The University of Arizona
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Faculty Sabbatical Leave Results
2004 Summary Report

This report was designed to provide an overview of the activities and accomplishments of College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) faculty who took sabbatical leave at various times over the last two years. All faculty must submit a two-part report by the end of the second semester following return from leave. Part II is meant to be a short version highlighting accomplishments in language addressed to the general public. This summary was compiled from Part II of the reports submitted during CY 2004, some of which may have been condensed or edited for purposes of this report. Please contact individual faculty for more information.

Christopher Y. Choi, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering

Chris Choi was on sabbatical leave from July - December 2003. He focused on applications in his area of expertise (Heat and Mass Transfer) in the fields of Microbiology, Environmental Science, Controlled Environment.

While on sabbatical leave, Choi had unique opportunities to travel and explore interdisciplinary and international research. Choi visited Jordan in July, thanks to the financial support of the IALC/USAID. The primary objective of this visit was to initiate collaborative research activities in the biosolids project and to identify potential collaborators in the areas of biosolids treatment and safe reuse. Choi visited wastewater treatment plants in Aqaba and Wadi Mousa and initiated a biosolids treatment project with engineers and scientists at the Royal Scientific Society in Amman, Jordan. As a result, his Jordanian collaborators and Choi agreed on a bi-national research project to develop practical tools to predict pathogen reduction in biosolids in solar drying beds. Choi also visited IMTA (Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua) and the University of Chapingo in Mexico, and explored research opportunities with researchers and professors.

Choi established an interdisciplinary research project and made a concerted effort to study pathogen survival in solar drying beds in cooperation with Pima County. Field experiments were carried out at the Avra Valley Wastewater Treatment Plant near Tucson, Arizona. The focus was on the survival of fecal coliforms and salmonella in biosolids drying beds during the drying process. A web-based data acquisition system was established and tested. Information from the datalogger has been transmitted daily to the base station at the University of Arizona campus using a combination of radiofrequency (RF) telemetry and a landline telephone link. Real-time data has been posted to a server at the University of Arizona. This unique research approach demonstrated that Class A biosolids were achieved in drying beds only after a month. Based on this outcome, Choi has planned a second system in Quartzsite, Arizona, in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Sanitation District (LASD). Choi also investigated the feasibility of monitoring sewage systems as an early warning of the release of biological agents. This interdisciplinary project was accomplished by an in-depth review of the published literature, reports, and modeling within a short period. Chris Choi focused on computational tools to predict dispersion of microorganisms in water systems.

Alfredo R. Huete, Professor, Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science

Alfredo Huete took sabbatical leave from July - December 2003. The overall purpose for the sabbatical was to pursue the use of remote sensing satellite technology to better understand the ecosystems of arid regions and their hydrology and response to drought conditions.

New remote sensing advances now provide opportunities to monitor water flow in soil and vegetation systems of arid regions. This provides valuable information in drought impact studies on ecosystems as well as the monitoring of vegetation stress. This is also potentially useful for early warning of environmental changes, whether the changes are due to climate (global warming, rainfall variability) or human induced (water management, grazing, agriculture, salinization).

In our studies we used the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) onboard the Terra and Aqua Earth Observing System platforms to study climate- and human-induced land cover conversions. The MODIS sensor provides daily observations of vegetation and moisture conditions such that it becomes feasible to trace seasonal biologic patterns of activity associated with the monsoons, vegetation phenology, and land cover changes (such as invasive species and woody plant encroachment). We used the 16-day MODIS enhanced vegetation index (EVI) product to analyze the seasonal and spatial patterns of photosynthetic vegetation activity responses to a severe, multi-year drought, and associated land disturbances, in the arid and semiarid Southwest region of the U.S. The seasonal response curves of natural and altered surfaces were analyzed along various eco-climatic and elevational gradients and through the winter and variable monsoon rainfall 'pulses'. The temporal dynamics of vegetation were found to be highly sensitive to both human and climatic influences with seasonal and inter-annual profiles varying markedly with land cover type and land surface disturbance (e.g., fire). All land cover types from desert shrub to montane forest were found to be significantly affected by the drought.

We also investigated the effect of increases in insect populations (e.g. bark beetle) and fire associated with the multi-year drought using MODIS satellite data and airborne imaging spectrometers (AVIRIS). We found insect-induced mortality and fire to have greatly impacted the health of all ecosystems from pinyon-juniper, Ponderosa pine, and mixed conifer forests to the savanna, grassland, and desert shrub ecosystems, particularly in the northern part of the state. We found important differences in the behavior of vegetation indices and water indices across all ecosystems. This discovery opens the door to improved assessments of drought and physiological studies of ecosystem responses to drought. Tree mortality variability could also be assessed and we found that combined MODIS and AVIRIS data offer the potential of ecosystem health and risk assessment.

In our buffel-grass study in northern Sonora, Mexico, we found the exotic grass, (Pennisetum ciliare), to reduce land productivity relative to the native vegetation. Buffelgrass is widely seeded to improve the range for cattle production in a process known as "desmonte". This process alters the land surface such that buffelgrass plots are easily detectable from aerial and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite images. We estimated the extent of conversion to buffelgrass from TM scenes from 1973, 1983, 1990 and 2000. After mapping the increase in buffelgrass coverage in this region we then compared the above-ground productivity of buffelgrass to native vegetation using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index values (NDVI) from Thematic Mapper and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer satellite sensor systems. Buffelgrass pastures have increased from just 77 square km in 1973 to over 1,400 square km in 2000. In the 5,700 km squared study area around Hermosillo, Mexico, buffelgrass pastures now cover 25% of the ground area. Most of the available, flat land on the valley floor not in agriculture or urban use has been converted to buffelgrass pastures. On the other hand, hillside and mountain terrain has not been widely converted. Buffelgrass pastures created by the desmonte process have the lowest net primary productivity, determined by NDVI values, of any of the other land classes surveyed. The desmonte process removes trees and shrubs, while the buffelgrass plantings are often sparse, leading to an apparent net loss in net primary production from land conversion.

The results of the various studies conducted during this sabbatical period are borne out through various invited talks, manuscripts, and volunteered presentations at high level science conferences. These included an invited article submitted to the "Encyclopedia of Hydrology"; two invited conference presentations at the Annual meeting of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) and the Research Insights on Semiarid Ecosystems (RISE) conference; volunteered presentations given at the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), American Geophysical Union meetings, and AVIRIS workshop at JPL; an invited seminar talk at the Universidad de Alcala, Spain; a manuscript published in Agricuture & Forest Meteorology; and two articles in preparation regarding a Colorado River study in Mexico and U.S., and a Buffel-grass study in Sonora, Mexico.

Patricia Merk, Associate Agent, Family and Youth Development, Maricopa County Cooperative Extension

Patty Merk spent her sabbatical leave from June 2003 - December 2003 researching grandparents raising grandchildren programs in other large cities.

Patty Merk provides leadership for a Grandparents Raising Grandchildren program in the Phoenix Metropolitan area. This involves one on one and group support as well as information and referral. Her sabbatical included visits with similar program staff in Chicago, St. Louis, Kalamazoo, Detroit and West Lafayette.

During the sabbatical leave, program scope and impacts of similar Grandparents Raising Grandchildren programs were documented. Resources tapped by similar programs were also noted. Publications and websites were evaluated for feasibility of adding these components to the Phoenix-based program. The nature of collaborations and their challenges was also discussed, providing new insights.

As a result of the sabbatical, additional outreach components to the Phoenix program were identified that would definitely increase impact. She plans to seek funding to accomplish this goal within the next two years.

William W. Shaw, Professor, School of Natural Resources

Bill Shaw took sabbatical leave from July - December 2003. His objectives were to complete and synthesize a number of ongoing projects and develop a new focus for future scholarship.

Several aspects of this sabbatical will contribute towards my effectiveness as a university professor and scholar and towards the public service dimensions of my role as a professor and scholar.

1. The Africa Forum. The Africa Forum is a coalition of U.S. universities with natural resource programs. Our goal is to find a more efficient approach for contributing to the education of natural resource management professionals in Africa. As the University of Arizona representative to this group, I was able to host a meeting with representatives from eight universities to develop new strategies and approaches to this issue. As this Forum continues its work, the results should be educational programs for the developing world that are less costly and reach more people.

2. Graduate Education of Conservation Biologists for Latin America. With funding from the Wallace Research Foundation, we have been able to attract and educate a steady stream of graduate students from Latin America over the past seven years. Many of these students are continuing their studies and others have returned to their countries where they are contributing to the sustainable use and conservation of precious natural resources.

3. Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan (SDCP). The SDCP has enjoyed broad support from the local community which culminated in the passage of a major bond initiative for the implementation of this plan (more that 60 % of voters supported this bond). The UA contributions to this efforts have been significant and widespread with more that a dozen UA scientists contributing their expertise to this effort. The plan has attracted national attention and earned numerous awards including the American Planning Association's "Best Plan" award. My role as Chair of the Science Teams for this plan has been to coordinate and facilitate scientific input into this planning process. During this sabbatical leave, I was able to focus efforts on developing a "State of Environment Report" which will become a widely-disseminated benchmark for evaluating our success in implementing the SDCP and for creating an informed citizenry concerning Pima County's environmental changes.

4. Completion of Edited Proceedings for the International Symposium on Urban Wildlife. During this sabbatical leave, I was able to devote considerable time to editing and publishing this proceedings. It has been published by the COAL and Life Sciences and it is available for free to the public in PDF format on the COAL's website.

Kai Umeda, Area Associate Agent, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Maricopa County Cooperative Extension

Kai Umeda completed a two-part sabbatical leave from January - February and July - October 2003. Umeda's split sabbatical leave allowed him to support the organization and administration of the 4th Annual National Invasive Weeds Awareness Week (NIWAW-4) during February 24-28, 2003 in Washington, D.C. and the Invasive Plants in Natural and Managed Systems (IPINAMS) conference held November 3-7, 2003 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Additional activities during the January to February and the July to November sabbatical leave periods included providing legislative and administrative policy assistance to Director of Science Policy of the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA).

The NIWAW-4, convened over 110 weed control practitioners and researchers from 28 states with undersecretaries, administrators, and directors of the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior. A key educational component of the NIWAW-4 was the public exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Garden which I organized. My major accomplishment of the week was drawing four first-time Arizona representatives to participate in NIWAW-4 and calling our congressional delegation during the week to educate them about the issues and problems of invasive weeds in Arizona. Congressman R. Renzi later became a co-sponsor of bills relating to invasive weeds that impact Arizona. In November 2004, the president signed authorization of the Noxious Weed Control Act of 2004.

The IPINAMS conference was a jointly sponsored conference with the WSSA and Ecological Society of America that drew over 800 international weed scientists and weed management practitioners from government agencies, academia, organizations, and industry. I organized and arranged the 265 scientific poster presentations for the conference. I participated and contributed to fundraising activities and the general logistical functions of the conference organizing committee.

My sabbatical leave during 2003 broadened my proficiencies in weed science by allowing me to be actively engaged in the education and outreach aspects for invasive weeds issues. In my new assignment in turfgrass science, golf courses and urban landscapes in the desert are being developed within and adjacent to natural areas that are prone to potential invasion by invasive weeds that create fire hazards and undesirable vegetation that interfere with more diverse vegetation that supports desert wildlife. The benefits of completing the sabbatical leave projects were an enhanced and expanded weed science competence, and an elevated wareness of the critical situation of invasive plants in Arizona. The sabbatical also allowed me to promote the activities of College of Agriculture and Life Sciences researchers and extensionists to enable the acquiring of greater resources to reduce the severity of the impact of invasive plants in Arizona.

Diana Wheeler, Professor, Department of Entomology

Diana Wheeler took sabbatical leave for the academic year 2002-03 to learn additional methods that could expand her research program.

The purpose of my sabbatical leave was to enable me to learn molecular methods central to expanding my studies on polyphenism. In addition, a better command of these methods will enable me to be more effective in directing both students and technicians in the laboratory. I will also be able to recruit students more effectively to this and allied projects. In the current year, I have directed effort towards identifying laboratories throughout the U.S. that would help me achieve these goals. I have attended a Gordon Conference on insect metamorphosis (which is the best studied case of polyphenism). I will be attending the USDA Genomics Workshop in Washington the last week in October, to give myself additional connections.

During my sabbatical, I learned new methods that can help me understand how genes work during honey bee development. I am especially interested in how genes allow larvae to decide whether to become queens or workers. This training, in addition to an important conceptual paper I wrote, was an important factor in being awarded funding by the National Science Foundation.

Joy J. Winzerling, Associate Professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences

Joy Winzerling was on sabbatical leave from January - June 2003. Her objective was to learn several techniques that are involved in determining how the iron load of a blood meal regulates the transcription of the ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) genes.

Mosquitoes transmit numerous diseases; the most widely known is malaria. Each year there are an estimated 300 million new cases of malaria. In Tucson, we have Aedes aegypti, a mosquito that transmits dengue and yellow fever, while Culex, another local mosquito, is responsible for the outbreaks of West Nile virus.

Mosquitoes transmit a disease when they blood feed on humans or animals. The female mosquito is compelled to blood feed to complete her life cycle and lay eggs. Several nutrients are delivered in the blood meal including iron. Iron is required for life for most organisms. We are studying proteins in mosquitoes that are changed by the iron load of the blood meal. We think these proteins will make good targets for reducing the numbers of infected mosquitoes and thereby, disease transmission. One way to do this would be to directly interfere with the function of protein that is required by the mosquito to handle the iron load of the blood meal. Another way would be to design “smart” compounds that are triggered by the iron load of the blood meal and attack the iron-related proteins killing the mosquito. In order to test these methods, we must first know the proteins involved and understand how they are regulated by iron. For my sabbatical, I worked in the laboratory of Dr. Daphne Pham. I learned several techniques that my laboratory will use to determine and study these iron-related proteins.

This report consists primarily of Part II of the sabbatical reports submitted by CALS faculty during 2004 and was prepared and edited in Spring 2005 by Kathleen Miller, Coordinator, Employee Development, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Previous summaries also are available online:

• Faculty Sabbatical Results Summary Report 2003
• Faculty Sabbatical Results Summary Report 2002