Tracking the potato late blight pathogen in the atmosphere using unmanned aerial vehicles and Lagrangian modeling

Donald E. Aylor; David G. Schmale; Elson J. Shields; Maria Newcomb; Carmen J. Nappo

doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2010.10.013

Tracking the potato late blight pathogen in the atmosphere using unmanned aerial vehicles and Lagrangian modeling

Donald E. Aylor, David G. Schmale, Elson J. Shields, Maria Newcomb, Carmen J. Nappo

Plant Pathology

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48 Scopus citations

Abstract

A means for determining the aerial concentration, C (sporangiam^-3), of plant pathogenic spores at various distances from a source of inoculum is needed to quantify the potential spread of a plant disease. Values of C for Phytophthora infestans sporangia released from an area source of diseased plants in a potato canopy was quantified in three ways: (1) by using Rotorods to sample the air just above the source, (2) by using unmanned aerial vehicles to sample the air at altitudes up to 90m above the source and at downwind distances up to 500m from the source, and (3) by using a Lagrangian stochastic simulation of sporangia flight trajectories to tie these two measurements together. Experiments were conducted using three potato crops over two years. Model predictions of time-average, crosswind-integrated concentrations were highly correlated (r=0.9) with values of C measured using the unmanned aerial vehicles. The model describes the release and dispersal of sporangia from a potato canopy to a downwind distance of 500m. Thus, it may have utility as a part of an area-wide decision support system by helping to predict risk of disease spread between neighboring or distant potato fields.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	251-260
Number of pages	10
Journal	Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
Volume	151
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2010.10.013
State	Published - Feb 15 2011

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank J. Cianchetti for his high level of dedication and technical competence and (in alphabetical order) Z. Bair, D. Campbell, D. Cuadra, D. Reaver, W. Russell, T. Simmons, A. Testa, and H. Wilhelm for excellent technical assistance. The authors gratefully acknowledge Kevin Myers and other talented members of the Fry Lab at Cornell University for providing reference strains of P. infestans , sharing protocols for P. infestans propagation and storage, and genotyping the Pi8 strain used in 2009 and F. Ferrandino for helpful discussions. This material is based upon work supported in part by the United States Department of Agriculture grant award number 2008-55605-18673 entitled “Development of an integrated system to detect, monitor, and forecast the spread of Phytophthora infestans in the lower atmosphere.” USDA-APHIS permits were issued to D. Schmale for the transport (P526P-07-04420, 2007–2010) and release (P526P-09-02395, 2009–2012) of P. infestans strains used in these experiments. UAV flights were flown with authorization by the FAA (COA 2008-ESA-2, COA 2008-ESA-48).

Keywords

Aerobiology
Atmospheric spore transport
Disease forecasting
Inoculum source strength
Modeling
Phytophthora infestans
Potato late blight
Spore dispersal
Turbulence
Upper air sampling

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title = "Tracking the potato late blight pathogen in the atmosphere using unmanned aerial vehicles and Lagrangian modeling",

abstract = "A means for determining the aerial concentration, C (sporangiam-3), of plant pathogenic spores at various distances from a source of inoculum is needed to quantify the potential spread of a plant disease. Values of C for Phytophthora infestans sporangia released from an area source of diseased plants in a potato canopy was quantified in three ways: (1) by using Rotorods to sample the air just above the source, (2) by using unmanned aerial vehicles to sample the air at altitudes up to 90m above the source and at downwind distances up to 500m from the source, and (3) by using a Lagrangian stochastic simulation of sporangia flight trajectories to tie these two measurements together. Experiments were conducted using three potato crops over two years. Model predictions of time-average, crosswind-integrated concentrations were highly correlated (r=0.9) with values of C measured using the unmanned aerial vehicles. The model describes the release and dispersal of sporangia from a potato canopy to a downwind distance of 500m. Thus, it may have utility as a part of an area-wide decision support system by helping to predict risk of disease spread between neighboring or distant potato fields.",

keywords = "Aerobiology, Atmospheric spore transport, Disease forecasting, Inoculum source strength, Modeling, Phytophthora infestans, Potato late blight, Spore dispersal, Turbulence, Upper air sampling",

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KW - Turbulence

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Tracking the potato late blight pathogen in the atmosphere using unmanned aerial vehicles and Lagrangian modeling

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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