Pruning is an unavoidable necessity of virtually all arboreal fruit crops. In the tropics and subtropics, pruning of mango (Mangifera indica L.) is particularly important due to its tendency for frequent flushes, especially in humid tropics. Commercial orchards must maintain control of both tree size and orchard productivity in order to remain productive. Tip, formation, and severe pruning can ...

Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) threaten the health of humans, livestock, and wildlife. West Nile virus (WNV), the world's most widespread arbovirus, invaded the United States in 1999 and rapidly spread across the county. Although the ecology of vectors and hosts are key determinants of WNV prevalence across landscapes, the factors shaping local vector and host populations remain unclear....

Regular monitoring and assessment of crops is one of the keys to optimal crop production. This research presents the development of a monitoring system called the Crop Monitoring and Assessment Platform (C-MAP). The C-MAP is composed of an image acquisition unit which is an off-the-shelf unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with a multispectral camera (near-infrared, green, blue), and an imag...

Crown porosity influences radiation interception, air movement through the fruit orchard, spray penetration, and harvesting operation in fruit crops. The aim of the present study was to develop an accurate and reliable methodology based on transmitted radiation measurements to assess the porosity of traditional olive trees under different pruning treatments. Transmitted radiation was employed a...

Interest in the sustainability of farming practices has increased in response to environmental problems associated with conventional agricultural management often adopted for the production of herbaceous crops, ornamentals, and fruit crops. Availability of measures of the status of the soil ecosystem is of immediate importance, particularly for environmental assessment and monitoring programs. ...

Agriculture comprises a substantial, and increasing, fraction of land use in many regions of the world. Emissions from agricultural vegetation and other biogenic and anthropogenic sources react in the atmosphere to produce ozone and secondary organic aerosol, which comprises a substantial fraction of particulate matter (PM2.5). Using data from three measurement campaigns, we examine the magnitu...

Trap nests were used to assay species richness, abundance and distribution of cavitynesting insects in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills bordering the Sacramento Valley. Particular focus was placed on the agriculturally significant native bee Osmia lignaria Say, 1836 because of its potential use as a pollinator of local orchard crops. Osmia lignaria and four other species were obtained from ...

Frost exposure is a particular challenge for cultivating perennial crops, whose adaptive capacity to weather and climate impacts limited. Irrigation common means of mitigating damage, but draws on limited water resources, costly, energy intensive. Here we examined the projected impact change incidence frost temperatures during coldest winters, defined by 98th percentile cool season (November–Ap...

After about a decade invested in development of plant-based techniques to diagnose tree water status in orchards, midday Stem Water Potential (SWP) is being adopted at the farm level as a irrigation management tool in orchard crops such as walnut and almond. An alternative technique referred to as midday, shaded Leaf Water Potential (LWP) has also been developed for use at the farm level. Effec...