target volumes exploits radio detection in ice. For this reason, locations such as Greenland and Antarctica are popular sites for radio detection experiments. Ice is transparent to radio signals, with field attenuation lengths ranging from 0.5 km at Moore’s Bay to more than a kilometer in colder ice found at the South Pole or the Greenland ice sheet. Radio pulses are created via the Askaryan effect when interacting neutrinos create particles showers in ice, which in turn generate a time-varying negative charge excess that produces radio emission in the 50 MHz to 1 GHz range. The radio technique enables cost-efficient instrumentation for monitoring large detection volumes. However, because of the low flux of UHE neutrinos, event rates are still small even for the large array of hundreds of radio detector stations that is foreseen for the next-generation neutrino observatory at the South Pole, IceCube-Gen2. Thus, improving the sensitivity of the detector is one of the primary objectives. The easiest way to increase the sensitivity — but also the most expensive way — is to build more radio detector stations. A more efficient way is to increase the sensitivity of each radio detector station and a lot of work has been made towards this goal. The sensitivity can be increased by simply lowering the trigger threshold which records additional neutrino interactions that produce smaller signal strengths in the radio detector. The problem with this is that the trigger thresholds are already set close to the thermal noise floor such that the trigger rate is dominated by unavoidable thermal noise fluctuations. For example, an amplitude threshold trigger with a two out of four antenna coincidence logic has a trigger rate increases by about six orders-of-magnitude if the trigger threshold is lowered from four times the RMS noise, RMS noise, to just three time RMS noise. Therefore, the trigger threshold is limited by the maximum data rate a radio detector can handle which is typically on the order of 1 Hz if a high-speed communication link exists. If the communication relies on Iridium satellite communication, the maximum data rate is limited to 0.3 mHz. However, if thermal noise fluctuations are identified and rejected in real time, the trigger thresholds can be lowered while maintaining the same data rate, thus increasing the sensitivity of the detector. The sensitivity can be improved by up to a factor of two with the intelligent trigger system presented here . In this paper it is demonstrated that deep learning can be used to reject thermal noise in real time by implementing these techniques in the current ARIANNA data acquisition system. Deep learning, a modern rebranding of neural networks, has been shown to outperform other methods in a variety of scientific and engineering areas, including in physics. The significant amount of data that need to be classified in real time with low latency in high energy physics experiments makes deep learning an ideal tool to use. By rejecting thermal events, the trigger rate can be increased dramatically while maintaining the required low rate of event transmission over the communication links from the remotely located ARIANNA stations. Overall, lower thresholds increase the effective volume of ice observed by each station, which is proportional to the sensitivity of the detector. This paper is organized as follows. Additional details on the ARIANNA detector are provided, along with the expected gain in sensitivity for this study. Next the trade off between network efficiency and processing time is assessed to find the optimal deep learning models for a representative sample of microprocessor platforms. The deep learning method is then compared to a template matching study to determine how well the more common approach performs. Then the current ARIANNA data acquisition system is evaluated to determine the suitability for a deep learning filter. Moreover, the specific predictions for the optimal deep learning model are experimentally verified for the current microprocessor hardware. Lastly, the deep learning filter is tested on measured cosmic rays to verify that they are classified similar to neutrino signal and not rejected as thermal noise.