California Ag Network

Tag: Drought

  • Microbes Associated with Plant Roots Could be a Key to Helping Plants Survive Drought

    Berkeley, Calif., (May 2, 2018) – As sorghum plants cope with drought conditions, the plants’ roots and adjoining microbial communities are communicating in a chemical language that appears to improve the plants’ chances under water stress.

    “It’s amazing,” said Peggy Lemaux, UC Cooperative Extension specialist. “We know there are lots of microbes in the soil and, for the most part, ones in the surrounding soil stayed the same under drought conditions. We only saw changes in those microbes closely associated with the roots.”

    The role of drought in restructuring the root microbiome was the first published discovery to come out of a sweeping drought research project underway since 2015 in the fields at UC Kearney Research and Extension Center in Parlier. The five-year study, funded with a $12.3 million grant from the Department of Energy, aims to tease out the genetics of drought tolerance in sorghum and its associated microbes. Using sorghum as a model, scientists hope the research will help them understand and improve drought tolerance in other crops as well.

    The new research results from the lab of USDA’s Devin Coleman-Derr at UC Berkeley, published April 16, 2018, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, document the fate of microbes associated with sorghum roots under three distinct irrigation regimens. Because the San Joaquin Valley generally sees no rain during the growing season, it is the ideal place to mimic drought conditions by withholding irrigation water.

    All plots received a pre-plant irrigation to initiate growth. In the control plots, sorghum was irrigated normally, with weekly watering through the season. In the plot simulating pre-flowering drought stress, the plants received no additional water until flowering, about halfway through the season. The third treatment was watered normally until it flowered, and then water was cut off for the rest of the season.

    Beginning when the plants emerged, the scientists collected samples from each plot on the same day and time each week for 17 weeks. In a mini, in-field laboratory, roots, rhizosphere (zone surrounding the root), leaves and soil samples from 10 plants in each plot were immediately frozen and transported to Berkeley, where they were disseminated to collaborators, who investigated the plant and microbial responses at the molecular level.

    “When a sorghum plant is subjected to drought, it starts sloughing off metabolites, nutrients and amino acids from the roots. The compounds appear to communicate to the neighboring microbial community that the plant is under stress,” Lemaux said. “That selects out a certain population of microbes. Certain types of microbes increase, others go away. When you add water back, the microbial community returns to its pre-drought population in just a few days.”

    The researchers cultured two specific microbes that were enriched in the rootzone under drought conditions. They coated sorghum seeds with the microbes and planted them under drought conditions in a growth chamber. This treatment encouraged the plant to grow more roots.

    “The microbes appear to improve plant growth during drought,” Lemaux said. “Those microbes appear to be helping plants survive drought. We didn’t know that was happening before we got these results.”

    Lemaux said the research might lead to future field use of the research breakthrough.

    “A lot of companies are interested in the microbiome,” she said. “Some are already selling microbes to coat seeds.”

  • Mandarin Drought Tips Featured in Final Video of Drought Series

    Oakland, Calif., (April 12, 2018) – Because periodic droughts will always be a part of life in California, the UC California Institute for Water Resources (CIWR) produced a series of videos to maintain drought awareness and planning, even in years when water is more abundant.

    The first of the three videos premiered Feb. 2 on the UCTV Sustainable California channel. The second video was launched March 2 on Sustainable California. View the trailer here.

    The videos are inspired by a collection of 19 drought tips produced by CIWR in collaboration with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers during the drought of 2010-16. The tips cover a broad spectrum of California crops, from alfalfa to walnuts. Topics also include salt management, use of graywater in urban landscapes, and the use of shallow groundwater for crop production. Three topics – alfalfa, almonds and citrus – are featured in the three-episode CIWR video series.

    The drought tips collection and the drought tip videos were sponsored by the California Department of Water Resources. Following is the schedule for the video releases:

    The CIWR drought tip series opens with Cannon Michael of Bowles Farming in Los Banos. The alfalfa grower works with UCCE specialist Dan Putnam. “There’s a lot of misunderstanding about alfalfa as a crop,” Michael said. “It does take water to grow it, as with anything, but you get multiple harvests of it every year.”

    The second episode features almond producer Raj of Meena farms. He works with David Doll, UCCE advisor in Merced County. “One positive of this drought,” Meena said, “is that it has forced us all to be more efficient in how we use our water.”

    The series finale features Lisa Brenneis of Churchill-Brenneis Orchard in the Ojai Valley of Ventura County. She worked with UCCE advisor Ben Faber to install a new water-efficient irrigation system. “Irrigation is the only job we really have to do,” Brenneis said, “and we have to get it as right as we can.”

    For a complete list of drought tips, see http://ucanr.edu/drought-tips.

  • Native Wildflowers Bank on Seeds Underground to Endure Drought

    Davis, Calif., (March 8, 2018) – Native wildflowers were surprisingly resilient during California’s most recent drought, even more so than exotic grasses. But signs of their resilience were not evident with showy blooms aboveground. Rather, they were found mostly underground, hidden in the seed bank, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.

    For the study, published March 1 in the journal Ecology, researchers analyzed more than 22,000 seedlings from soil cores collected at UC’s McLaughlin Natural Reserve in Northern California during the fall of 2012 and 2014. They found that seeds from native wildflowers increased 201 percent underground, while aboveground growth increased 14 percent.

    Meanwhile, seeds from exotic grasses decreased 52 percent belowground, while aboveground growth decreased 39 percent.

    “Even wildflowers that are considered intolerant to drought appeared resilient to a single extreme drought event,” said lead author Marina LaForgia, a graduate student in the lab of professors Susan Harrison and Andrew Latimer in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences. “However, more frequent, severe or prolonged future droughts could eventually exceed these native species’ capacity to put more and more seeds into the seed bank for their long-term survival.”

    Seed banking for survival – Seed banks are a clever survival tool native wildflowers use to weather highly variable climates like California, where one year can be extremely dry and the next extremely wet. To take advantage of both of those climates, they keep a portion of their seeds dormant in the soil rather than spending them all at once. This helps ensure their long-term survival.

    Lead author Marina LaForgia, a graduate student at UC Davis, takes a break at her field site at McLaughlin Natural Reserve. Photo: Sasha Vafaei/UC Davis

    During the drought, the wildflowers operated like someone who has kept their job during an economic crisis but is wary of losing it. The person continues to produce and make money, but they save a greater proportion of it in the bank rather than spend it as they may have before the crisis. Similarly, native wildflowers were still germinating and producing seeds, but they saved a greater proportion of that seed underground, waiting for more favorable conditions to emerge.

    “Seed banking is a form of bet-hedging,” LaForgia said. “Wildflowers take on low risk but also low reward, whereas grasses are high-risk, high-reward plants. They’re not savers. They increase dramatically during wet years and decrease in dry years. Wildflowers are less dramatic. They are there, but they’re switching where they place the highest proportions of their population.”

    Tolerance levels – While nearly all wildflowers added to their seed banks during the study period, the increases were especially striking among drought-tolerant wildflowers:

    • Aboveground, drought-tolerant wildflowers increased by about 13 percent, while drought-intolerant wildflowers decreased slightly.
    • Belowground, drought-tolerant wildflowers increased seed banks by 263 percent, while wildflowers considered intolerant to drought increased their seed bank by 119 percent.

    The spike in native wildflowers and drop in grasses was fairly consistent across species and not due to any particular “breadwinner.” Eleven of 15 grasses declined, while 65 of 81 wildflower species increased the amount of seeds they stored.

    California wildflowers, such as these miniature lupine and denseflower Indian paintbrush flowers, were more resilient to the recent drought than they may have appeared. Photo: Marina LaForgia/UC Davis

    Look out below – The study indicates that native annual wildflowers should be an integral part of future restoration strategies, even though their emergence might not be immediate.

    “When looking at how plant communities respond to disturbance, we mostly just think about what goes on aboveground,” LaForgia said. “But if you really want to think about how a plant community is responding, it’s important to keep the entire life cycle of that population or individual in mind. You get a very different answer by just looking at the aboveground community.”

    UC Davis professors Harrison and Latimer are the study’s senior authors. Additional co-authors include Marko Spasojevic of UC Riverside and Erica Case of UC Davis.

    Research for the study was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship grant, a UC Davis Jastro Shields Research Grant, and the Hatch Project.

     

  • Never Ending Drought – News from UCANR

    Sacramento, Calif., (February 15, 2018) – Warm and sunny winter days are no cause for celebration among the farmers, ranchers and forest managers who rely on UC Agriculture and Natural Resources’ research-based information and expertise to make their work more profitable. Such is the feeling shared by UC Cooperative Extension advisor Dan Macon in his Foothill Agrarian blog. He began worrying more than a month ago about the spate of dry weather in the state.

    “While I’m a worrier by nature, I think worrying about the weather is natural for anyone who relies on Mother Nature directly,” Macon wrote.

    The UC Food Observer blog warmly praised the quality of Macon’s blog in a post titled The NeverEnding (#drought) story.

    “He knows his subject and he writes well about it. I read every post, but his most recent piece about Old Man Reno, one of his farm dogs, really resonated with me. Read his blog every chance you get: it will make you feel better about life,” wrote Rose Hayden-Smith, the author of the UC Food Observer.

    The column included a shout-out about the recent launch of a three-video series on the drought produced by UC ANR’s California Institute for Water Resources (CIWR). The series opens with Cannon Michael of Bowles Farming in Los Banos. The alfalfa grower works with UCCE specialist Dan Putnam.

    “There’s a lot of misunderstanding about alfalfa as a crop,” Michael said. “It does take water to grow it, as with anything, but you get multiple harvests of it every year.”

    Videos two and three will be launched March 2 and April 6.

    The UC Food Observer also recommended a blog produced by the CIWR’s Faith Kearns – The Confluence. She recently wrote about how California’s idea of “natural” beauty may have shifted during the drought.

  • UC Launches Drought Video Series Feb. 2

    Oakland, Calif., (February 8, 2018) – Because periodic droughts will always be a part of life in California, the UC California Institute for Water Resources (CIWR) produced a series of videos to maintain drought awareness and planning, even in years when water is more abundant.

    The first of the three videos premieres Feb. 2 on the UCTV Sustainable California channel. Subsequent videos will be launched March 2 and April 6. View the trailer here.

    The videos are inspired by a collection of 19 drought tips produced by CIWR in collaboration with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers during the drought of 2010-16. The tips cover a broad spectrum of California crops, from alfalfa to walnuts. Topics also include salt management, use of graywater in urban landscapes, and the use of shallow groundwater for crop production. Three topics – alfalfa, almonds and citrus – are featured in the three-episode CIWR video series.

    The drought tips collection and the drought tip videos were sponsored by the California Department of Water Resources. Following is the schedule for the video releases:

    Friday, Feb. 2: Drought strategies for alfalfa

    UC Cooperative Extension alfalfa specialist Dan Putnam wrote the drought tip ‘Drought Strategies for Alfalfa,’ on which the first video in the series is based. The video is on the UCTV Sustainable California channel, http://www.uctv.tv/sustainable-cal/.

    The CIWR drought tip series opens with Cannon Michael of Bowles Farming in Los Banos. The alfalfa grower works with UCCE specialist Dan Putnam. “There’s a lot of misunderstanding about alfalfa as a crop,” Michael said. “It does take water to grow it, as with anything, but you get multiple harvests of it every year.”

    Friday, March 2: Drought management for California almonds

    The second episode features almond producer Raj of Meena farms. He works with David Doll, UCCE advisor in Merced County. “One positive of this drought,” Meena said, “is that it has forced us all to be more efficient in how we use our water.”

    Friday, April 6: Irrigating citrus with limited water

    The series finale features Lisa Brenneis of Churchill-Brenneis Orchard in the Ojai Valley of Ventura County. She worked with UCCE advisor Ben Faber to install a new water-efficient irrigation system. “Irrigation is the only job we really have to do,” Brenneis said, “and we have to get it as right as we can.”

    For a complete list of drought tips, see http://ucanr.edu/drought-tips.

  • $1.7 Million for Climate-Resilient Agricultural Research

    Davis, Calif., (December 6, 2017) – The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research has awarded more than $1.7 million to University of California, Davis, researchers to identify genes responsible for drought tolerance in rice and test a new energy-efficient food-drying process.

    Drought-resistant rice – A $1 million Seeding Solutions grant will go to a project to study the genetics of rice plants. The research is being led by principal investigator Pamela Ronald, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Pathology in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the Genome Center at UC Davis.

    Pamela Ronald, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Pathology in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and her team will identify genes that alter root growth in rice. (Photo / Deanne Fitzmaurice)

    She and researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and collaborators, will develop and implement a chemistry-driven gene discovery approach to identify rice genes that influence root growth. The project targets protein kinases, enzymes that control diverse biological process in plants, such as root architecture and drought response.

    “Our aim is to identify genes that alter root growth in rice, a staple food for half the world’s people. Because root systems play an essential role in yield and drought tolerance, results of these studies are relevant to agriculture,” said Ronald.

    The FFAR grant has been matched with funding from the UC Davis Innovation Institute for Food and Health, the Structural Genomics Consortium, AgBiome and Promega for a total $2.3 million investment.

    “This project is a prime example of how public-private partnerships can advance our understanding of plant genetics to develop crops resistant to drought and other climate extremes,” said Sally Rockey, executive director of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research.

    Researchers on this project also include David Drewry, co-principal investigator and professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Aled Edwards, collaborator, professor at the University of Toronto, and director of the Structural Genomics Consortium; and Rafael Najmanovich, collaborator, professor at the University of Montreal.

    Principal investigator Irwin Donis-Gonzalez (left) and assistant adjunct professor Kurt Kornbluth (right) in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering will research new advanced food-drying technology.

    Energy-efficient food processing – FFAR has also awarded $790,000 to UC Davis to test a new technology to improve the drying methods used in food production. Moisture must be removed from harvested agricultural products to safely preserve them prior to processing into food products.

    Researchers will test an innovative moisture-absorbing technology called drying beads, instead of relying on heated air to dehydrate foods such as grains, nuts, rice and seeds. The beads absorb water without using heat, reducing the use of energy by up to 50 percent during the drying process. The beads are reusable and can be reactivated, which would reduce drying costs over time.

    The research is being led by principal investigator Irwin R. Donis-Gonzalez, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering in UC Davis’ College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

    “Drying agricultural produce is an energy-intensive process, and it is imperative to find alternative means of drying for the enhancement of food quality, safety, and economical operations, while reducing food losses and waste,” said Donis-Gonzalez.

    According to researchers, this technology could save more than 1.06 quadrillion kilojoules of energy annually in the U.S. This is about the same amount of energy it takes to provide electricity to residents of New York, California and Florida for one year.

    The $790,000 FFAR grant has also been matched with funding from the UC Davis Innovation Institute for Food and Health, and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences for a total $1.5 million investment.

    “This project exemplifies how new innovations can help us produce a safe, reliable food supply that uses resources more efficiently,” Rockey said.

    Researchers on this project include Kent J. Bradford, co-principal investigator, distinguished professor at UC Davis; Kurt Kornbluth, co-principal investigator, assistant adjunct professor at UC Davis; Edward Spang, co-principal investigator, assistant professor at UC Davis; and Johan Van Asbrouck, collaborator, CEO of Rhino Research, Bangkok, Thailand.

    See full release for more information.

  • Difference in Irrigating Sorghum vs Corn Feed Crops

    Although we received a lot more rain this year, the threat of drought is not over for California agriculture, and dairy producers are considering sorghum as alternative feed crop to corn. There is a difference in nutritional value that will need to be addressed in the feed mixture; however, irrigation needs are much different from corn as well, and drought-tolerance is one of the major reasons for considering sorghum. But just how much water stress can sorghum really handle? Watch this interview with Bob Hutmacher as he explains, and read more in California Dairy Magazine.

    If you haven’t checked it out yet, here is the November issue of California Dairy Magazine:

    California Dairy Digital Magazine: November Issue

     

  • Future Water Leaders Soak Up Irrigation Information

    Sacramento, Calif., (June 26, 2017) – University of California students are taking a long journey through California to trace the state’s complicated and critical water supply. The recent graduates and upper-division co-eds from UC Merced, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley and UC Davis are part of the UC Water Academy, a course that combines online training with a two-week field trip for first-hand knowledge about California water.

    Recently emerged sorghum that is part of a trial aiming to tease out the genes that express drought tolerance.

    The tour began June 18 at Lake Shasta, the state’s largest reservoir, and followed the water’s course to the Sacramento Valley, through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and south along the Delta-Mendota Canal. Since a key water destination is agriculture, the UC Water Academy toured the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension June 23, where research is underway to determine how the state’s water supply can be most efficiently transformed into a food supply for Americans.

    “You’re visiting a place ideal for growing high-quality fruits and vegetables, because of the Mediterranean climate and low insect and disease pressure,” said Jeff Dahlberg, director of the UC KREC.

    UC Cooperative Extension water management specialist Khaled Bali joined the students next to his alfalfa research plot, where different irrigation regimens are compared to determine the maximum yield that can be harvested with the minimum amount of water.

    “It used to be that the No. 1 objective was to maximize yield,” Bali said. “But with the limited supplies and the cost of water, now the No. 1 objective is to get the maximum economic return. Growers might be better off selling some of their water to other jurisdictions.”

    Students gather in the post harvest laboratory at Kearney.

    A water tour wouldn’t be complete without an introduction to drought research. A recently planted sorghum trial provided the backdrop.

    “California is a great place to study drought tolerance,” Dahlberg said, “because you can induce a drought by withholding irrigation.”

    The sizable field contains 1,800 plots with 600 sorghum cultivars under three irrigation schemes: one irrigated as usual, one in which water is cut off before the plants flower, and the final one where water is cut off after the plants flower.

    “Every week, a drone flies over to collect data on the leaf area, plant height and biomass,” Dalberg said. “Hopefully we will get associations with gene expression and this phenotype data. “

    Dahlberg and his collaborating researchers believe identifying the genes responsible for drought tolerance in sorghum will help scientists find drought-tolerant genes in other cereal crops – such as wheat, corn, rice and millet. “This will go a long way to feeding the people of the world,” he said.

    There is still much to learn about sorghum drought tolerance – is it conferred by the plant’s waxy leaves, the way stomata are controlled, accumulation of sugar in the leaves, or a mechanism in the roots?

    “These are all questions you will have to answer to feed the world,” Dahlberg said. “That’s why I would encourage you to continue studying water. There’s a lot for you to get into.”

    A third-year earth science student at UC Santa Cruz and a member of the academy, Denise Payan, said the sense of responsibility for the future is not daunting, but encouraging.

    “It makes me feel like I can make a difference,” she said. The tour through California is shaping her plans for the future, which may include a career at the intersection of geology and biology.

    “This has opened my eyes to a lot of issues,” she said.

    The next stop for the UC Water Academy is the vast Tulare Lake basin to learn about groundwater recharge before heading east to the Owens Valley and the shores of Mono Lake. From there the academy turns to the Sierra Nevada to visit San Francisco’s water supply, which is collected by Hetch Hetchy Dam. The field trip ends with a two-day rafting trip on the American River.

    The UC Water Academy is offered through UC Water and led by UC Merced professor Joshua Viers and UC Cooperative Extension water management specialist Ted Grantham. In addition to the two-week tour, students participated in weekly online meetings and complete a project on communicating California water issues to public stakeholders. Students receive 1 unit of academic credit.

  • California Farms are Thirsty and in Danger

    Irvine, Calif., (June 23, 2017) – For generations now, California farmers have fed America and the world. As a third-generation California farmer, my family is proud of the produce we have helped put on the table.

    But that legacy of plenty could be in jeopardy for the next generation. A new UC Berkeley report commissioned by the Southern California Water Committee concludes that for decades, environmental regulations have been severely limiting the amount of water available for agriculture.

    Overregulation is pushing us toward perhaps the greatest water loss ever in California – an average of 1.3 million acre-feet of water each year. That’s enough to irrigate 400,000 acres of farmland, or sustain more than 10 million Southern California residents for a year.

    No matter the weather, the state’s current water system cannot capture and store enough water when it’s available – water that could be used to balance residential use, environmental practices and food production.

    If this trend is allowed to continue, we will see a significant decrease in available farmland, an increase in food prices and an even tougher future for family farmers.

    The report also confirms that California’s farmworkers are being marginalized in the state’s water debate. They have lost $900 million in wages since 2000 and could lose another $4 billion in wages over the next three decades.

    While farmers and farmworkers are the first to feel the impact, others who rely on agriculture to make ends meet also will feel the pinch, including food processors, truck drivers and warehouse workers.

    Consumers are likely to feel these policies, too, in their wallets as well as their stomachs. Our food supply will have to change because the water cuts predicted by the report could result in 195,000 acres of farmland fallowed each year for the next 30 years. The decrease in readily available food will force a choice between eating less of what we’re used to, or paying more. Poor families would no doubt be hardest hit, further limiting their access to fresh, wholesome and healthy foods.

    As California’s prime farmland thirsts for water, now is the time to demand answers to the difficult questions. How will we keep affordable foods on the table? Will California be forced to import fruits and vegetables from other countries that do not follow our safety standards?

    We need for a comprehensive solution to our water challenges. We cannot rely on conservation alone to ensure thriving farms and plentiful, healthy food. Instead, we need an expansive and balanced solution to ensure a clean and reliable water source for our farms – and for all Californians.

    A.G. Kawamura served as California secretary of agriculture from 2003 to 2010. He can be contacted at ag.kawamura@ocproduce.com.

     

     

  • Statement on End of California Drought

    Sacramento, Calif., (April 12, 2017) – The Governor declared an end to California’s drought and his administration issued plans to permanently entrench many of the drought restrictions and water use efficiency requirements it brought about.

    “California farmers work every day to make the most out of every drop.  While total agricultural water use in California has remained relatively constant over the last 50 years, the amount of food we produce with that water has increased over 43 percent. Any way you look at it, that’s a pretty efficient use of resources, said Mike Wade, executive director of the California Farm Water Coalition.

    “By planning to prepare for future drought the Administration recognizes that Californians can no longer rely on our broken water system to provide sufficient water to all California water users – urban, farm and environmental. Without fixing our broken system, we face the risk of permanent water shortages during even the wettest of years, and ever-escalating disaster during multi-year droughts.

    “Californians have long known that our state must develop water infrastructure in smart ways to foster prosperity, avert crisis, and ensure our long-term success. In 2014 the voters overwhelmingly passed Prop 1, agreeing to spend money on badly-needed water infrastructure. And yet, projects that have been studied for years and are ready to go remain unfunded. Why? Our water management system with more than 15 overlapping federal, state, and local agencies continues to delay. Sites Reservoir and Temperance Flat alone would add enough water to meet the needs of 4.3 million people for a year or grow over 11 billion salads

    “We must act now to prepare for future droughts by building integrated water storage that helps to grow our economy, protect the environment, and ensure prosperity for future generations. But fixing our broken system goes beyond our urgent need to develop these smart storage solutions. California must pursue robust, adaptive, and durable solutions to the other water management issues confronting us. Local, state, and federal agencies must adopt not only a culture of cooperation, but outcome-oriented policies that encourage responsive, efficient, and smart solutions.

    “We stand ready to roll up our sleeves and work to fix the broken water management system and keep California from a state of permanent drought,” Wade said.