Duration: 04/01/2007 to 03/30/2009

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Statement of Issues and Justification

The USDA UV-B Monitoring and Research Program is a program that was initiated in 1992, through a grant to Colorado State University, to provide information to the agricultural community on the geographical distribution and temporal trends of UV-B (ultraviolet-B) radiation in the United States. This information is critical to the assessment of the potential impacts of increasing ultraviolet radiation levels on agricultural crops and forests.

The effects of UV-B enhancements on plants include reduction in yield and quality, alteration in species competition, decrease in photosynthetic activity, susceptibility to disease, and changes in plant structure and pigmentation. This issue is complicated further by reports of equally large response differences among cultivars of a species. About two-thirds of more than 300 species and cultivars tested appear to be susceptible to damages from increased UV-B radiation. In cooperation with universities and government research agencies, research activities on UV-B effects on agricultural crops and ecosystems are carried out through extensive experiments.

The effects of UV-B radiation on plants get much more complicated and convoluted when the enhancement of UV-B radiation is accomponied with other changing abiotic and biotic factors such as high temperature and water stress as predicted in global warming. Recent studies show significant crossing effects of UV-B radition, water stress, high temperature, and CO2 concentration on soybean, cotton, rice, and cowpea. Therefore, all effects of elevated UV-B on plants should be considered in the context of other factors such as water stress, increased atmospheric CO2, tropospheric air pollution, and temperature. While the effects of one factor or few more factors can be examined with the resort to controlled growth chamber, computer modeling has to be exploited to carry out comprehensive studies of interacted effects of multiple factors. Coupling crop growth models with climate models is an efficient and feasible way to assess the potential integrated impacts of enhanced UV-B levels, high temperature, water stress, and CO2 under the context of global warming. Remote sensing techniques and data are particularly useful to extend these studies to a regional or global scale.

Types of Activities

The program consists of both a research and climatological network. The research network provides state-of-the-art, high resolution spectroradiometers to selected sites (6 altogether) where key collaborative research allows cross-disciplinary use of the data. The climatological network requires less sophisticated instrumentation and will eventually total between 30-40 monitoring stations.

The Climatological Network - The climatology network of the USDA-CSREES monitoring program is designed to provide an adequate density of measurement sites to establish the spatial and temporal characteristics of UV-B irradiance. The network follows a grid-based design which divides the country into 26 regions of approximately equal-area. Sites are located primarily in rural areas, with particular consideration given to agricultural and forested regions. Initial site locations were also chosen to evaluate their suitability as research sites which will use high resolution spectroradiometers.

Thirty to forty sites are envisioned across this design when the network is fully established. When the network is completed, all sites will be instrumented with both broadband meters and shadowbanded multi-filter instruments and all sites will follow a standardized measurement protocol. For more information about the climatological network click on the Stations/Data menu item.

Research Activities - Research activities are focused towards challenging our current understanding of factors which control UV irradiance and towards improving the quality of UV monitoring instrumentation and data. One aspect of these activities is the establishment of a small research network of high resolution scanning spectroradiometers in areas of the country which represent different atmospheric conditions of major importance to UV-B attenuation.

Sites included in the research network will additionally provide key opportunities for collaborative research and provide calibration benchmarks for the USDA climatological network as well as other US Global Change agencies involved in UV research. For more information about the research network click on the Research Network menu item under the Research menu at the right.

Collocation of network sites with other major North American radiation monitoring programs is another research activity designed to improve the quality of and our understanding of UV-B measurements. Collocated sites will be outfitted with the standard climatological site instrumentation but may operate using measurement protocols more conducive to the network's research initiatives. For more information about network research click on the Research Activities menu item.

Data Usage Statistics - The USDA UV-B Monitoring and Research Program has an extensive list of users from a wide variety of backgrounds.

The Center of Remote Sensing and Modeling for Agricultural Sustainability (CRSMAS) in the USDA UV-B Monitoring and Research Program conducts two major research projects: 1. Evaluate response of plants, forests, ecosystems, and animals to UV-B and other climate stress factors; 2. Develop an Integrated Agricultural Impact Assessment System.

The program works with agricultural/forest researchers to evaluate the isolated effects of elevated UV-B on agricultural crops, livestock, forests, and range resources. Furthermore, we assess the combined effects of UV-B radiation and other climate stress factors such as moisture (drought), temperature, ozone, soil nutrients and CO2. By understanding both compounding and antagonistic effects of multiple stress factors, research will help develop solutions that allow producers to cope with these detrimental effects and ensure future agriculture and livestock quality and productivity.

The program is developing an Integrated Agricultural Impact Assessment System capable of achieving credible and quantitative assessments of key stress factors and evaluating alternative cultural practices for sustainable agriculture production. Such a system will be sufficiently comprehensive to include crop growth models, ultraviolet-visible solar radiation, Earths climate, air and water quality models, and satellite and in-situ observations.

An attachment is included listing the collaborative research projects supported by the UV-B program and a detailed proposal for 2007.

Objectives

1. Provides information to the agricultural community and others about the climatological and geographical distribution of UVB irradiance
   
2. Furnishes the basic information necessary to support evaluations of the potential damage effects of UVB to agricultural crops and forests
   
3. Supplies ground truth for satellite measurements and basic information for radiation transfer model calculations
   
4. Establishes long-term records of UVB irradiance necessary to assess trends
   

Expected Outputs, Outcomes and/or Impacts

The monitoring program supports research that increases our understanding of the factors controlling surface UVB irradiance and provides the data necessary for assessing the impact of UVB radiation on human health, ecosystems and materials.

The UV-B spectral data and ancillary measurements are stored in a data logger at each site. Current protocol for sampling frequency is every 20 seconds for the UV-MFRSR and 15 seconds for the vis-MFRSR. Data are stored as three minute averages, then downloaded nightly. A data management system has been designed to access, validate with extensive quality checks, and archive this information in a form which is readily retrieved and accessible to users with a variety of scientific and policy interests. This system employs a freeware relational data base management program (MYSQL). Calibrated erythemal UV-B broadband and calibrated total horizontal, diffuse and direct normal measurements at seven wavelengths in the UV and six in the Visible are available the next day as plots and data files from our Web site http://uvb.nrel.colostate.edu/UVB. Calibrated UV and visible irradiances are available using either the CUCF-determined lamp factors or the Sun-derived values of the Langley method.

Since many users do not require three minute data, the following information will soon be made available as standard data products on our web site: 1) Hourly averages for each wavelength. 2) Daily dose for each wavelength. 3) Daily maximum for each wavelength.

The following products were added to our web site in 2006: 1) Daily Langley plots and voltage intercept time series. 2) Daily average column ozone. 3) Synthetic spectra. 4) Weighting of spectra with selected action spectra. 5) Daily average total aerosol optical depths. 5) History of deployment of each instrument plus its calibration factors.

Maintaining high agricultural yields is vital to our national economy and security interests. However, changes in the Earths climate and more frequent extremes in temperature, precipitation, UV-B radiation, air pollution from human activity and forest fires threaten our agricultural productivity by causing stress on plants, livestock, and forests. To serve the needs of agriculture, the UVMRP provides data and technical guidance to the research community and will continue to support UV researchers from seven land-grant universities and one USDA-ARS Phytonutrients Laboratory. These researchers study the responses of agricultural plants, trees, and ecosystems to elevated UV-B radiation and other climate stress factors such as high temperature, nutrient deficit, and drought. Each researcher uses the USDA UVMRP data to establish the ambient level of UV-B radiation.

The UV-B program data products and analyses are available via the internet at http://uvb.nrel.colostate.edu/.

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Literature Cited

Environmental Effects of Ozone Depletion: 1998 Assessment. Lausanne, Elsevier Science S.A., 1998, 112 pp.

Evans, L.T. (ed.) Crop Evolution, Adaptation and Yield. Cambridge UK: Cambridge
University Press, 1993, 500 pp.

Hessen, D.O. (ed.) UV Radiation and Arctic Ecosystems. Berlin: Springer, 2000, 323 pp.

Lumsden, P.J. (ed.) Plants and UV, Responses to Environmental Change. Cambridge
UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 355 pp.

Reddy, K.R., Hodges, H.F. (eds.) Climate Control and Global Crop Productivity.
Wallingford: CABI Publishing, 2000, 472 pp.

Rozema, J. (ed.) Stratospheric Ozone Depletion: The Effects of Enhanced UV-B
Radiation on Terrestrial Ecosystems. Leiden: Backhuys Publishers, 1999, 355 pp.

Tufte, E.R. Envisioning Information. Cheshire: Graphics Press, 1990, 126 pp.

Tufte, E.R. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information: Second Edition. Cheshire: Graphics Press, 2001, 197 pp.

Tufte, E.R. Visual Explanations. Cheshire: Graphics Press, 1997. 156 pp.

Alder, K. The Measure of All Things. New York: The Free Press, 2002, 422 pp.

Hirshfeld, A.W. Parallax: The Race to Measure the Cosmos. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2001, 314 pp.

WMO. Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion:1998. World Meteorological
Organization, Global Ozone Research and Monitoring Project, Report No. 37. Geneva, 1999, 677 pp.

Attachments

Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

CO, UT

Non Land Grant Participating States/Institutions