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Life Sciences

Series

2019

University of Vermont

Articles 1 - 20 of 20

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Making Trees Count: Measurement And Reporting Of Agroforestry In Unfccc National Communications Of Non-Annex I Countries, Todd S. Rosenstock, Andreas Wilkes, Courtney Jallo, Nictor Namoi, Medha Bulusu, Marta Suber, Damaris Mboi, Rachmat Mulia, Elisabeth Simelton, Meryl Richards, Noel Gurwick, Eva Wollenberg Nov 2019

Making Trees Count: Measurement And Reporting Of Agroforestry In Unfccc National Communications Of Non-Annex I Countries, Todd S. Rosenstock, Andreas Wilkes, Courtney Jallo, Nictor Namoi, Medha Bulusu, Marta Suber, Damaris Mboi, Rachmat Mulia, Elisabeth Simelton, Meryl Richards, Noel Gurwick, Eva Wollenberg

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Agroforestry—the integration of trees with crops and livestock—generates many benefits directly relevant to the UNFCCC's Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, including: (i) building resilience, (ii) increasing soil carbon and improving soil health, (iii) providing fodder and shade for sustainable livestock production and (iv) diversifying human diets and economic opportunities. Despite its significance to the climate agenda, agroforestry may not be included in measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) systems under the UNFCCC. Here we report on a first appraisal of how agroforestry is treated in national MRV systems under the UNFCCC. We examined national communications (NCs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) …

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Functional Dissection Of The Chickpea (Cicer Arietinum L.) Stay-Green Phenotype Associated With Molecular Variation At An Ortholog Of Mendel’S I Gene For Cotyledon Color: Implications For Crop Production And Carotenoid Biofortification, Kaliamoorthy Sivasakthi, Edward Marques, Ng’Andwe Kalungwana, Noelia Carrasquilla-Garcia, Peter L. Chang, Emily M. Bergmann, Erika Bueno, Matilde Cordeiro, Syed Gul A.S. Sani, Sripada M. Udupa, Irshad A. Rather, Reyazul Rouf Mir, Vincent Vadez, George J. Vandemark, Pooran M. Gaur, Douglas R. Cook, Christine Boesch, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg, Jana Kholova, R. Varma Penmetsa Nov 2019

Functional Dissection Of The Chickpea (Cicer Arietinum L.) Stay-Green Phenotype Associated With Molecular Variation At An Ortholog Of Mendel’S I Gene For Cotyledon Color: Implications For Crop Production And Carotenoid Biofortification, Kaliamoorthy Sivasakthi, Edward Marques, Ng’Andwe Kalungwana, Noelia Carrasquilla-Garcia, Peter L. Chang, Emily M. Bergmann, Erika Bueno, Matilde Cordeiro, Syed Gul A.S. Sani, Sripada M. Udupa, Irshad A. Rather, Reyazul Rouf Mir, Vincent Vadez, George J. Vandemark, Pooran M. Gaur, Douglas R. Cook, Christine Boesch, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg, Jana Kholova, R. Varma Penmetsa

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

“Stay-green” crop phenotypes have been shown to impact drought tolerance and nutritional content of several crops. We aimed to genetically describe and functionally dissect the particular stay-green phenomenon found in chickpeas with a green cotyledon color of mature dry seed and investigate its potential use for improvement of chickpea environmental adaptations and nutritional value. We examined 40 stay-green accessions and a set of 29 BC2F4-5 stay-green introgression lines using a stay-green donor parent ICC 16340 and two Indian elite cultivars (KAK2, JGK1) as recurrent parents. Genetic studies of segregating populations indicated that the green cotyledon trait is controlled by a …

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Genotype-Specific Effects Of Ericoid Mycorrhizae On Floral Traits And Reproduction In Vaccinium Corymbosum, Alison K. Brody, Benjamin Waterman, Taylor H. Ricketts, Allyson L. Degrassi, Jonathan B. González, Jeanne M. Harris, Leif L. Richardson Nov 2019

Genotype-Specific Effects Of Ericoid Mycorrhizae On Floral Traits And Reproduction In Vaccinium Corymbosum, Alison K. Brody, Benjamin Waterman, Taylor H. Ricketts, Allyson L. Degrassi, Jonathan B. González, Jeanne M. Harris, Leif L. Richardson

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

American Journal of Botany is published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the Botanical Society of America. Premise: Most plants interact with mycorrhizal fungi and animal pollinators simultaneously. Yet, whether mycorrhizae affect traits important to pollination remains poorly understood and may depend on the match between host and fungal genotypes. Here, we examined how ericoid mycorrhizal fungi affected flowering phenology, floral traits, and reproductive success, among eight genotypes of highbush blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum (Ericaceae). We asked three overarching questions: (1) Do genotypes differ in response to inoculation? (2) How does inoculation affect floral and flowering traits? (3) Are inoculated …

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Bird Dispersal As A Pre-Adaptation For Domestication In Legumes: Insights For Neo-Domestication, Hester Brǿnnvik, Eric J. Von Wettberg Oct 2019

Bird Dispersal As A Pre-Adaptation For Domestication In Legumes: Insights For Neo-Domestication, Hester Brǿnnvik, Eric J. Von Wettberg

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Payment For Ecosystem Services: Incentives To Support Environmental Quality & Farming In Vermont, Stephen Posner, Taylor Ricketts, Eric Roy Oct 2019

Payment For Ecosystem Services: Incentives To Support Environmental Quality & Farming In Vermont, Stephen Posner, Taylor Ricketts, Eric Roy

Reports and Policy Briefs

Environmental quality is an ongoing concern in the Lake Champlain Basin. Vermont farmers are in a unique position to manage land in a way that maintains and improves environmental quality. A payment for ecosystem services (PES) program for Vermont would both support the economic vi- ability of Vermont farms and incentivize farmers to improve water quality and soil health. How- ever, conceptual and practical implementation challenges remain.

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Us County-Level Agricultural Crop Production Typology, Courtney R. Hammond Wagner, Meredith T. Niles, Eric D. Roy Aug 2019

Us County-Level Agricultural Crop Production Typology, Courtney R. Hammond Wagner, Meredith T. Niles, Eric D. Roy

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Objectives: Crop production is an important variable in social, economic and environmental analyses. There is an abundance of crop data available for the United States, but we lack a typology of county-level crop production that accounts for production similarities in counties across the country. We fill this gap with a county-level classification of crop production with ten mutually exclusive categories across the contiguous United States. Data description: To create the typology we ran a cluster analysis on acreage data for 21 key crops from the United States Department of Agriculture's 2012 Agricultural Census. Prior to clustering, we estimated undisclosed county …

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Policy Options To Streamline The Carbon Market For Agricultural Nitrous Oxide Emissions, Meredith T. Niles, Hannah Waterhouse, Robert Parkhurst, Eileen L. Mclellan, Sara Kroopf Aug 2019

Policy Options To Streamline The Carbon Market For Agricultural Nitrous Oxide Emissions, Meredith T. Niles, Hannah Waterhouse, Robert Parkhurst, Eileen L. Mclellan, Sara Kroopf

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

The majority of emissions of nitrous oxide – a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) – are from agricultural sources, particularly nitrogen fertilizer applications. A growing focus on these emission sources has led to the development in the United States of GHG offset protocols that could enable payment to farmers for reducing fertilizer use or implementing other nitrogen management strategies. Despite the development of several protocols, the current regional scope is narrow, adoption by farmers is low, and policy implementation of protocols has a significant time lag. Here we utilize existing research and policy structures to propose an ‘umbrella’ approach for nitrogen …

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Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs And Behaviors Regarding Fruits And Vegetables Among Cost-Offset Community-Supported Agriculture (Csa) Applicants, Purchasers, And A Comparison Sample, Karla L. Hanson, Leah C. Volpe, Jane Kolodinsky, Grace Hwang, Weiwei Wang, Stephanie B. Jilcott Pitts, Marilyn Sitaker, Eretii Timeon, Alice S. Ammerman, Rebecca A. Seguin Jun 2019

Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs And Behaviors Regarding Fruits And Vegetables Among Cost-Offset Community-Supported Agriculture (Csa) Applicants, Purchasers, And A Comparison Sample, Karla L. Hanson, Leah C. Volpe, Jane Kolodinsky, Grace Hwang, Weiwei Wang, Stephanie B. Jilcott Pitts, Marilyn Sitaker, Eretii Timeon, Alice S. Ammerman, Rebecca A. Seguin

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) participation has been associated with high fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption, which may be due to better access to FV for CSA purchasers, or to positive knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs (KAB) regarding healthy eating among CSA applicants. The objective of this study was to examine KAB and consumption, in association with application to a cost-offset CSA (CO-CSA) program, and with CO-CSA purchase among applicants. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of CO-CSA applicants and a comparison sample in August 2017. All respondents were English-reading adults with a child 2–12 years old and household income of < 185% of the federal poverty level. Among CO-CSA applicants, some were CO-CSA purchasers (n = 46) and some were not (n = 18). An online comparison sample met equivalent eligibility criteria, but had not participated in CSA for three years (n = 105). We compared CO-CSA applicants to the comparison sample, and compared purchasers and non-purchaser sub-groups, using Mann- Whitney U tests and chi-square analysis. CO-CSA applicants reported better knowledge, selfefficacy, home habits, and diet than the comparison sample. Among applicants, CO-CSA purchasers and non-purchasers had equivalent KAB, but children in purchaser households had higher FV consumption than in non-purchaser households (4.14 vs. 1.83 cups, P = 0.001). Future research should explore associations between CO-CSA participation and diet using experimental methods.

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Population Genomic Analysis Of Mango (Mangifera Indica) Suggests A Complex History Of Domestication, Emily J. Warschefsky, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg Jun 2019

Population Genomic Analysis Of Mango (Mangifera Indica) Suggests A Complex History Of Domestication, Emily J. Warschefsky, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Trust Humans have domesticated diverse species from across the plant kingdom, yet much of our foundational knowledge of domestication has come from studies investigating relatively few of the most important annual food crops. Here, we examine the impacts of domestication on genetic diversity in a tropical perennial fruit species, mango (Mangifera indica). We used restriction site associated DNA sequencing to generate genomic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from 106 mango cultivars from seven geographical regions along with 52 samples of closely related species and unidentified cultivars to identify centers of mango genetic diversity and examine how post-domestication dispersal shaped the …

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A Review Of Determinants For Dairy Farmer Decision Making On Manure Management Strategies In High-Income Countries, Meredith T. Niles, Catherine Horner, Rajesh Chintala, Juan Tricarico May 2019

A Review Of Determinants For Dairy Farmer Decision Making On Manure Management Strategies In High-Income Countries, Meredith T. Niles, Catherine Horner, Rajesh Chintala, Juan Tricarico

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

The global dairy sector is a major source of human nutrition and farmer livelihoods, while also generating manure, an important nutrient for crop production, but one that must be managed to minimize environmental risk. Manure management - manure handling, processing, storage and application - is an important part of managing a dairy system. Rising awareness of environmental stewardship is increasing for dairy production that meets multiple sustainability goals. Importantly, a large body of research has identified a suite of potential manure management strategies (MMS) that can contribute to reduced environmental impact, and in some cases, provide additional benefits for farmers …

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A Comparative Analysis Of Governance And Leadership In Agricultural Development Policy Networks, Jessica Rudnick, Meredith Niles, Mark Lubell, Laura Cramer May 2019

A Comparative Analysis Of Governance And Leadership In Agricultural Development Policy Networks, Jessica Rudnick, Meredith Niles, Mark Lubell, Laura Cramer

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Agricultural development initiatives feature many public and private organizations working together across sectors and scales to pursue the goals of food security and climate resilience. Policy networks are considered a crucial ingredient for the learning and cooperation needed to effectively implement agricultural development projects and increase community resiliency, yet very little comparative empirical data has been collected to assess where and how these networks operate. We contribute to filling this gap by characterizing the governance and leadership patterns within agricultural development policy networks that connect organizations working on climate resilience and food security activities in 14 smallholder farming communities across …

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Spatial Considerations For Implementing Two Direct-To-Consumer Food Models In Two States, Marilyn Sitaker, Jared T. Mcguirt, Weiwei Wang, Jane Kolodinsky, Rebecca A. Seguin Apr 2019

Spatial Considerations For Implementing Two Direct-To-Consumer Food Models In Two States, Marilyn Sitaker, Jared T. Mcguirt, Weiwei Wang, Jane Kolodinsky, Rebecca A. Seguin

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

To open new markets, some farmers have adapted direct-to-consumer (DTC) models, such as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), to reach new settings or audiences. We compared sociodemographic and geospatial contexts to farmers' experience with one of two DTC innovations: a cost-offset CSA for low-income families and food boxes distributed through rural convenience stores. We geocoded addresses of thirteen farms and DTC pickup sites in two U.S. states (Vermont and Washington) and calculated road network distances from pickup to supermarket, farmers' market, and farm. We compiled Census block-level demographic and transportation data, and compared it to postseason interviews to explore the effect …

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Seeing Is Not Always Believing: Crop Loss And Climate Change Perceptions Among Farm Advisors, Meredith T. Niles, Sarah Wiener, Rachel E. Schattman, Gabrielle Roesch-Mcnally, Julian Reyes Mar 2019

Seeing Is Not Always Believing: Crop Loss And Climate Change Perceptions Among Farm Advisors, Meredith T. Niles, Sarah Wiener, Rachel E. Schattman, Gabrielle Roesch-Mcnally, Julian Reyes

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

As climate change is expected to significantly affect agricultural systems globally, agricultural farm advisors have been increasingly recognized as an important resource in helping farmers address these challenges. While there have been many studies exploring the climate change belief and risk perceptions as well as behaviors of both farmers and agricultural farm advisors, there are very few studies that have explored how these perceptions relate to actual climate impacts in agriculture. Here we couple survey data from United States Department of Agriculture farm service employees (n = 6, 514) with historical crop loss data across the United States to explore …

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Non-Linear Regression Models For Time To Flowering In Wild Chickpea Combine Genetic And Climatic Factors, Konstantin Kozlov, Anupam Singh, Jens Berger, Eric Bishop-Von Wettberg, Abdullah Kahraman, Abdulkadir Aydogan, Douglas Cook, Sergey Nuzhdin, Maria Samsonova Mar 2019

Non-Linear Regression Models For Time To Flowering In Wild Chickpea Combine Genetic And Climatic Factors, Konstantin Kozlov, Anupam Singh, Jens Berger, Eric Bishop-Von Wettberg, Abdullah Kahraman, Abdulkadir Aydogan, Douglas Cook, Sergey Nuzhdin, Maria Samsonova

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Accurate prediction of crop flowering time is required for reaching maximal farm efficiency. Several models developed to accomplish this goal are based on deep knowledge of plant phenology, requiring large investment for every individual crop or new variety. Mathematical modeling can be used to make better use of more shallow data and to extract information from it with higher efficiency. Cultivars of chickpea, Cicer arietanum, are currently being improved by introgressing wild C. reticulatum biodiversity with very different flowering time requirements. More understanding is required for how flowering time will depend on environmental conditions in these cultivars developed by …

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Flowering Resources Distract Pollinators From Crops: Model Predictions From Landscape Simulations, Charlie C. Nicholson, Taylor H. Ricketts, Insu Koh, Henrik G. Smith, Eric V. Lonsdorf, Ola Olsson Mar 2019

Flowering Resources Distract Pollinators From Crops: Model Predictions From Landscape Simulations, Charlie C. Nicholson, Taylor H. Ricketts, Insu Koh, Henrik G. Smith, Eric V. Lonsdorf, Ola Olsson

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Enhancing floral resources is a widely accepted strategy for supporting wild bees and promoting crop pollination. Planning effective enhancements can be informed with pollination service models, but these models should capture the behavioural and spatial dynamics of service-providing organisms. Model predictions, and hence management recommendations, are likely to be sensitive to these dynamics. We used two established models of pollinator foraging to investigate whether habitat enhancement improves crop visitation; whether this effect is influenced by pollinator foraging distance and landscape pattern; and whether behavioural detail improves model predictions. The more detailed central place foraging model better predicted variation in bee …

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Food And Earth Systems: Priorities For Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation For Agriculture And Food Systems, Ana Maria Loboguerrero, Bruce M. Campbell, Peter J.M. Cooper, James W. Hansen, Todd Rosenstock, Eva Wollenberg Mar 2019

Food And Earth Systems: Priorities For Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation For Agriculture And Food Systems, Ana Maria Loboguerrero, Bruce M. Campbell, Peter J.M. Cooper, James W. Hansen, Todd Rosenstock, Eva Wollenberg

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Human activities and their relation with land, through agriculture and forestry, are significantly impacting Earth system functioning. Specifically, agriculture has increasingly become a key sector for adaptation and mitigation initiatives that address climate change and help ensure food security for a growing global population. Climate change and agricultural outcomes influence our ability to reach targets for at least seven of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. By 2015, 103 nations had committed themselves to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, while 102 countries had prioritized agriculture in their adaptation agenda. Adaptation and mitigation actions within agriculture still receive insufficient support across …

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Now I See: Photovisualization To Support Agricultural Climate Adaptation, Rachel E. Schattman, Stephanie Hurley, Martha Caswell Feb 2019

Now I See: Photovisualization To Support Agricultural Climate Adaptation, Rachel E. Schattman, Stephanie Hurley, Martha Caswell

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. To remain viable, agricultural producers will need to adapt to changing climatic conditions in coming decades. Agricultural advisers play an important role in helping producers decide to adopt appropriate adaptation practices. Photovisualizations have the potential to complement currently utilized outreach and education strategies. This research uses a focus group approach to explore (1) whether photovisualizations can aid in decision-making about climate change adaptation, and (2) what characteristics of photovisualizations are most effective at conveying spatial aspects of adaptation practices. We found that photovisualizations generate rich discussions about ecological and economic effects …

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Does Household Capital Mediate The Uptake Of Agricultural Land, Crop, And Livestock Adaptations? Evidence From The Indo-Gangetic Plains (India), Sameer H. Shah, Courtney Hammond Wagner, Udita Sanga, Hogeun Park, Lia Helena Monteiro De Lima Demange, Carolina Gueiros, Meredith T. Niles Jan 2019

Does Household Capital Mediate The Uptake Of Agricultural Land, Crop, And Livestock Adaptations? Evidence From The Indo-Gangetic Plains (India), Sameer H. Shah, Courtney Hammond Wagner, Udita Sanga, Hogeun Park, Lia Helena Monteiro De Lima Demange, Carolina Gueiros, Meredith T. Niles

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Farmers in the Indo-Gangetic Plains produce much of the wheat and rice grown in India. However, food production and millions of farm-based livelihoods in this region will continue to be adversely affected by hydro-climatic change and variation, reduced land productivity, and declining groundwater levels. Thus, agricultural adaptations are essential for protecting and improving upon intersecting goals of food security, poverty alleviation, and wellbeing. Household “capital” (e.g., natural, human, financial, physical, and social) is commonly cited as an indicator of livelihood adaptability and innovation. We develop a series of mediated structural equation models to empirically evaluate the validity of capital as …

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Farming Within Limits, Lindsay Barbieri, Sonya Ahamed, Sam Bliss Jan 2019

Farming Within Limits, Lindsay Barbieri, Sonya Ahamed, Sam Bliss

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Global agricultural production is alarmingly unsustainable. Manipulating living beings, their genetics, and entire ecosystems to produce food has always been a technological feat. Advancements in farming technology have made it possible to surpass critical thresholds of planetary sustainability. Technological change in agriculture generates tension between those who benefit and those who bear the costs. Agriculture produces more than enough to feed the world’s human population, but the global economy allocates food inequitably among people and redirects food to industrial feedlots, biofuel refineries, and the waste stream. Technical solutions alone cannot fix the underlying socioeconomic systems that produce unjust and unsustainable …

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Scaling Up Sustainability In Commodity Agriculture: Transferability Of Governance Mechanisms Across The Coffee And Cattle Sectors In Brazil, R. Hajjar, P. Newton, D. Adshead, M. Bogaerts, V. A. Maguire-Rajpaul, L. F.G. Pinto, C. L. Mcdermott, J. C. Milder, E. Wollenberg, A. Agrawal Jan 2019

Scaling Up Sustainability In Commodity Agriculture: Transferability Of Governance Mechanisms Across The Coffee And Cattle Sectors In Brazil, R. Hajjar, P. Newton, D. Adshead, M. Bogaerts, V. A. Maguire-Rajpaul, L. F.G. Pinto, C. L. Mcdermott, J. C. Milder, E. Wollenberg, A. Agrawal

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

A number of governance mechanisms address socio-environmental challenges associated with commodity agriculture in tropical forested countries. Governance mechanisms that prove effective in one agricultural sector are often applied to other sectors as well. For example, voluntary certification programs have been adopted by producers of commodities as diverse as beef, coffee, palm oil, and soy. However, there are substantial differences in the extent to which governance mechanisms scale up and achieve impact in different sectors. This paper analyzes how the potential for scaling up a particular governance mechanism is influenced by environmental, market, and social geographies that differ between sectors. Through …

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