UC Agriculture & Natural Resources

Our researchers & educators work with local communities to solve economic, agricultural, natural resource, youth development & nutrition issues.

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Mark Hoddle, a #UCCE Biological Control Specialist, first dabbled in #BiologicalControl at 5 years old when he fed whiteflies from his mother’s fuchsias to newborn mantids in his native New Zealand. “The mantids weren’t effective biocontrol agents, but that got me interested in using some types of insects to control other insects,” Hoddle said, an interest that has never waned. Hoddle earned bachelor's and master’s degrees in zoology with a focus on entomology at the University of Auckland. An article he published as a graduate student caught the eye of a University of Massachusetts professor, who invited him to New England to work on silverleaf whitefly. “I didn’t even know where Massachusetts was, but I was just working as a lab tech in Christchurch so I decided to go,” Hoddle said. Hoddle earned a Ph.D. in Massachusetts while helping develop a program for growers to control silverleaf #whiteflies on greenhouse-grown poinsettias. Six months before he was to finish his doctorate degree, Hoddle learned of two extension specialist positions open at #UCRiverside – one focused on #IntegratedPestManagement, the other on biological control. He didn’t have plans to stay in the United States, but saw applying for the jobs as an opportunity to visit what he considered the world’s #biocontrol capital – the University of California, Riverside. Five months later, he was offered both jobs and selected his first love, biological control. See the whole video at https://youtu.be/RZdP_5pZqTs #WeAreUCANR #agriculture #agriculturelife #farming #farm #farmer #agripics #farmingpics #farm365 #farmingagphotos #farmingphotos #farmlife @ucriversideofficial @uofcalifornia

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Problem-solvers, catalysts, collaborators, stewards and educators. Since 1913, University of California Cooperative Extension scientists, along with campus partners, have been helping make California the nation's leading agricultural state. The University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources links the people of California to their great university through local expertise, nine Research and Extension Centers, and statewide programs such as Integrated Pest Management, 4-H Youth Development, and the UC Master Gardeners. Practical solutions to everyday problems. Learn more at http://ucanr.edu/We_Are_UCANR/

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The patch that makes you invisible to mosquitoes

You’ve been there, scratching that big mosquito bite and wishing those bloodsuckers were never born. 

The good news is relief is on its way. A patch will be commercially available next year that can make you undetectable to mosquitoes. It works by interfering with their ability to sense carbon dioxide, which is how they find you.

The Kite Patch was developed out of research at UC Riverside and is produced with food-grade and non-toxic compounds, making it a much safer alternative to most insect repellents like DEET. Once the company gets EPA approval, the Kite Patch will also be available in the U.S.

And with Zika virus looming as a global health emergency (not to mention malaria), this patch could have the potential to save lives.

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Deer and coyotes and bears, oh my!

Happy Earth Day from UC Santa Barbara’s Sedgwick Nature Reserve!

Scientists study the pressing issues facing plant and animal communities at this “living laboratory" – plus they have a pretty great collection of candid wildlife photos.

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Do tumbleweeds have a better love life than you?

When two tumbleweeds love each other very much… 

…they can create a hybrid monster tumbleweed that can threaten the natural ecosystem.

The new species, Salsola ryanii, was first documented in California’s Central Valley in 2002, and is the hybridization of two iconic tumbleweeds.

Researchers from UC Riverside are finding the new Salsola ryanii species is proliferating quickly beyond the Central Valley and has the potential to invade other states in a short amount of time.

The tumbleweed, which originates from Russia and northern Asia, is one of the most successful examples of invasive plants due in large part to its “tumbling” characteristic which allows its seeds to spread rapidly, says Edith Allen, professor of plant ecology at UC Riverside. 

Tumbleweeds outcompete the native species for food and habitats, which can lead to their extinction and a loss of biodiversity. They also cause more wild fires and soil erosion, which can lead to desertification. 

That said, not all non-native species are invasive, according to Allen. To be classified as invasive, a species must become very abundant where it colonizes, replacing the native species and causing damage to the ecosystem where it has been introduced. 

Watch how it happens in “The Good, the Bad and the Tumbleweed”:

[yummyinmytumbly]

Apple Pi Pie

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Happy Pi Day everyone!

And if you want to make a better pie using science, we’ve gathered a few baking tips from UCLA scientists.

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Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

UC San Diego’s Special Collections (ucsdspecialcollections) has over 8,500 works by Dr. Seuss. One of those is Green Eggs & Ham. 

When it came to writing this book, Ted Geisel – or you may know him as Dr. Seuss – was dared by his publisher to use only 50 unique words. To do this he kept a tally of each word he was using as he wrote the story. 

He would start with what he called the bone pile which was a loosely typed list of words and phrases to sketch out the writing for the book. This was also how he would determine the rhyming pattern and how each phrase would fit together.

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Could poop power our cars?

Is brown the new green? UCLA researchers are using waste matter (yes, including poop) to make a new generation of advanced biofuels.

The U.S. alone annually produces over 1 billion tons of manure from agriculture, which produces nitrous oxide methane emissions, greenhouse gases 325 times more potent than carbon dioxide. But what if all this poop could have another use – one that could stimulate a sustainable biofuel movement?

Graduate researcher David Wernick talks about ongoing work at UCLA to turn manure, sewage, plant waste and even carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere into feed stocks for producing biofuels, and for making the process of manufacturing biofuels clean and sustainable.

Will cars of the future run on poop? Learn more about this research.

[ucanr]

Share these cards with your Valentine!

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Why it’s important for scientists to study obscure things

For years, the kidney donation system had a heartbreaking problem: Many people are willing to donate a kidney to a loved one, but are incompatible due to blood type and other factors.

At the time, less than 20 people received kidneys from living donors. (Receiving a kidney from a living donor leads to much better outcomes for the patient.)

The solution to this problem —like many inventions and modern innovations— was built on decades of odd and obscure research.

When economists Gale and Shapley began their work on matchmaking, their research was mainly theoretical and abstract. But their insights provided the foundation for breakthroughs that had a real impact on people’s lives.

Read about their journey of discovery

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The murky history of dogs

Humans have forged a long friendship with our canine companions, but the origin of the domestic dog still remains quite a mystery.

A study published in 2013 suggested that our modern dogs may have evolved from an extinct wolf species that were domesticated by European hunter-gatherers more than 18,000 years ago. 

While this finding has significantly advanced the debate over dog domestication, there are still some competing theories about their geographical origin. For example, other findings have suggested that dogs could have been first domesticated in China or the Middle East.

So in hopes of finally resolving this question once and for all, scientists from many institutions, including UCLA, are collaboratively building a large genetic database by collecting DNA samples from about 1,500 old and modern canine bones all around the world.

Read about the search for where dogs came from at NY Times.

Top image: © Joe Carnegie / Libyan Soup

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What’s the quickest way to slow global warming?

At last month’s UN climate conference in Paris, University of California scientists proposed that one of the quickest ways to significantly slow the pace of global warming is to cut down emissions of short-lived climate warming pollutants (SLCPs).

But why focus on something ‘short-lived’?

It turns out that even though SLCPs stay in the atmosphere for a much shorter time than CO2, they are significantly more potent in terms of how they heat the planet and are detrimental to humans and crops. Specifically, these pollutants are comprised of methane, black carbon, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and tropospheric ozone.

The good news is that measures to reduce SLCPs are politically and financially easier compared to reducing carbon, according to Veerabhadran Ramanathan, professor of climate sciences  at UC San Diego and a council member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences. But curbing SLCP emissions is only part of the battle – most importantly it would buy us time to adopt the necessary measures to phase out our usage of the main culprit of CO2 emissions: fossil fuels.

For more climate change facts, take a look at the video below:

Graphic by UNEP

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Why Carrots Taste Sweeter in Winter

Frost can do a lot of damage to a plant cell. It can squeeze and rupture the cells until they are completely demolished. But in some cases, the plant’s defense mechanism means a tastier vegetable for us to eat. Because plants are immobile, they must develop defense techniques against severe cold in winter.

For example, carrots have developed the physiological response of increasing their sugar content when it’s cold outside. This helps stop ice crystal formations and prevents damage to the carrot’s cells. So when a carrot defends itself from frost, we reap the benefit of enjoying sweeter carrots all winter long.

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A mosquito that does good for a change

Here comes news of a possible big win for the world: the eradication of malaria, a disease that causes one million deaths per year.

And this is all possible with the creation of malaria-blocking mosquitoes that are no longer a carrier and transmitter of the parasite.

Using the CRISPR gene-editing tool, researchers at UC Irvine and UC San Diego created a breed of mosquitoes that are resistant to malarial parasite and have the ability to pass on the anti-malarial gene to 99.5 percent of its offspring.

More testing needs to be done, but if the advancement could someday lead to the elimination of the disease, millions of people living in malaria zones around the world could sleep more peacefully knowing that the irritating whizzing sound is more of a “self-sustaining disease control tool” than a looming threat. 

Read more about the experiment.

GIF: TED-Ed

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The changing face of California agriculture

Jennifer Sowerwine’s work at UC Berkeley, centers on bringing largely unrepresented voices to the table for discussions around food security and food systems change. Much of her time is spent working with Hmong and Mien farmers in California’s Central Valley.

Many of these farmers, or their families, came to California from Southeast Asia, usually Laos, mainly as political refugees in the ’70s and ’80s. Sowerwine looks at how they got into small-scale farming, how they find and keep land, how they make farming economically viable, and how they’re adapting and changing their practices to meet new challenges. In looking at these things — along with labor and crop diversity — she’s found that these farmers have had little access to government resources.

Rather, they’ve relied on traditional ways of trading labor (you help me with my crop and I’ll help you with yours) and information while producing an incredible diversity of foods (you will see 20 crops in a single acre at many of these farms).

An important part of Sowerwine’s work is bringing these small-scale farmers’ food to supermarkets, school lunch programs, and so on.

[ucsciencetoday]

Community Post: The Thanksgiving Mistake Way Too Many People Make, According to UC Davis

This common error might make your guests sick.

It’s that time of year again - some good advice in here, including how to deal with pestiferous relatives. Happy Thanksgiving!

[ucanr]

UC ANR YouTube alfalfa video an ESA finalist

A University of California, Davis-produced YouTube video on alfalfa integrated pest management was judged a finalist in competition at the 2015 national Entomological Society of America annual meeting held in Minneapolis, Minn. in November. The alfalfa IPM YouTube video is titled the “Identification of parasitized alfalfa caterpillars and armyworms,” which shows how to monitor alfalfa insect pests and natural enemies to help make informed management decisions on pest control in alfalfa production.

Check out the UC ANR Integrated Pest Management Program's video that was recently a finalist in a competition at the 2015 national Entomological Society of America annual meeting! The video is about identifying parasitized alfalfa caterpillars and armyworms, and you can find out more about it in this Farm Press article.