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At least 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Global gridded crop harvested area, production, yield, and monthly physical area data circa 2015

Abstract Here we provide an update to global gridded annual and monthly crop datasets. This new dataset uses the crop categories established by the Global Agro-Ecological Zones (GAEZ) Version 3 model, which is based on the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) crop production data. We used publicly available data from the FAOSTAT database as well as GAEZ Version 4 global gridded dataset to generate circa 2015 annual crop harvested area, production, and yields by crop production system (irrigated and rainfed) for 26 crops and crop categories globally at 5-minute resolution. We additionally used available data on crop rotations, cropping intensity, and planting and harvest dates to generate monthly gridded cropland data for physical areas for the 26 crops by production system. These data are in standard georeferenced gridded format, and can be used by any global hydrology, land surface, or other earth system model that requires gridded annual or monthly crop data inputs.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

New risk metrics and mathematical tools for risk analysis: Current and future challenges

The current status of the food safety supply world wide, has led Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) to establishing Risk Analysis as the single framework for building food safety control programs. A series of guidelines and reports that detail out the various steps in Risk Analysis, namely Risk Management, Risk Assessment and Risk Communication is available. The Risk Analysis approach enables integration between operational food management systems, such as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points, public health and governmental decisions. To do that, a series of new Risk Metrics has been established as follows: i) the Appropriate Level of Protection (ALOP), which indicates the maximum numbers of illnesses in a population per annum, defined by quantitative risk assessments, and used to establish; ii) Food Safety Objective (FSO), which sets the maximum frequency and/or concentration of a hazard in a food at the time of consumption that provides or contributes to the ALOP. Given that ALOP is rather a metric of the public health tolerable burden (it addresses the total ‘failure’ that may be handled at a national level), it is difficult to be interpreted into control measures applied at the manufacturing level. Thus, a series of specific objectives and criteria for performance of individual processes and products have been established, all of them assisting in the achievement of FSO and hence, ALOP. In order to achieve FSO, tools quantifying the effect of processes and intrinsic properties of foods on survival and growth of pathogens are essential. In this context, predictive microbiology and risk assessment have offered an important assistance to Food Safety Management. Predictive modelling is the basis of exposure assessment and the development of stochastic and kinetic models, which are also available in the form of Web-based applications, e.g., COMBASE and Microbial Responses Viewer), or introduced into user-friendly softwares, (e.g., Seafood Spoilage Predictor) have evolved the use of information systems in the food safety management. Such tools are updateable with new food-pathogen specific models containing cardinal parameters and multiple dependent variables, including plate counts, concentration of metabolic products, or even expression levels of certain genes. Then, these tools may further serve as decision-support tools which may assist in product logistics, based on their scientifically-based and “momentary” expressed spoilage and safety level.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Assessing the methane mitigation potential of innovative management in US rice production

Abstract Rice is an important global crop while also contributing significant anthropogenic methane (CH 4 ) emissions. To support the future of rice production, more information is needed on the impacts of sustainability-driven management used to grow rice with lower associated methane emissions. Recent support for the impacts of different growing practices in the US has prompted the application of a regional methodology (Tier 2) to estimate methane emissions in different rice growing regions. The methodology estimates rice methane emissions from the US Mid-South (MdS) and California (Cal) using region-specific scaling factors applied to a region-specific baseline flux. In our study, we leverage land cover data and soil clay content to estimate methane emissions using this approach, while also examining how changes in common production practices can affect overall emissions in the US. Our results indicated US rice cultivation produced between 0.32 and 0.45 Tg CH 4 annually, which were approximately 7% and 42% lower on average compared to Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) inventories, respectively. Our estimates were 63% greater on average compared to similar methods that lack regional context. Introducing aeration events into irrigation resulted in the greatest methane reductions across both regions. When accounting for differences between baseline and reduction scenarios, the US MdS typically had higher mitigation potential compared to Cal. The differences in cumulative mitigation potential across the 2008–2020 period were likely driven by lower production area clay content for the US MdS compared to Cal. The added spatial representation in the Tier 2 approach is useful in surveying how impactful methane-reducing practices might be within and across regions.

Environmental Sciences & Ecology↗
DOE OSTI2017

U.S. Pellet Industry Overview

The U.S. production of wood pellets has grown to over 8 million tons by 2015 (FAO 2016). The majority of the production capacity increase took place in the U.S. Southeast and is associated with industrial wood pellet production for export markets. In 2015, over 5 million tons were exported, 99% of which went to EU markets (84% to the UK alone) (EUROSTAT 2015, FAOSTAT 2016, USDA 2016). The production and consumption growth of U.S. residential wood pellets has been slow in comparison. The industrial and residential wood pellet markets are beginning to merge slowly, but production excess (e.g., in 2015 and 2016) in the industrial wood pellet segment could not be fully absorbed by domestic or oversea residential markets. The main growth path for U.S. wood pellet production is still seen to lie in oversea markets (Bingham 2016, Strauss 2016). Demand increases for industrial pellets are projected to occur within the next years in Europe (Netherlands, Denmark, UK, Belgium) and Asia (predominantly Japan). At the same time, subsidy schemes in Europe are also bound to be phased out within the next decade. U.S. suppliers will have to compete with other supply regions (e.g., Western Canada to Asia) in the long-term, and are already focusing on selling more and more into non-subsidized markets such as biochemicals, absorbents, and soil amendments (Keppler 2016). An outlook of U.S. industrial wood pellet production under a potential growth in U.S. biopower demand and a lack thereof shows a wood pellet oversupply of 9-10 million tons by 2030, equaling roughly 12.5 million tons of production capacity, 20-30 large-scale plants, or 15 million green tons of woody biomass. Once the U.S. production of wood pellets outgrows combustion market demand (which will plateau even with a domestic expansion of biopower) the industry will require additional outlets to avoid a structural decline and bankruptcy. This will create a resource push and cost reduction, driving the development of a U.S. cellulosic biofuels industry.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Mapping Nitrogen Pathways in Organic Manure through GCAM

As the world has become more and more globalized, a need for a comprehensive and extensive modelling system that maps out the vast majority of processes and items around the world and can display how interdependent they are. Furthermore, such a model should be able to predict future processes and values such that it can guide scientific thinking and policy. This is where the importance of GCAM becomes so apparent. GCAM, the Global Change Analysis Model, that incorporates many different fields and can predict such a wide variety of processes. As the model expands and encompasses more fields and goes into greater detail, there is a need for previously incorporated processes to be further fleshed out. My project is dedicated to creating the organic nitrogen fertilizer pathway, such that there are two nitrogen fertilizer pathways, synthetic and organic (manure). Previously, only synthetic fertilizer was included, with all organic fertilizer (manure) being omitted from the model. Developing the synthetic path is relatively easy, as the process for creating synthetic fertilizer is an industrial process that has been perfected over decades, and thus has a very precise input/output coefficient of nitrogen, but determining that same coefficient for organic manure is much harder, because, well, digestion is not an industrial process, especially considering the many different types of animals have different processes, and a good amount of the manure they produce won’t be applied to the soil. I obtained data from the UN’s FAO on manure nitrogen applied to soil, and filled in the gaps and created many different visualizations to help comprehend the data. These findings will foster a greater understanding of nitrogen flows, which is crucial to fields like industrial agriculture, polluting runoff, and nitrifying bacteria and archaea in the soil.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Anthropology of Aquaculture

Aquaculture is nothing new. It has a long, fascinating history that stretches from antiquity at least 8,000 years ago. What is new is the evolution of aquaculture in modern times into highly intensive monocultures which arose in the 1970–1980's. Modern aquaculture production has grown worldwide but remains concentrated in Asia due to the: (1) increased demands for aquatic foods as explosive population growth occurred in coastal cities with increasing affluence, (2) expansion of scientific and engineering breakthroughs, (3) high export values of aquatic foods, and (4) sharp decline of costs of global to local transport/shipping. The pioneering anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss brought the idea of “structuralism” to anthropology: the concept that societies throughout history followed universal patterns of behavior. A qualitative document analysis of the key anthropological literature to assess aquaculture developments from antiquity to the beginning of the modern era was conducted to evaluate if there was adequate evidence to support a theory of anthropological “structuralism” for aquaculture in human history. Seven case studies of the cultural/environmental history of aquaculture were reviewed in diverse parts of the world (China, Australia, Egypt, Europe, South America, Canada/USA, Hawai'i). Analysis supports the structural theory that whenever the demands of aquatic/seafood-eating peoples exceeded the abilities of their indigenous fishery ecosystems to provide for them, they developed aquaculture. Modern aquaculture concepts and new communities of practice in “restoration aquaculture” have beginnings in Indigenous anthropology and archeology in aquaculture and point the way for Indigenous nations to engage as leaders of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) ecosystem approach to aquaculture worldwide. Bringing ancient knowledge of Indigenous aquaculture into the modern context is an essential part of an alternative, “radical transformation” of modern aquaculture. There is an urgent need to develop and promote locally designed and culturally appropriate aquaculture systems that fit into the livelihoods of communities as part of a larger, diverse portfolio of food security.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1975

Present and potential land use mapping in Mexico

The Mexican Water Plan (MWP) conducted studies of present and potential land use in Mexico using LANDSAT-1 satellite imagery. Present land use studies were carried out all over the country (197 million hectares); nine soil uses were mapped according to the first classification level recommended by the U.S. Geological Survey. Also 6.3 million hectares of land with advanced erosion were detected. Work was executed at a rate of 8 million hectares per month; reliability was 90% and the cost of only 0.1 cents/hectare. The potential land use study was performed in 45 million hectares at a rate of 4 million hectares per month and at a cost of 0.33 cents/hectare. Soil units according to FAO classification were delineated scale 1:1 million; interpretative maps were also prepared dealing with potential agricultural productivity carrying capacity for cattle, water, erosion risk, and slope ranges.

Garduno, H.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Utilization of non-conventional systems for conversion of biomass to food components: Recovery optimization and characterizations of algal proteins and lipids

Protein isolate obtained from green algae (Scenedesmus obliquus) cultivated under controlled conditions was characterized. Molecular weight determination of fractionated algal proteins using SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed a wide spectrum of molecular weights ranging from 15,000 to 220,000. Isoelectric points of dissociated proteins were in the range of 3.95 to 6.20. Amino acid composition of protein isolate compared favorably with FAO standards. High content of essential amino acids leucine, valine, phenylalanine and lysine makes algal protein isolate a high quality component of closed environment life support system (CELSS) diets. To optimize the removal of algal lipids and pigments supercritical carbon dioxide extraction (with and without ethanol as a co-solvent) was used. Addition of ethanol to supercritical CO2 resulted in more efficient removal of algal lipids and produced protein isolate with a good yield and protein recovery. The protein isolate extracted by the above mixture had an improved water solubility.

Karel, M.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Non-conventional approaches to food processing in CELSS, 1. Algal proteins: Characterization and process optimization

Protein isolate obtained from green algae cultivated under controlled conditions was characterized. Molecular weight determination of fractionated algal proteins using SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed a wide spectrum of molecular weights ranging from 15,000 to 220,000. Isoelectric points of dissociated proteins were in the range of 3.95 to 6.20. Amino acid composition of protein isolate compared favorably with FAO standards. High content of essential amino acids leucine, valine, phenylalanine and lysine make algal protein isolate a high quality component of closed ecological life support system diets. To optimize the removal of algal lipids and pigments supercritical carbon dioxide extraction (with and without ethanol as a co-solvent) was used. Addition of ethanol to supercritical carbon dioxide resulted in more efficient removal of algal lipids and produced protein isolate with a good yield and protein recovery. The protein isolate extracted by the above mixture had an improved water solubility.

Nakhost, Z.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Global digital data sets of soil type, soil texture, surface slope and other properties: Documentation of archived data tape

The file structure and coding of four soils data sets derived from the Zobler (1986) world soil file is described. The data were digitized on a one-degree square grid. They are suitable for large-area studies such as climate research with general circulation models, as well as in forestry, agriculture, soils, and hydrology. The first file is a data set of codes for soil unit, land-ice, or water, for all the one-degree square cells on Earth. The second file is a data set of codes for texture, land-ice, or water, for the same soil units. The third file is a data set of codes for slope, land-ice, or water for the same units. The fourth file is the SOILWRLD data set, containing information on soil properties of land cells of both Matthews' and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) sources. The fourth file reconciles land-classification differences between the two and has missing data filled in.

Staub, B.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Non-conventional approaches to food processing in CELSS. I - Algal proteins: Characterization and process optimization

Protein isolate obtained from green algae (Scenedesmus obliquus) cultivated under controlled conditions was characterized. Molecular weight determination of fractionated algal proteins using SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed a wide spectrum of molecular weights ranging from 15,000 to 220,000. Isoelectric points of dissociated proteins were in the range of 3.95 to 6.20. Amino acid composition of protein isolate compared favorably with FAO standards. High content of essential amino acids leucine, valine, phenylalanine and lysine makes algal protein isolate a high quality component of CELSS diets. To optimize the removal of algal lipids and pigments supercritical carbon dioxide extraction (with and without ethanol as a co-solvent) was used. Addition of ethanol to supercritical CO2 resulted in more efficient removal of algal lipids and produced protein isolate with a good yield and protein recovery. The protein isolate extracted by the above mixture had an improved water solubility.

Nakhost, Z.↗
NASA NTRS1985

A global model of carbon-nutrient interactions

The global biogeochemical model presented has two primary objectives. First, it characterizes natural elemental cycles and their linkages for the four elements significant to Earth's biota: C, N, S, and P. Second, it describes changes in these cycles due to human activity. Global nutrient cycles were studied within the drainage basins of several major world rivers on each continent. The initial study region was the Mississippi drainage basin, concentrating on carbon and nitrogen. The model first establishes the nutrient budgets of the undisturbed ecosystems in a study region. It then uses a data set of land use histories for that region to document the changes in these budgets due to land uses. Nutrient movement was followed over time (1800 to 1980) for 30 ecosystems and 10 land use categories. A geographically referenced ecological information system (GREIS) was developed to manage the digital global data bases of 0.5 x 0.5 grid cells needed to run the model: potential vegetation, drainage basins, precipitation, runoff, contemporary land cover, and FAO soil maps of the world. The results show the contributions of land use categories to river nutrient loads on a continental scale; shifts in nutrient cycling patterns from closed, steady state systems to mobile transient or open, steady state systems; soil organic matter depletion patterns in U.S. agricultural lands; changing nutrient ratios due to land use changes; and the effect of using heavy fertilizer on aquatic systems.

Moore, Berrien, III↗
NASA NTRS1993

Quinoa: An emerging new crop with potential for CELSS

Chenopodium quinoa is being considered as a new crop for the Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) because of its high protein values (12 - 18%) and unique amino acid composition. Lysine, and essential amino acid that is deficient in many grain crops, is found in quinoa approaching Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) standards set for humans. This 'new' crop, rich in protein and with desirable proportions of important amino acids, may provide greater versatility in meeting the needs of humans on long-term space missions. Initially, the cultivars CO407 x ISLUGA, CO407 Heat Tolerant Population 1, and Real' (a Bolivian variety) were examined. The first cultivar showed the most promise in greenhouse studies. When grown hydroponically in the greenhouse, with no attempt to maximize productivity, this cultivar produced 202 g m(exp -2) with a harvest index of 37%. None of the cultivars were greater than 70 cm in height. Initial results indicate that quinoa could be an excellent crop for CELSS because of the high concentration of protein, ease of use, versatility in preparation, and potential for greatly increased yields in controlled environments.

Schlick, Greg↗
NASA NTRS1993

A monochromatic gravity wave observed by the Flatland Atmospheric Observatory

On 21 December 1991 from approximately 1300 to approximately 1600 UTC a monochromatic wave train with an 8.2-min period was observed by the suite of instruments at the Flatland Atmospheric Observatory (FAO), located in very flat terrain near Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. A 915-MHz radar measured the vertical wind velocity w every 60 s from 0.55 km MSL (0.34 km AGL) to approximately 3 km with 250-m range gates, and a 50-MHz radar measured the oblique wind in four directions, as well as w, every 130 s from 2.75 to approximately 7.25 km with 750-m range gates. A meteorological ground station measured the surface pressure P, wind speed vector u and azimuth alpha, temperature, solar insolation, etc., every 30 s. P was also measured every 120 s by six digital barograph stations within 30 km of Flatland. Using the hodograph of surface vector u and alpha and the impedance relation, we estimated the azimuthal direction of propagation phi to be 45 deg +/- 15 deg clockwise from north, the intrinsic and apparent horizontal phase speeds C(sub i) and C(sub o), respectively, (which are about equal since the direction of propagation is about normal to the mean wind) to be 21 +/- 5 m/s, and the horizontal wavelength lambda to be 10.0 +/- 2.5 km. The peak-to-peak surface horizontal perturbation velocity varied from approximately 2 to 5 m/s from cycle to cycle.

Vanzandt, T. E.↗
NASA NTRS1971

Pollution Monitoring: An Engineering Challenge

One purpose in presenting this material is to bring to the attention of engineers background material which they would not normally encounter in the course of routine development work. An excellent and timely reference is as follows: Seminar on Methods of Detection, Measurement and Monitoring of Pollutants in the Marine Environment. The international seminar was organized by FAO with the support of UNESCO, IAEA, SCOR and WMO, and was held in Rome, Italy, 4-10 December 1970. The final report, the title of which was given, is a very thoroughgoing document and certainly a must reference for anyone seriously considering the development of sensors for pollution measurement. Perhaps it would be appropriate to present some exact quotations selected from the referenced document. The quotations follow: 1) "The pressures to develop sensitive and reliable methods come about when those responsible for the management of our environment need an objective evaluation of existing or potential perils." 2) "Nearly all of the Panels concerned with the contaminants identified specific examples of man's waste products which may be leaking to the environment in substantial quantities and for which as yet there are no analytical techniques available ". 3) "Very few analyses for organochlorine pesticides appear to have been carried out on sea water and the panel considered that the present methodology was not capable of detecting, on a routine basis, the quantities of these compounds in open sea waters." and 4) "This corresponds essentially to the ratio of useful data produced to the labour expended, since instrumentation costs in the long run become negligible."

Snodgrass, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Local Staple Food Price Indices in the Age of Biofuels

In many poor, food insecure regions, agriculture is a primary source of income and farmers are reliant both on their own production and on purchasing food in the market to feed their families. Large local food price increases over a short time period can be indicative of a deteriorating food security situation and may be the consequence of weather-related food production declines, Dr can simply be the result of price transmission from the international commodity market. Food price indices developed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are used to monitor food price trends at a global level, but largely reflect supply and demand conditions in export markets far from the places where the chronically food insecure live. A much better understanding of how local staple food prices in isolated regions such as West Africa that grow most of the food they eat to better understand the impact of global commodity market transformations on sensitive communities at the margin. This information will also enable improved strategies for these farmers who are extraordinarily sensitive to climate change impacts on agricultural growing conditions.

Brown, Molly E.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Lidar-Based Estimates of Above-Ground Biomass in the Continental US and Mexico Using Ground, Airborne, and Satellite Observations

Existing national forest inventory plots, an airborne lidar scanning (ALS) system, and a space profiling lidar system (ICESat-GLAS) are used to generate circa 2005 estimates of total aboveground dry biomass (AGB) in forest strata, by state, in the continental United States (CONUS) and Mexico. The airborne lidar is used to link ground observations of AGB to space lidar measurements. Two sets of models are generated, the first relating ground estimates of AGB to airborne laser scanning (ALS) measurements and the second set relating ALS estimates of AGB (generated using the first model set) to GLAS measurements. GLAS then, is used as a sampling tool within a hybrid estimation framework to generate stratum-, state-, and national-level AGB estimates. A two-phase variance estimator is employed to quantify GLAS sampling variability and, additively, ALS-GLAS model variability in this current, three-phase (ground-ALS-space lidar) study. The model variance component characterizes the variability of the regression coefficients used to predict ALS-based estimates of biomass as a function of GLAS measurements. Three different types of predictive models are considered in CONUS to determine which produced biomass totals closest to ground-based national forest inventory estimates - (1) linear (LIN), (2) linear-no-intercept (LNI), and (3) log-linear. For CONUS at the national level, the GLAS LNI model estimate (23.95 +/- 0.45 Gt AGB), agreed most closely with the US national forest inventory ground estimate, 24.17 +/- 0.06 Gt, i.e., within 1%. The national biomass total based on linear ground-ALS and ALS-GLAS models (25.87 +/- 0.49 Gt) overestimated the national ground-based estimate by 7.5%. The comparable log-linear model result (63.29 +/-1.36 Gt) overestimated ground results by 261%. All three national biomass GLAS estimates, LIN, LNI, and log-linear, are based on 241,718 pulses collected on 230 orbits. The US national forest inventory (ground) estimates are based on 119,414 ground plots. At the US state level, the average absolute value of the deviation of LNI GLAS estimates from the comparable ground estimate of total biomass was 18.8% (range: Oregon,−40.8% to North Dakota, 128.6%). Log-linear models produced gross overestimates in the continental US, i.e., N2.6x, and the use of this model to predict regional biomass using GLAS data in temperate, western hemisphere forests is not appropriate. The best model form, LNI, is used to produce biomass estimates in Mexico. The average biomass density in Mexican forests is 53.10 +/- 0.88 t/ha, and the total biomass for the country, given a total forest area of 688,096 sq km, is 3.65 +/- 0.06 Gt. In Mexico, our GLAS biomass total underestimated a 2005 FAO estimate (4.152 Gt) by 12% and overestimated a 2007/8 radar study's figure (3.06 Gt) by 19%.

Hybrid 3-Phase sampling↗
NASA NTRS2017

GeoDash: Assisting Visual Image Interpretation in Collect Earth Online by Leveraging Big Data on Google Earth Engine

Collect Earth Online (CEO) is a free and open online implementation of the FAO Collect Earth system for collaboratively collecting environmental data through the visual interpretation of Earth observation imagery. The primary collection mechanism in CEO is human interpretation of land surface characteristics in imagery served via Web Map Services (WMS). However, interpreters may not have enough contextual information to classify samples by only viewing the imagery served via WMS, be they high resolution or otherwise. To assist in the interpretation and collection processes in CEO, SERVIR, a joint NASA-USAID initiative that brings Earth observations to improve environmental decision making in developing countries, developed the GeoDash system, an embedded and critical component of CEO. GeoDash leverages Google Earth Engine (GEE) by allowing users to set up custom browser-based widgets that pull from GEE's massive public data catalog. These widgets can be quick looks of other satellite imagery, time series graphs of environmental variables, and statistics panels of the same. Users can customize widgets with any of GEE's image collections, such as the historical Landsat collection with data available since the 1970s, select date ranges, image stretch parameters, graph characteristics, and create custom layouts, all on-the-fly to support plot interpretation in CEO. This presentation focuses on the implementation and potential applications, including the back-end links to GEE and the user interface with custom widget building. GeoDash takes large data volumes and condenses them into meaningful, relevant information for interpreters. While designed initially with national and global forest resource assessments in mind, the system will complement disaster assessments, agriculture management, project monitoring and evaluation, and more.

SERVI↗