California Ag Network

Tag: UC Davis

  • David Lewis to receive Bradford Rominger Agricultural Sustainability Leadership Award

    Davis, Calif., (April 5, 2016) – The Agricultural Sustainability Institute (ASI) at UC Davis has announced that David Lewis, UC Cooperative Extension watershed advisor for California’s north bay

    UCCE watershe advisor David Lewis is the 2017 recipient of the Eric Bradford and Charlie Rominger Agricultural Sustainability Leadership Award.

    and UC Davis alumnus, is this year’s recipient of the Eric Bradford and Charlie Rominger Agricultural Sustainability Leadership Award.

    For 17 years, Lewis has served as a UC Cooperative Extension advisor, helping farmers, ranchers, conservationists, and other stakeholders solve challenging and contentious issues surrounding the health of their watersheds.

    The Bradford Rominger award honors individuals who exhibit the leadership, work ethic and integrity epitomized by the late Eric Bradford, a livestock geneticist who gave 50 years of service to UC Davis, and the late Charlie Rominger, a fifth-generation Yolo County farmer and land preservationist.

    “David epitomizes the very fiber of character that this award celebrates,” says Kenneth Tate, Russell L. Rustici Endowed Chair in Rangeland Watershed Science at UC Davis and 2012 Bradford Rominger award recipient.

    After starting his work in sustainability with the Peace Corps in Africa and completing a master’s degree in international agricultural development at UC Davis, Lewis joined UC Cooperative Extension as its first watershed advisor.

    Tate praises Lewis’ ability to “put his quiet, honest, credible manner to good work” to help build trust and understanding so communities can have frank discussions about the challenges facing their watersheds.

    Lewis’ accomplishments include helping to reduce the dairy pollution hurting the oyster beds of Tomales Bay and helping ranchers reduce erosion on their property, letting them play a key role in conserving critical coho salmon habitat and protecting the water quality of north coast rivers.

    Keynote speaker Anya Fernald will speak about expanding awareness and access to sustainable foods at the ‘Shepherds of Sustainability’ event April 19 in Davis.

    “I help my communities work towards a shared goal,” says Lewis, reflecting on his role as a leader.

    “Marin County and places like it have placed a value on open working landscapes, and made land use policies 40 years ago to protect them. As we face new challenges, whether it’s a new invasive weed or where solar panels can go, we can always go back to that shared value.”

    For Lewis, many of those successes stem from an eagerness to hear and understand the needs of community members, something he considers a privilege of his job.

    “When talking with people at their kitchen tables or at the gates at their ranches, I get to feel the deep knowledge and connection people have with the landscape, hear their family histories and desires to innovate and do something different. And I appreciate that I’ve got a small role in it somewhere.”

    Lewis will be presented the award at the Shepherds of Sustainability: Celebrating Leadership in Watersheds, Rangeland, and Livestock Sustainability event April 19 in Davis. The event is free and open to the public. Students are strongly encouraged to attend.

    The Shepherds of Sustainability event will include an award ceremony and talks by David Lewis and keynote speaker Anya Fernald, CEO of Belcampo — a collection of organic ranches, butcher shops, and restaurants in California and an agritourism venture in Belize — on the topic of expanding awareness and access to sustainable foods. Fernald was recently recognized in Food & Wine’s “40 under 40” list and featured in profiles in The New York Times and The New Yorker, and has served as a regular judge on Iron Chef America.

    More Information on the event and award can be found on the Agricultural Sustainability Institute’s website.

    Shepherds of Sustainability: Celebrating Leadership in Watersheds, Rangeland, and Livestock Sustainability event & Bradford Rominger award ceremony

    Wednesday, April 19
International House Davis, 10 College Park, Davis

    4:00 p.m.: Student only discussion with David Lewis and Anya Fernald on leadership in agricultural sustainability
    5:30 p.m.: Award ceremony and talk by Anya Fernald on the topic of expanding awareness and access to sustainable foods
    7:00 p.m.:  Reception

     

  • UC Davis Tops World Rankings in Veterinary Science – Ranks No. 2 in Agriculture and Forestry

    Davis, Calif., (March 13, 2017) – The University of California, Davis, held onto its top spot in veterinary science in the latest QS World University Rankings released today (March 7).

    And for the fifth consecutive year, the campus is among the top-ranked universities in agriculture and forestry, taking second place in the ranking this year.

    First in veterinary science since the field was added to the rankings in 2015, UC Davis is renowned for applying a “One Health” approach to addressing critical health concerns on a local and global scale.

    “The energy, passion, knowledge and skills that the UC Davis veterinary medicine community brings to their jobs every day is the secret to our success,” said Michael Lairmore, the school’s dean since 2011. “Our future, supported in part by generous philanthropic partners, will be shaped by our combined efforts as we push the boundaries of research discoveries, provide innovative educational opportunities for our students, bring advanced clinical services to our animal patients, and serve our communities by advancing the health of animals, people and the environment.”

    Ranked No. 2 in agriculture and forestry, UC Davis is the most published and cited U.S. research university in agricultural sciences, environment and ecology, and food science and nutrition. The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences has helped shape California and the world, and remains dedicated to solving critical issues with food, water, energy, climate change and human health to improve the quality of life throughout the world.

    Home of the internationally acclaimed viticulture and enology program, the college offers 29 majors and 43 minors, plus an exploratory/undeclared option, in the fields of agriculture, environment, human needs and social sciences.

    In other recent rankings, UC Davis was named the greenest university in the world by the seventh annual GreenMetric ranking from the University of Indonesia in December 2016 and No. 20 among large schools on the Peace Corps’ Top Volunteer–Producing Colleges and Universities list in February.

    In October 2016, U.S News and World Report’s “Best Global Universities” ranked UC Davis first in programs for plant and animal sciences, second in agricultural sciences, and fourth in environment and ecology.

    Other top showings in the QS rankings

    In this year’s QS rankings, UC Davis is among the world’s elite institutions in 35 of the 46 subjects and all five of the subject areas featured. Among UC Davis’ `highest rankings:

    • environmental sciences remains at 13th
    • biological sciences moves up four spots to 27th
    • anatomy and physiology is 28th in this newly ranked subject
    • earth and marine sciences climbs five spots to 29th
    • development studies, once below 50th, now shows among ranked schools at 47th

    QS rankings are based on reputational surveys and research citations. This year, QS evaluated 4,438 universities, then qualified 3,098 and ranked 1,117 institutions.

    Robust veterinary research and clinical programs

    The veterinary school, also ranked No. 1 by U.S. News and World Report, is home to a robust research program, which last year totaled nearly $76 million in research funds. The school provides clinical services to more than 50,000 animal patients in 34 specialties annually. UC Davis serves as a strong leader in veterinary medical education, providing nearly 550 Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students annually with a curriculum built on sound educational theory designed and delivered by prominent faculty members.

    Making a difference around the world

    The school is involved in improving the lives of people and animals, and the environment in more than 30 countries worldwide through efforts such as:

    • PREDICT, a $175 million multi-institutional program, led by the school’s One Health Institute and funded by USAID to rapidly detect and respond to emerging viruses such as Ebola
    • California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System, which protects public and animal health in partnership with the state’s Department of Food and Agriculture
    • Comparative Cancer Center, where veterinary researchers collaborate with physicians and researchers from the UC Davis School of Medicine to develop therapies for human and animal cancer
    • The 100K Genome Project, which aims to speed the diagnosis of foodborne illnesses by creating a databank of pathogen genome sequences
    • Collaboration among veterinary dental surgeons and biomedical engineers to regrow jawbone in dogs and provide valuable knowledge for human treatment
    • Advanced Imaging Facility (with cutting-edge confocal microscopes), providing researchers with a whole new view of biological specimens to answer questions about health and disease

    The rankings are prepared by Quacquarelli Symonds, a British firm widely considered to be one of the most influential international university rankings providers.

     

    A dog receives treatment in the dentistry lab of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. (Don Preisler/UC Davis photo)

  • LAURELS: Karban, Stachowicz Are New Ecological Fellows

    Davis, Calif., (February 17, 2017) – UC Davis has two new fellows of the Ecological Society of America:

    • Richard “Rick” Karban,professor, Department of Entomology and Nematology, an international authority on plant communication. He states on his website: “My current research involves two main projects: volatile communication between sagebrush plants that affects resistance to herbivory, and factors that control the abundance and spatial distribution of wooly bear caterpillars.” Interesting side note: One of his former graduate students, Anurag Agrawal, Ph.D., ’99, who is now a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, is also a member of the society’s 2017 class of fellows. Both were commended for “innovative contributions to community and evolutionary ecology, especially through providing conceptual advances and rigorous experimental work on plant-insect interactions.”
    • John Stachowicz,professor, Department of Evolution and Ecology, commended for his “fundamental contributions to the fields of symbiosis and mutualism, multi-trophic species interactions, biogeography, and invasion biology.” On his mlab’s website, Stachowicz notes the unifying theme of his research as “the ecological causes and consequences of biodiversity,” and states: “The vast diversity of life forms in the marine environment (many of the animal phyla are exclusively marine, or nearly so) makes it a rewarding system for addressing these sorts of issues. I have found seaweeds and marine invertebrates to be particularly tractable experimental subjects and have conducted research involving a diverse suite of invertebrate taxa including corals, hydroids, crabs, echinoderms, polychaetes, ascidians, bryozoans and gastropods.”
    • Dean Kevin R. Johnson of announced that the School of Law’s Distinguished Teaching Award will be presented this year to Professor Elizabeth Joh. The presentation is scheduled as part of the Celebrating King Hall event on Thursday, March 2.

    Joh has been a member of the King Hall faculty since 2003, teaching criminal procedure, criminal law, law and society, and other courses. Her scholarly interests include policing, technology and surveillance.

    She holds her undergraduate degree from Yale University, J.D. from the New York University School of Law and Ph.D. in law and society from New York University. In 2002-03, she served as a law clerk for Justice Stephen Reinhardt of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

    The 2017 Celebrating King Hall event will feature a keynote address by Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg ’84, recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award presented by the UC Davis School of Law Alumni Association board of directors, as well as recognition of scholarship donors and outstanding achievements.

    • Georgia Drakakaki,associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, has been awarded a Greek Diaspora Fellowship to teach and do research in Greece. She is among 21 Greek- and Cypriot-born scholars from 16 U.S. and Canadian universities chosen for the fellowships.

    The Greek Diaspora Fellowship Program is designed to help avert Greece’s brain drain and develop long-term, mutually-beneficial collaborations between universities in Greece and the United States and Canada.

    Drakakaki will work on “chemical genomics research, training and education in plant growth and productivity” in collaboration with Professor Polydefkis Hatzopoulos at the Agricultural University of Athens.

    Drakakaki has a research focus on endomembrane trafficking in plant cells. During this fellowship, a technology transfer in the emerging area of chemical biology, drug discovery and advanced cell biology techniques will be established.

    She will participate in an M.Sc. program on Systems Biology and provide workshops on cell imaging and concepts of chemical biology.

    • Bob Hutmacher, a faculty member in the Department of Plant Sciences, has been named the 2017 Cotton Specialist of the Year, voted by his peers in the 17 states where cotton is grown. The award presentation took place at the Beltwide Cotton Conference in Dallas.

    Hutmacher, who works in disease management and water efficiency, is a Cooperative Extension specialist and the director of UC’s West Side Research and Extension Center, operated by Agriculture and Natural Resources

    “Bob is a highly respected leader who California growers depend on to navigate the ups and downs of the cotton industry in their state,” said Gaylon Morgan of Texas A&M. “He has helped growers find the path to profitability. He has earned this honor many times over. Bob is well deserving and has been for a long while.”

    • The Weed Science Society of America recently presented its Outstanding Research Award to Joe DiTomaso,professor and Cooperative Extension specialist. He becomes the first person to win the society’s Outstanding Research and Outstanding Extension awards (the latter presented in 2008).His research and extension programs focus on the biology and ecology of invasive plants in natural areas, and developing more effective methods for their management.

     

     

  • Drought, Flood and Wildfire Experts List

    Davis, Calif., (February 9, 2017) – Experts from the University of California, Davis, are available to media to discuss the drought and water-supply issues affecting California.

    Water Management And Planning – Water supplies, delivery systems and conservation

    Jay Lund, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis, can discuss the short-term and prolonged impacts of drought on California’s water supply. He has particular expertise in water management and policy, urban water conservation, and the relationship between Northern California’s water supply and water deliveries statewide. He wrote CALVIN (California Value Integrated Network), a computer model that analyzes statewide water supplies and delivery, and projects impacts of climate, storage and other changes. He co-authored reports in 2014 and 2015 on the drought’s economic impact to California agriculture. Contact: Jay Lund, Civil and Environmental Engineering, (530) 752-5671, jrlund@ucdavis.edu.

    Planning and managing water resources – Samuel Sandoval, an assistant professor and UC Cooperative Extension specialist, is an expert in water resources planning and management. He works with scientists, engineers, environmentalists, system operators and decision-makers to integrate ideas into policies and quantify the benefits and drawbacks. He has helped develop educational materials (California Water Virtual Tour and the Water and Drought Online Seminar Series) to cope with negative effects due to drought and water scarcity. Speaks Spanish and English. Contact: Samuel Sandoval, samsandoval@ucdavis.edu.

    Josué Medellín-Azuara is a senior researcher at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. His areas of expertise include hydro-economic modeling, regionwide economic impact analysis, water recycling and remote sensing for estimating agricultural consumptive use. He has been a co-developer and an applied researcher of the CALVIN and SWAP models for water management in agricultural and urban uses in California. He is a co-author of the 2014 California Drought Impact Report and similar reports in 2015. He serves as the convener of the California Water and Environmental Modeling Forum. Bilingual in Spanish and English. Contact: Josué Medellín-Azuara, jmedellin@ucdavis.edu.

    Flood Risk and Management – Nicholas Pinter, a geology professor, is a nationally recognized expert in flooding, flood risk and management. Pinter studies the geology of the earth’s surface, applied to a range of problems. His research is focused on rivers, floodplains, flood hydrology and watersheds, which he’s applied to help provide a scientific basis for sound natural-hazards public policy at national and local levels. He holds the Roy J. Shlemon Chair in Applied Geosciences. Contact: Nicholas Pinter, Department of Earth and Physical Sciences, (530) 754-1041, npinter@ucdavis.edu.

    Drought And Wildfires – Wildfire, climate and plant communities: Mark Schwartz, a plant ecology professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, can discuss the impact of climate change on wildfires, as well as where and when plant communities are predicted to exhibit stress as a consequence of unusual climatic conditions, including wildfire. His work to help better predict fire behavior and forest vulnerabilities informs decisions about fire management, including prescribed fire, fuels reduction, and management responses to wildfire events. Contact: Mark Schwartz, (530) 752-0671, mwschwartz@ucdavis.edu.

    AGRICULTURAL IMPACTS – Economic impact on agriculture and consumers: Daniel Sumner is the Frank H. Buck Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics and the director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center. He can discuss the impact of drought on the economy, commodity and food markets, food availability, and consumer food prices. He can explain how farmers are likely to adjust the crops they grow, as well as how food prices will be affected in California and around the nation. Contact: Daniel Sumner, Agricultural and Resource Economics, dasumner@ucdavis.edu.

    Drought impacts for ranchers – Ken Tate is a professor and UC Cooperative Extension rangeland watershed specialist, as well as the Russell L. Rustici Endowed Chair in Rangeland Watershed Sciences. He works closely with ranchers to help them cope with the drought, which has severely impacted California’s 41 million acres of rangeland. This rangeland is vitally important as a source of livestock forage, wildlife habitat, plant diversity and clean water. Read about this work. Contact: Ken Tate, Rangeland Watershed Laboratory, (530) 754-8988, kwtate@ucdavis.edu.

    Leslie Roche is the Rangeland Management Specialist in UC Cooperative Extension in the Department of Plant Sciences. She works with ranchers and rangeland managers to integrate management expertise and applied research to develop drought adaptation and recovery strategies. California ranching is largely dependent on rain-fed systems—as opposed to groundwater or stored water—and therefore is among the first in agriculture impacted by drought. Severe drought conditions can trigger undesirable ecological shifts, which impact forage and livestock production and directly threaten livelihoods of ranching families and communities, as well as the ecosystem services these expansive lands provide. Contact: Leslie Roche, (530) 754-8766, lmroche@ucdavis.edu.

    Groundwater quality and recharge – Graham Fogg, professor of hydrogeology in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, is an expert on groundwater quality and sustainability, groundwater modeling, the response of water systems to climate change, and the transport of groundwater contaminants. Published research he co-authored in 2015 examined how moving levees and flood control can increase groundwater supply. Contact: Graham Fogg, (530) 752-6810, gefogg@ucdavis.edu.

    Groundwater contamination and resources – Thomas Harter is an expert on groundwater occurrence, groundwater flow, recharge dynamics, the role of rivers, precipitation and irrigation in maintaining our aquifers, and on how human activities and agriculture affect groundwater quality. He holds the Robert M. Hagan Endowed Chair in Water Management and Policy, and is a professor in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources and a UC Cooperative Extension groundwater hydrologist. He works with the agricultural industry and government agencies to manage groundwater resources. Learn more. Contact: Thomas Harter, Land, Air and Water Resources, (530) 400-1784, thharter@ucdavis.edu.

    The drought is influencing economy, commodity and food markets, food availability and consumer food prices, among other issues.

    Surface water resources, snowpack and groundwater recharge – Helen Dahlke, assistant professor in integrated hydrologic science at the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, can discuss the impact of climate change on the snowpack, surface water quantity and quality, and long-term trends in water resources availability and sustainability. Her work includes research on the feasibility of using the agricultural landscape for large-scale winter groundwater recharge. Contact: Helen Dahlke, (530) 302-5358, hdahlke@ucdavis.edu.

    Fish And Wildlife Impacts – Watershed management and fish: Peter Moyle is a professor of fish biology in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and associate director of the Center for Watershed Sciences. He is an authority on freshwater and estuarine fishes of California, including the delta smelt. He has monitored native fish populations through droughts for more than four decades and has documented the declining status of native fishes, as well as the invasions of alien species. In a 2013 study, he and fellow scientists determined that climate change and human-caused degradation to aquatic habitats threaten extinction of over 80 percent of California’s native fish. In 2014, he led a crew that sampled drought-stricken streams, looking for native fishes, throughout Northern California. Contact: Peter Moyle, Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, (530) 752-6355, pbmoyle@ucdavis.edu.

    Water Law And Policy – Richard Frank, professor of environmental practice at the School of Law, can comment on legal and policy issues arising out of California’s drought. His areas of expertise include California water rights law, drought-related issues currently confronting California and the American West, legislation, and water governance issues in California. He teaches water law at King Hall, has written on these issues and testified before Congressional and California state legislative committees on these topics. Contact: Richard Frank at (530) 752-7422, rmfrank@ucdavis.edu.

    Home And Garden Issues – Drought-tolerant landscapes and sustainable gardening practices – Ellen Zagory, director of public horticulture for the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, is an expert on plant propagation and sustainable planting design. She helped develop the UC Davis Arboretum All-Stars — 100 plants with properties tested by horticultural staff possessing many qualities that make them outstanding choices for any landscape, including their heat and drought tolerance. Zagory’s current projects include helping to convert a variety of campus settings from little-used, high-maintenance, high-water landscapes to heat-tolerant, low-water, low-maintenance landscapes. She travels the state to instruct UC Cooperative Extension master gardeners and regional garden clubs about steps they can take toward more sustainable gardening practices. Contact: Ellen Zagory, UC Davis Arboretum, arboretum@ucdavis.edu.

    Converting lawns to natural meadows – Andrew Fulks, assistant director of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, manages the campus’s natural landscape areas for teaching, research and public use. He is an expert on converting landscapes from high maintenance and high water-use to regionally appropriate landscapes with multiple aesthetic and wildlife benefits. His knowledge of the measures the campus has used to decrease its outdoor water use and improve stormwater quality can be applied at both institutional and homeowner scales. His current projects include managing the 700-acre streamside and grassland ecosystem at the UC Davis Putah Creek Riparian Reserve and the re-establishment of a native California grassland at UC Davis Russell Ranch. He can speak to the steps involved in converting lawns to attractive, natural, drought-tolerant meadows using wildflowers and native grasses. Contact: Andrew Fulks, UC Davis Arboretum, (530) 219-7618, amfulks@ucdavis.edu.

    Landscaping with drought-tolerant California natives: Taylor Lewis, horticulturist and nursery manager for the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden Teaching Nursery, has studied the best methods for planting and growing California natives, and has worked to make them publicly available. With his calendar of when California natives bloom in hand, he teaches seminars statewide to dispel the myth that California native landscapes are not aesthetically pleasing. Lifetime Master Gardener and local radio talk show host of the “KFBK Garden Show” Farmer Fred Hoffman refers to Lewis as “…one of the biggest influences on the use of California natives in the state.” Lewis is an expert on how homeowners can make their landscapes drought-tolerant by incorporating California natives. He is currently working on propagating California native plants for use throughout campus and for sale to the public. Contact: Taylor Lewis, tclewis@ucdavis.edu.

    Water And Energy –Water rates and water-energy efficiency – Frank Loge is director of the Center for Water-Energy Efficiency and a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Loge can discuss the link between water, energy, and greenhouse gas emissions; energy used in water production, treatment, use and disposal; the development of novel efficiency technologies; the role of information technology in water-energy efficiency; and water rates, inclusive of the types of rates, compliance with state law, and socioeconomic equity. Contact: Frank Loge, Center for Water-Energy Efficiency, (530) 754-2297, fjloge@ucdavis.edu.

    Water-energy nexus – Edward “Ned” Spang, assistant professor of Food Science and Technology, is an expert on the water-energy nexus, the inextricable link between water and energy. He can discuss energy used to produce fresh water and water consumed in energy production at a local, national or global scale. He can also discuss water and energy policy. Contact: Edward Spang, Food Science and Technology, (530) 754-5447, esspang@ucdavis.edu.

     

     

  • Homegrown Experts Help Restore Arboretum Waterway

    Davis, Calif., (February 9, 2017) – UC Davis has a secret weapon in its mission to clean and beautify the Arboretum Waterway: homegrown expertise.

    An expanding group of undergraduate students — led by Randy Dahlgren, a professor and world leader in water-quality biogeochemistry — will sample the water and provide important analysis throughout the university’s multiyear effort to enhance the Arboretum Waterway. The students are part of a new group internship that Dahlgren designed to provide undergraduates hands-on experience in water-quality and aquatic ecosystem restoration.

    “It’s good for everyone,” Dahlgren said. “The students are playing a critical role in solving real-world problems, which gives restoration efforts a better chance to succeed, which benefits all of us who enjoy the centerpiece of the arboretum.”

    Visitors love walking the 3.5-mile loop around the Arboretum Waterway — except when the water is covered with unsightly duckweed and algae, which are a natural byproduct of what is essentially a stagnant pond.

    The waterway sits in the channel that used to be the North Fork of Putah Creek, but long ago the creek was diverted due to frequent flooding. Now, the Arboretum Waterway is dammed at both ends and serves as a holding pond for storm runoff and a receptacle for clean, recycled wastewater.

    Starting later this month, UC Davis will launch a four-year project to reduce algae growth and sedimentation by increasing water flow, deepening and narrowing the channel, and planting more native wetland vegetation on the banks.

    “We’re introducing small elevation gains via weirs — barriers across the waterway that alter its current—as well as a pump to recirculate the water,” said Andrew Fulks, assistant director of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. “Picture a series of large, natural steps with water cascading down. Once the water reaches the bottom step, a pump will take the water back to its starting point.”

    How water-quality monitoring helps

    Water quality is not a toggle switch, not something you switch on and off. It takes a process to improve water quality and restore aquatic ecosystems.

    “It’s like cholesterol in our blood,” Dahlgren explained. “When your cholesterol is too high, you take progressive steps to lower it. Maybe first you increase exercise, then change your diet, then turn to statin drugs if the other two steps aren’t effective.”

    But you don’t know whether interventions are working if you don’t monitor the blood or, in this case, the water. Throughout the restoration project, Dahlgren and his students will measure water-quality indicators such as levels of nitrogen, phosphorous, dissolved oxygen, and algae.

    The group internship got underway last fall with 10 undergraduates majoring in environmental science and management. Dahlgren will offer similar group internships with more students over the next few years.

    “It was a lot of fun,” said Samuel Moose, a third-year student and member of the inaugural group. “I really enjoyed the fieldwork and the opportunity to solve problems.”

    “And we got to see the big picture,” added Anna Britzman, who plans to pursue a career in wildlife conservation. “We worked with so many experts, and it helped me see how important water quality is to restoring wildlife habitat.”

    Right in his own backyard – The research also has strong international relevance because aquatic ecosystems worldwide suffer from excess nutrients in the water. For the past 10 years, Dahlgren has studied nutrient-rich aquatic dead zones in China that are strikingly similar to the Arboretum Waterway. The big difference for Dahlgren is that he can collect water samples in the arboretum on his bike in 30 minutes.

    Fulks is grateful for the proximity, too. “Randy and the interns are helping us monitor the effect of our efforts, which is so important to the project’s overall success,” Fulks said. “By partnering with our experts and students here on campus, we are creating a living laboratory as well as a treasured resource for our community.”

     

     

     

  • UC Davis Named Most Sustainable University in the World

    Our green campus includes rooftop gardens like this one, at the LEED-platinum Segundo Services Center. Rooftop plots absorb sunlight that would otherwise be converted to heat energy, provide extra insulation and capture rainwater, thus reducing storm runoff. (Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis)

    Davis, Calif., (January 11, 2017) – The University of California, Davis, is the greenest university in the world, as declared today (Dec. 29) by the seventh annual GreenMetric ranking from the University of Indonesia.

    UC Davis held the third position in last year’s UI GreenMetric World University Ranking, and emerged No. 1 in the 2016 assessment of 516 colleges and universities in 74 countries for environmentally friendly campus operations and policies, and research and education on sustainability.

    “This ranking not only reaffirms our standing as a global leader in sustainability but also demonstrates our continuing commitment,” Interim Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter said. “All the credit goes to our staff, faculty and students for being so dedicated to this cause.”

    In another year-end environmental achievement, UC Davis earned the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest LEED rating for the new Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. It is the ninth UC Davis project to be platinum-certified in LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

    UC Davis is also a top-10 “Cool School” in Sierra magazine’s ranking of America’s greenest colleges and universities. In fact, UC Davis has been in the “Cool School” top 10 for five out of the last six years.

    GreenMetric indicators – In claiming the GreenMetric’s top ranking with a score of 8,398 (out of 10,000), UC Davis scored well ahead of the second- and third-place schools: University of Nottingham (England), 8,079; and Wageningen University (Netherlands), 7,658.

    Three other UCs are in the ranking: Berkeley, eighth; Merced, 67th; and Riverside, 141st.

    UC Davis ranked first among the participating colleges and universities for transportation, including bus and bicycle use, and earned a perfect score in the waste category, for waste reduction and recycling, among other factors.

    Other criteria included renewable energy (notably, UC Davis generates 14 percent of its power supply from the new solar farm south of Interstate 80), and energy efficiency and water conservation.

    The ranking also looked at green building implementation (UC Davis has 23 LEED projects, as well as the largest planned zero-net energy community in the nation, West Village).

    Finally, in education, the ranking looked at such factors as published research on sustainability and number of courses related to sustainability (250).

  • New $9.7 Million Grant Funds Search for Wheat Yield Genes

    Featured Image Credit: (Karin Higgins/UC Davis photo)

    – Increasing wheat yield rapidly enough to meet population growth has been a challenge for wheat breeders. An international research project, headed by plant geneticist Jorge Dubcovsky, professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, is using new technology to identify the wheat genes that impact yield.

    “Grain yield is one of the most difficult traits to address in wheat,” said Dubcovsky. “Fortunately, we now have more powerful tools, so we’re tackling this important trait even though it is difficult. We need to identify the genes that make the grains bigger, that increase the number of grains per spikelet, and that result in more-productive tillers.” (Tillers are segmented stems found in wheat and other grasses.)

    The importance of wheat – In contrast to crops like maize and soybean, 65 percent of the wheat varieties in the U.S. come from the public sector (in contrast to private-sector plant-breeding companies). The wheat industry in the U.S. therefore relies on public-sector wheat breeders to develop improved wheat varieties.

    Wheat is different from other cereals, in that it has a higher protein content than rice or maize, so it’s important for humans. More than 700 million tons of wheat is produced worldwide each year, and 20 percent of the global caloric and protein intake comes from wheat.

    Public-sector wheat breeders in the U.S. have worked together for many years with the support of USDA Coordinated Agricultural Projects (CAP) to characterize agronomically important traits such as disease resistance and quality, but significantly increasing wheat yield has been an elusive goal. This year the Wheat CAP project is joining forces with the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP), a consortium coordinating efforts across the world to accelerate improvements in wheat yield.

    Research support from NIFA – A new five-year $9.7 million grant, from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), will continue to support the coordination of public wheat-breeding programs in the U.S. The research focus is on the identification of genes controlling grain yield and their utilization to improve wheat productivity through breeding research at UC Davis and partnering universities.

    The wheat-breeding program at UC Davis has long-used traditional breeding combined with molecular markers to accelerate the deployment of other traits, but no molecular markers were available for yield. The new molecular markers for genes controlling yield traits will accelerate progress in this area. A wheat yield increase of about 1 percent per year, typical up until now, will not meet the needs of a fast-growing human population.

    According to Dubcovsky, “This new project will allow us to understand the genes that control the different yield components, along with total yield.”

    It sounds straightforward, but it’s extremely difficult to breed for yield components. Yield in wheat consists of the average weight of the grain, the number of grains produced per plant, and the number of spikes produced per unit of growing area—these all contribute to total grain yield.

    Sequencing most wheat genes – In collaboration with a group in the UK, Dubcovsky’s group previously developed a tool called “exome-capture” (or gene capture) that can be used to sequence most of the wheat genes at a low cost, while ignoring the repetitive part of the very large wheat genome.

    “Using this new technology, we’ve had to sequence only 180 megabases, rather than the entire 16,000 megabases of the complete bread-wheat genome,” Dubcovsky said. The researchers used this tool to identify more than 10 million mutations in all the wheat genes.

    Dubcovsky’s lab is working to increase the number of grains in the wheat spike, while other groups in the WheatCAP team and IWYP are focusing on increasing grain size.

    Researchers are already testing a gene that increases grain size by 7 percent in wheat varieties grown in California and the UK. It is not yet clear, however, whether the increased grain size will result in an increase in total yield. As part of this project, breeders will move the large-grain trait into varieties known to have the potential for producing high biomass and high yield.

    The need for future plant breeders

    At least 15 graduate students will be trained in this project at different universities. Each student will be in charge of the identification and deployment of one of the beneficial genes. This training is important because there is an increasing demand for modern plant breeders, and limited places to train them.

    “With fewer active breeding programs in the universities, the wheat industry – breeding companies, growers, millers, bakers, and the National Association of Wheat Growers – strongly supports this program because they desperately need people with technical skills to do the breeding,” Dubcovsky said. “Public breeding programs play an important role in training a new generations of breeders that are critical for our future food security.”