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Minutes of the 2010 NCERA-213 Meeting, October 26-27, 2010 Washington, D.C.
Recorded by David Schmale and reviewed/edited by Andy Michel and Roger Magarey


Tuesday, October 26, 2010


Opening Remarks. Roger Magarey started the 2010 meeting of NCERA-213 at 8:25 am on October 26, 2010. The meeting was held in rooms 4103-4105 of the Waterfront Centre, Washington D.C.


Advisors Report. Bill Ravlin presented our administrative advisors report via conference call. The midterm review is complete, and minutes are being submitted through the system. There was a discussion on the changing landscape with AFRI and funding for multidisciplinary projects. The Science and Technology Committee is developing a roadmap for agriculture consisting of 7 grand challenges. The NCERA 213 name change was a result of changes in research and extension agendas. The committee extends their thoughts and prayers to OSU-OARDC for a quick recovery from the tornado damage.


State Reports. State Reports were presented in the following five areas: (1) Pathogens, (2) Arthropods, (3) General, (4) Population Genetics, and (5) Information Systems for Aerobiology and Plant Biosecurity. The presentations will be posted to a URL for viewing.


Wednesday, October 27, 2010


Training Workshops. Roger Magarey provided an update of the training workshops discussion on October 25, 2010. The proposed workshops and associated individuals responsible for the workshops are: (1) Population genetics (Andy), (2) IAMS (Scott Isard), (3) Practical aerial sampling (Elson Shields), (4) Aerobiology/Meteorology 101 (Scott Isard/John Westbrook), (5) NAPPFAST/OBS (Roger Magarey), (6) Insect Ecology (Shelby Fleischer/Patrick Tobin), and (7) Pathways (Manuel Colunga-Garcia/Roger Magarey). The training materials from the workshops could be presented online and should be extended to graduate students. The group considered potential avenues to deliver workshops as online lessons via a peer-reviewed format. Look to ESA and APS as potential avenues for this.


Planning Details for 2011-2013 NCERA-213 Meetings. Roger Magarey led a discussion for planning for the 2011, 2012, and 2013 NCERA-213 meetings. Roger read an email from John Westbrook that offered a suggestion of Dallas, Texas for the 2011 meeting. Andy Michel will set up a doodle poll to query a date for this. The group thanked David Byrne for volunteering Arizona, but present political circumstances make meeting there difficult for international participants. The group considered locations in Florida for the 2012 meeting, which will be an international meeting. Rob Meagher agreed to serve as the local contact for this meeting, and he will look into potential venues for the meeting in Florida. The group considered Scottsbluff, Nebraska for the 2013 meeting. Jeff Bradshaw agreed to coordinate local arrangements for this meeting.


NIFA funding opportunities. Rick Meyer gave a presentation about NIFA and offered some words of wisdom about getting grants in tough times. His presentation considered changes in NIFA, with the realization that some programs may disappear. There still may be a new FY11 budget.


NIFA Climate Change Program. Louie Tupas, National Program Leader for Climate Change Program, talked about the program and shared a chapter from a 2009 book on climate change. A group is working on a 2013 report, and Louie Tupas invited NCERA 213 to be part of new report, perhaps discussing migration issues and the movement of populations that are impacted by climate change. Education about climate change was also presented as a major need and priority for this program.


Interdisciplinary Research Opportunities for Members of NCERA-213. Andy Michel led a discussion on potential funding opportunities for the group via a large, multidisciplinary effort. Shane Ross presented an idea centered on the idea of migratory barriers (geographical, developmental, atmospheric, environmental, regulatory (social/behavioral), economic, etc.). The discussion considered invasive spp., potential invasion routes, climate change impacting the distribution and establishment of pests, and a mitigation/adaptation focus relevant to climate change challenge area. The group then considered a general aerobiological framework (see attached table) that could be applied to ANY pest and cropping system. Human mediated pathways could be considered in the context of the framework (e.g., via Manuel Colunga-Garcias work).


New Officers
Jeff Bradshaw was elected as the new Secretary/Treasurer of NCERA-213, and Manuel Colunga-Garcia was appointed as the International liaison (a 2-year commitment) to NCERA-213.
Andy Michel closed the meeting at 11:50 am.

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NCERA-213 2011 Annual Meeting Minutes


Officers: Andy, Roger, Jeff


October 5


Attendance: Andy Michel, John Westbrook, Rick Meyer, Rod Nagoshi, Elson Shields, Jeff Bradshaw, Maria del Carmen Calderón Ezquerro, Marcos Algara-Siller, Maria del Mar Trigo Pérez, Forrest Nutter, Roger Magarey, Shelby Fleischer, Tom Sappington, Mike ONeil, Scott Isard, Elwynn Talyor


Opening remarks and introductions from Andy Michel.


Brief orientation of the Texas AgriLife Research & Extension Center at Dallas from Director Mike Gould. He discussed opportunities for global research in Texas to address the extreme climatic variability. There were several questions and comments regarding changes underway for the Center to refocus its efforts on more urban issues. The Texas AgriLife Research & Extension Centers have joined in some unique corporate partnerships to offset reduced state appropriations.


Official business


Ad hoc nomination committee formed for nomination of Secretary Treasure: Andy, Jeff, Roger, and John


Administrators advisor report


Rick Meyer (NPL, USDA-NIFA) reported on an update from USDA-NIFA. Roger Beachy resigned, and Chovonda Jacobs-Young is Acting Director. Continuing resolution through November 18, 2012. Pointed us to Land-grant.org for more on appropriations info. FY 2013 will be a difficult year. They are being told that budget requests should be 5% below FY 2011 level and that discretionary funding should be 10% below FY 2011 levels. NIFA could take a $100M cut. There will be no reductions to mandatory funding (e.g., SCRI and other FARM bill allocations). Rick spoke about some government-wide initiatives (e.g., Cost-savings initiative, long-term productivity increases, checks for duplications, identify priority investments for economic report). A brief mention of the 2012 Farm Bill; however, hearings were underway at the time of this meeting. At best the outlook was cloudy for the Farm Bill at this time. Rick mentioned that major initiatives maintain a high expectation for outcomes and indicators for the plan of work for proposals. There will be some new designs for the NIFA website soon (www.nifa.usda.gov). Rick had some parting suggestions for NCERA-213 members: 1) Build on successes of interdisciplinary systems-oriented work, 2) Participate in USDA stakeholder listening sessions, 3) Think broadly and connect contributions to achieving to priorities areas, 4) Communicate your successes and connect them to the NIFA challenge areas. For proposals, Rick reminded us to make a check list; Search out the most likely opportunities, call or email the program contact, read the RFAs carefully, start early, complex systems proposals require time and coordination, assemble the right team, define roles and responsibilities, dont take rejection personally, revise and resubmit, but address the reviewers comments.


Our Key Note speaker was Marcos Algara-Siller who presented, Gone with the wind: Pest dispersal modeling in Mexico. Marcos spoke about the SCOPES Mexicos pest/pathogen risk modeling maps, presented information on HLB risk and locust risk as well as other risk maps produced by a handful of currently-used models. During a Q/A time, there was some discussion regarding how end users or producers might apply this. Marcos commented that at the moment, producers are not interested or willing to assist to fund the effort and there is some sensitivity to not crossing lines of responsibility with government officials.


State reports
What is it, where is it, and where is it going by Forest Nutter. He discussed remote sensing using <1 meter satellite resolution (~$2,000) for a plot image and uses various image characteristics to define pathogens or likely pathogens, using various definitions of disease gradient foci.


2011: La Niña did it. What is ahead? by Elwynn Taylor. He discussed an increased likelihood of a series of La Niña in the years to come. The climate this year is expected to be similar that of last year.


Climate change effects on voltinism and vectoring: should we consider daily temperature range by Shelby Fleischer. He discussed the potential value/need of calculating variable temperature as opposed to constant daily temperature in considering the potential impacts of climate change on insects.


Fall armyworm: pest and bioindicator of climate change by Rod Nagoshi. He discussed tracking the movement of fall armyworm using haplotype ratios. Some fall armyworms are resistant to Bt crops that express the Cry1f protein, but it may not be related to fall armyworm host strain. He discussed potential for tracking the movement of fall armyworm based on their susceptibility to specific Bt proteins.


Modeling fall armyworm migration by John Westbrook. He discussed the modeling stages that he will be using for understanding and predicting migration patterns of fall armyworms. John expressed thanks to his many cooperators for being willing to collect and send in moth samples.


Constructing a Tower Trap Sampler  an update by Jeff Bradshaw. Presented an update on the current data set and potential use of the tower trap. Also presented information on the iWheat.org project and presented an overview and update on the wheat stem sawfly project that is being worked into the iWheat project.


E-race European corn borer: invasion history, host use, and gene flow by Tom Sappington. He discussed some historic information regarding the movement and distribution of O. nubilalis strains in North America. A special focus center on the E-strain ECB.


Common buckthorn as a keystone invader in agricultural landscapes by Andy Michel. Andy discussed a multistate project that is taking a whole-ecosystem approach to understanding invasive species cascades. Discussed a citizen science effort to assist in mapping the distribution of buckthorn. There was some discussion regarding where soybean aphids do or do not migrate from buckthorn in the Spring.


October 6


State reports (cont.)
Aerobiology Mexican network for epidemiologic phytosanitary surveillance by Maria del Carmen Calderón E. Carmen discussed the establishment of a trapping network for spores and pollen throughout Mexico. There was some discussion of the effective sample area for transgenic corn pollen and the number of suction traps needed.


Elusive onion thrips and lightweight airborne telemetry by Elson Shields. Elson provoked one of his co-workers to better understand onion thrip movement (an important vector of Iris yellow spot virus). He was able to capture onion thrips at 100 and 200 feet with some trial and error using different trap designs on his RC planes. He noted the use of vegetable oil sprays as an adhesive to trap the thrips. There was some discussion of night versus day movement in thrips. Elson had another brief discussion concerning some light airborne telemetry tools. APRS  Automatic Packet Reporting System is a well-developed communications technology. It requires $300 for telemetry unit and $550 for base station and software as well as a HAM radio operators license.


Diurnal variation in the settling velocity of maize pollen and consequences for atmospheric dispersion by Scott Isard. He is interested in how individual and clumped rust spores fall and he developed an imaging device to measure fall rates. He also looked at pollen and found that pollen viability reduces over time of day. Because of moisture loss, the viability of pollen is reduced over greater distances. This is a departure from current model assumptions of isolation distances in corn.


NCERA-213 training modules were discussed by Roger Magarey. He provided examples of various module ideas that could be developed. He provided an overview of Camtasia multimedia editing software (http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/?gclid=CKbB7LqS16sCFcsBQAodSieIOw). There was a suggestion to develop an educational module that reviews the outputs of NCERA-213 and what the group is about.


Opportunities for group funding/conference grants


Andy Michel discussed the AFRI Conference grants and went over the qualifications and approaches for pursuing conference grants. There was also a discussion of OECD conference sponsorship (co-operative research programme) and specific challenge areas defined by this program: Natural resources challenge, Sustainability in practice, The food chain. Andy also brought up a discussion of producing a review paper on new technologies that could be used for aerobiology as an output/deliverable for NCERA-213. Our themes were highlighted (Arthropods, Population genetics, Pathogens, Aerobiology/software risk mapping). Roger Magarey presented a concept for the development of the white paper, which could be developed around the challenge areas for food security.


There was some general discussion among the members that we separate tools for challenges. It was mentioned that we currently do not have any involvement from weed science. It was suggested that a workshop grant for weed seed dispersal and pollen dispersal might be appropriate. Suggestions were made to organize cross-cutting topics and then identify specific case studies to highlight in the workshop. There was some discussion that the white paper could be produced as a deliverable from the conference/workshop and that it could emphasize processes and case studies.


It was stated that one major challenge is to get folks to consider that long-distance movement is important and that this is not an exceptional phenomenon but a very important area of study.


Official business


Nominations for officers:


Marcos Alagara-Siller was nominated for Secretary-Treasurer. The membership voted unanimously for Marcos to serve and the recommendation will be forwarded to USDA for final approval.


There was some discussion of the 2012 meeting arrangements, which may be in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.


Andy Michel read an email from Dave Schmale about an idea for a symposium in 2012 to attract aerobiologists and scientists from related disciplines to the meeting. Dave has an NSF grant that could help fund a symposium in conjunction with the NCERA-213 meeting. Perhaps have this symposium in conjunction with the 2013 meeting of NCERA-213 to combine with the conference grant. Because the scope of this potential meeting is not known, we will hold off on a location decision for 2013.


The members of NCERA-213 presented a card to Rick Meyer in thanks for his years of serving as the official USDA-NIFA representative to NCERA-213

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NCERA-213 Annual Meeting
October 4-5, 2012
Bahia Mar Hotel, Fort Lauderdale, Florida


Meeting Minutes


Officers:
David G. Schmale III-Virginia Tech-dschmale@vt.edu
Jeff Bradshaw-University of Nebraska-Lincoln-jbradshaw2@unl.edu
Marcos Algara-Siller-Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi
Andy Michel-The Ohio State University-michael.70@osu.edu


October 4


Attendance:
David Schmale-Virginia Tech-dschmale@vt.edu
Jeff Bradshaw- University of Nebraska-Lincoln-jbradshaw2@unl.edu
Marcos Algara-Siller (via Skype)-Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi
Andy Michel-The Ohio State University-michael.70@osu.edu
Rob Meagher-USDA/ARS-rob.meagher@ars.usda.gov
Elson Shields-Cornell University-es28@cornell.edu
Scott Isard-Penn State-sai10@psu.edu
Rod Nagoshi-USDA/ARS-rodney.nagoshi@ars.usda.gov
Tim Gottwald-USDA/ARS-tim.gottwald@ars.usda.gov
John Westbrook-USDA/ARS-john.westbrook@ars.usda.gov
Bill Ravlin-The Ohio State University-ravlin.1@osu.edu
Eric Valdez-USGS/Albuquerque NM-evaldez@usgs.gov
Pierre Amato-Institut de Chimie de Clermont Ferrand (ICCF) France-
Shane Ross-Virginia Tech-sdross@vt.edu
Dale Griffin-USGS/Tallahassee FL-dgriffin@usgs.gov
Jacob Wenger-The Ohio State University-wenger.93@osu.edu
Rob Stoll-University of Utah-rstoll@eng.utah.edu
Shelby Fleisher-Penn State-sjf4@psu.edu


Welcome remarks. David Schmale made some opening comments. Thanks to Rob Meagher for serving as local arrangements. Thanks to Jeff, Andy, and Marcos for helping to develop the programs. Introductions were made around the room.


Official business


Ad hoc nomination committee formed for nomination of Secretary-Treasurer: Jeff Bradshaw, David Schmale


Administrative Advisors report (Bill Ravlin)


Mentioned that he will follow up on finding our new NIFA representative for NCERA-213. Sonny Ramaswami is our new NIFA director. Sonny indicated that he would like to reinstate the Foundation Programs. Sonny would like to increase the number of multistate funding programs. No USDA budget yet& Sequestration will kick in potentially and that will take an additional 8% from NIFA programs. The IPM dollars will go through a lot of consolidation to lock-in larger pools of money to make these dollars less susceptible to further congressional reductions. Foundational RFA is ready to go, but it is waiting on congress.


Discussion: What is the future of these NCERA committees? Multistate projects should 1) encourage groups to come together to write grants 2) congress wants to see changes in the system (which brought about a lot of renumbering of groups). Discussion was raised about targeting members that fill our NCREA-213s portfolio to make these objectives. Impacts (so what? Who cares?) will be key in the rewrite of this workgroup. When we submit our impacts, Bill will go through all of our impacts and select three and rewrite them to put the workgroup on the best footing.


Foundational RFAs could come out at soon as next week according to the rumor mill.


Rewrite timeline: Directors meet in March, Reviews in February, submitted December 2013. Spring will have a call for Appendix E. develop a writing team. Form the rewrite committee now. There is a response period to make any recommended changes.


Bill Ravlin stated that he would is happy to be our administrator for the long haul.


Keynote Presentation:
Tim Gottwald. Global travel and trade largely defines our biosecurity risk.


Huanglongbing:
Liberibacter is the causative agent. No resistance in citrus. An exceptionally rapid dispersion. Disease expression is latent by months to three years. The older the tree there is an apparent increase in disease latency. Presented some monte-carlo stochastic modeling for predicting primary vs secondary inoculum. The insect vector favors field edges, including voids within fields. Discussed some modeling efforts using census data to predict pathogen risk.


State reports


Forest Nutter was absent  no presentation.


Marcos Siller gave a Skype presentation on information systems and Mexican phytosecurity system. Talked about some mobile app development for surveillance (AKA  SCOPE). David inquired about the risk of Mexican HLB to spread to Florida. The pathogen seems to be moving Northward along the west coast of Mexico. HLB was first found in northern Mexico.


Marcos Siller gave a Skype presentation concerning locust alert system. Three predominant locust species are perennial problems in Mexico. They established an alarm threshold based on a quartile analysis of multiple years of data.


Scott Isard talked about iPIPE (i for industry). This model is supported by industry. Primary buy-in has been from seed companies. Talked a little about NAPPFAST and how it is being used in iPIPE.


David Schmale and Shane Ross discuss transport and mixing of micro pops using UAVs. Fusarium sampling  how does Fusarium move? Collects using selective media and runs PCR and morphological confirmation of conidia. Keeps collections of flight populations. Can 11 strains of F. graminearum collected in the lower atmosphere cause disease?  yes, and they all produce mycotoxins. Working with Shane to look at the influence of lagrangian air parcels. Are finding some large proportions of unknown species of Fusarium. Shane wants to know how to identify unknown sources. Discusses Lagrangian boundaries some more. These models provide a much more informed confidence level than just a HYSPLIT model. This provides a much better resolution to the potential impact of climate change on atmospheric biotic movement.


Jacob Wenger Talked about soybean aphid dispersal and host plant resistance and aphid biotypes. How are the biotypes dispersed and how is the biotypic phenotype inherited? Later-season soybean aphids are more genetically homogenious.


Rod Nagoshi talked about his work on fall armyworm migration and monitoring. Using fall armyworm as an indicator of climate change. Primarily two populations that migrate northward out of either Texas or Florida. Products are a sampling network, efficient species ID and a multi-year map of migration pathways, explain migration patterns.


Dale Griffin talked about long range dispersion of microorganisms. Discussed that biota that is carried from Africa to Florida. Bacillus is the most common organism and 0.1-10% of the organisms are alive. Atmospheric particles and microbes are highly correlated. Fungal and bacterial diversity is high. Includes virus and virus-like particles. Dust storms move diverse communities through the atmosphere.


Rob Stoll talked about canopy architecture and turbulence effects on transport of air particles. Is looking at what happens when canopy features are changed. Even at sparse canopies, they still resemble a canopy. However, the more sparse the more downward flow into the canopy occurs.


Pierre Amato talked about clouds as oases for movement of bacteria. Hypothesized that precipitation is a key component for the deposition of bacteria. Use sampling devices that can selectively sample cloud droplets. Pseudomonas are the most abundant genus of bacteria in clouds. Some bacteria induce ice formation and thus precipitation due to some of the proteins they excrete. Most droplet nuclei are biological. Low Ph reduces the ability of coulds to precipitate. Clouds are naturally C/N-limited; however, human emissions can increase C/N loads.


Jeff Bradshaw talked about sawflies and psyllids. Presented some survey perspectives on wheat stem sawfly and potato psyllids. He hopes to understand the regional distribution patters of sawflies and how they interact with ag practices.


Rob Meagher discussed the distribution of fall armyworms. Presented information on cross-strain attraction to pheromones. There isnt evidence that pheromones are keeping strains separate.


Elson Shields talked about the movement of onion thrips and to test them for virus. Shared some video of his flight sampling. Talked about sampler efficiency for fungal spores. A 100% filled plate is required for maximum fungal sampling.


Shelby Fleisher talked about some work with soybean aphid, common bean, and CMV. Presented some PCA analysis to support separate aphid populations. Concluded that genotypic diversity is very high within a field. Talked about estimating nest counts of bees in cucurbit fields.


Ernest Valdez talked about bats and insect prey. Hoary bats are migratory and specialize in moth feeding and primarily army cutworms. Wind generators are a major mortality factor on bats, but it isnt clear why. Hypothesizes that the wind generators are essentially standing in bats migratory paths. Collected turbine-killed bats and identified the food in the guts. Most of the prey in New York and Texas were predominately lepidopterans. There were a lot of field crickets in the Texas bats.


John Westbrook talked about estimating the contribution of immigrant fall armyworm. Is looking at the seasonal progression and migration status of fall armyworm populations. Used a HYSPLIT model to develop some predictions about the distribution of TX and FL fall armyworm populations.


October 5


Official business
Nominations for officers: Rob Meagher was nominated by the Ad Hoc committee for Secretary-Treasurer and he accepted the nomination. No other nominations from the floor. Vote was in favor of Rob Meagher to serve as Secretary-Treasurer in 2013.


Future meeting locations. Discussed keeping the advantage of keeping the meeting in the U.S. due to the challenges of approval for foreign travel for our government employees. There was a discussion to hold the meeting in other locations throughout the North Central region as well as again in Ft. Lauderdale. Rob Meagher indicated that he would send a letter of thanks to the staff servicing our 2012 meeting location. Discussed having the meeting at Scottsbluff. Support for having the meeting in Scottsbluff. David Schmale made a motion to have the 2013 meeting in Scottsbluff, NE. A vote was passed in favor of having the meeting in Scottsbluff, NE. Jeff Bradshaw will send out a poll for potential meeting dates.


Some discussion was held about having a 2-day meeting. Potentially could have a dinner break the first day and return for presentations. Maybe conduct the business session during a meal.


Discussion was held about the impact document. Bill Ravlin would like to have a selection of impact statements that he could then choose from. David Schmale guided us through last years impact report and tagged specific segments for updates from individual contributors. There were solicitations for new segments.


Conference grant discussion. Roger Maghery has brought this up at past meetings. David Schmale will contact Roger to follow up on conference grant.


David Schmale adjourned the meeting.

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Please see the attached document for: basic meeting information, participants, a summary of minutes, etc. Thank you.

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