Conservation

Drone-based technology remotely assesses health of trees impacted by climate change

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 24 May 2022 16:54:40 +0000

Drone-based technology remotely assesses health of trees impacted by climate change

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 05/24/2022 - 12:54

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The Ensminger Lab's drone flight team has developed a technology that remotely assesses photosynthetic phenology and plant fitness (photo courtesy of Ensminger Lab)

Tanya Rohrmoser

Topic

Breaking Research

Conservation

Biology

Climate Change

drones

Environment

Forests

Research and Innovation

Sustainability

U of T Mississauga

Canada has nearly 362 million hectares of forest, but climate change is negatively impacting tree health and productivity. Trees planted today need to withstand future climate instability.

Enter Ingo Ensminger, an associate professor of biology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, and an innovative new technology that could provide further insights into tree health. Ensminger’s lab studies plant-environment interactions and the impact of climate change on metabolism and photosynthesis of plants from molecular to leaf, species and ecosystem level.

Ingo Ensminger

Ensminger and his team have developed a drone-based technology, dubbed the FastPheno project, that remotely assesses photosynthetic phenology and plant fitness.

“Most people who use drones in trees and forests try to measure height and the size of the canopy, they use drones for inventories,” he says. “Our goal is different – we try to assess health and fitness, and overall performance as indicated by the ability of vegetation to remove CO2 from the atmosphere when they photosynthesize and produce biomass.”

Ensminger was recently awarded $4.7 million in funding for his FastPheno project by Genome Canada, an independent, federally funded not-for-profit.

“It is very rewarding to receive funding to develop and implement tools that will hopefully be used to help tree breeders and forest practitioners to identify trees that are resilient to climate change,” says Ensminger, who anticipates the tools will be used for tree improvement programs or to set targets for forest conservation and management.

Genome Canada’s Genomic Applications Partnership Program brings new applied genomics solutions to issues facing Canadians, and supports collaborations in forestry and other sectors.

The unique technology enables them to distinguish the performance of thousands of trees, and researchers can use the approach to detect drought stress control on photosynthesis in natural forests.

“All this is based on the optical fingerprint of vegetation,” Ensminger explains. “This fingerprint is derived by measurements of leaf spectral reflectance. Leaf spectral reflectance is highly variable, and it can be used as a plant health indicator, because it changes upon exposure to drought stress or heat stress.” The fingerprint is also species-specific, and hence future work in Ensminger’s lab will also explore how species can be distinguished to monitor biodiversity.

When it comes to tree breeding and forest conservation, the ability to distinguish trees that perform well during drought and heat is incredibly useful — complementing genomic selection with adaptive traits could help produce trees resilient to future climate in Canada.

Simply put, Ensminger believes, it could transform Canada's forest sector.

“Outcomes have been very promising,” Ensminger reports. “We can distinguish trees that are water-stressed from well-watered trees, we can assess how photosynthetic activity varies over the course of the year, and in large forest stands we can identify trees that perform well and distinguish those from unhealthy trees or trees that are stressed.”

Ensminger’s technology is fast, reliable and cost-effective compared to vegetation monitoring that relies on visual inspections and manual measurements. New research enabled through FastPheno now aims to apply the drone-based phenotyping approach at a large scale and explore how reliably it can be used across forests in Ontario and Quebec to monitor the health and fitness of individual trees.

If successful, FastPheno could create cost savings of $540 million per year and reduce assessment times from a matter of weeks to hours – and it can be transferred from forest vegetation to applications in agriculture, conservation and biodiversity studies.

St. Casimir experimental forest in Quebec, a field site where Ensminger and his team do a lot of their drone work (photo courtesy of Éric Dussault, Natural Resources Canada)

What’s next for Ensminger’s team? During their drone flights, they’re collecting an enormous amount of data – and now it’s a matter of processing and analyzing it. They’re collaborating with robotics experts to improve field data collection and will be developing tools to automate the process of image analysis and pixel classification using machine learning and AI technologies.

“We also aim to develop software and web-interfaces that provide users access so that not just researchers, but a wide range of end-users have access to the data produced through this approach,” he says.

“This is an exhilarating time for genomics,” noted Rob Annan, Genome Canada President and CEO, following a federal announcement of funding in March for FastPheno and other projects. “The knowledge, tools and technologies it is generating are driving innovation in traditional sectors and helping them achieve green growth, as well as improving the health and quality of life of Canadians.”

Ensminger’s project will complement the genomic selection research and operational programs of Natural Resources Canada and the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks of Quebec.

The dawn chorus: To connect with nature, students combine morning birdsong with music

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 17 May 2022 16:52:14 +0000

The dawn chorus: To connect with nature, students combine morning birdsong with music

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 05/17/2022 - 12:52

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Undergraduate students recorded the sounds of the dawn chorus all around the GTA (photo courtesy of Alexander Hampton)

Josslyn Johnstone

Topic

City & Culture

Conservation

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Music

Jackman Humanities Institute

Religion

Each spring as early as 4 a.m., a choir of tweeting and chirping birds known as the “dawn chorus” produces a musical wake-up call – in more ways than one.

“Awareness of nature is the first step to conservation,” says Alexander Hampton, an assistant professor in the department for the study of religion in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Arts & Science. “But it is often limited by all sorts of things – like the boxes we live in and the noise we make, especially in cities.”

The isolation of COVID-19-associated lockdowns caused some people, including Hampton, to pay greater attention to the sounds of nature in their surroundings, including birdsong. “During such a difficult time, there was this opportunity to tune into the conversation nature has been having with us all along,” he says. “But as we continue to move forward, can we hold onto our appreciation of being part of an ecological system – a place where nature continues to live, and even thrive?”

This question was one of the inspirations for a new interdisciplinary project conceived by Hampton and Nicole Percifield, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Music. Titled “The Pleasure of the Dawn Chorus: Preserving the Pandemic Soundscape,” the project is a collaboration between students in the department for the study of religion and the Faculty of Music, with support by the Jackman Humanities Institute, and it explores humanity's emotional and spiritual connection to nature through the arts.

To preserve the urban birdsong that emerged during the pandemic, undergraduate students from Hampton’s courses “Religion and Nature,” “Enchantment, Disenchantment and Re-Enchantment” and “Global Perspectives on Ecology and Religion” recorded the sounds of the dawn chorus all around the Greater Toronto Area – from the university campus to their own neighbourhoods, from public parks to Queen’s Park, some with their phones and others with more elaborate equipment. The students identified the birds using the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Merlin app and produced written reflections and photo essays about their experiences and the meaning of nature awareness.

Audrey Miatello (photo by Lucas Fournier)

The field assignment prompted second-year undergraduate student Audrey Miatello to look for nature in her own backyard. At first, she says, she wasn’t sure how far she’d have to go to find it. “I spent a long time attentively walking around my neighborhood, listening for chirping sounds. Finally, I came across a tree that was filled with the singing of many birds. Alongside their singing, I could hear the noise of cars and the hum of nearby traffic – an interplay between the natural and artificial parts of our city.”

As a next step, doctoral students in the Faculty of Music – mezzo-soprano Percifield, composer Gavin Fraser and pianist Geoffrey Conquer – used the recordings and written reflections as inspiration for musical compositions honouring the dawn chorus.

Translating birdsong into vocal and instrumental melodies first required spectral analysis, a visual interpretation of pitch that applies colour to a particular frequency – in other words, a way to see sound. The pitch analysis allowed the birdsong to be transcribed into musical notation.

“In music, we associate frequencies with pitches which are very fixed, meaning we can pick out particular notes,” Fraser explains. “Birdsong, however, is so complex and not as clear-cut as a vocal melody. The dawn chorus is a beautiful cacophony of all these birds, so instead of picking out specific pitches, we created melodies based on the structural arc of what these pitches look like over time.”

Gavin Fraser (photo by Rich Blenkinsopp)

As the composer, Fraser sought to tell the story of the dawn chorus, not necessarily replicate it. “It was more about creating a journey of coming into this world that humans can understand as the dawn chorus,” he said. “I wanted to capture this idea on two different levels – a literal waking with the choir of morning birdsong, and ‘waking up’ to the natural world by interacting with it in a respectful way.”

He used several compositional techniques to accomplish this, including call-and-response between the piano and the voice, and layering different songs of red-winged blackbirds, American robins, chickadees and geese, to name a few. Singing like a bird, in this sense, became more about interpreting the sound.

“We also evoked an environment that feels like it's the early morning, where birdsong would exist – Nicole makes wind sounds, Geoffrey taps on the piano and I sprinkle in bird-like, melodic elements that then build into harmonies.”
Percifield and Conquer performed the final piece at a recent virtual lecture recital hosted by the Jackman Humanities Institute, bringing nature and humanity, literally, in harmony.

Humanity has difficulty relating to nature on an emotional level, as can be seen from people's slowness to act on the climate crisis, Hampton says, but the arts can help deepen people's connection to nature and propel action.
“Our feelings of connection to nature are often left unexpressed,” he says. “The arts enable us to respond to feelings of wonder, enchantment and awe, and give them expression in a way that connects us more deeply to the nature in our own backyards – and in turn, to something bigger than ourselves.”

Hampton also notes that the spiritual aspect of connecting to the natural world – a concept called “ecospirituality” – resonates with people on a broad scale, enabling people from diverse backgrounds to identify with urban conservation meaningfully.

A red-tailed hawk (photo by Alexander Hampton)

“Some of my students contextualize this sense of wonder within their personal religious traditions – the connection to creation, for example,” says Hampton. “Others connect it to the ecosphere they live in – to nature itself as an object of wonder, which is something they understand in a more secular way.”

Cultivating a relationship with the environment can help remedy what can often feel like an insurmountable level of doom and gloom about the state of the planet, he adds.

“We have these feelings of anxiety and depression because we feel like we can't do anything about it, but the joy and pleasure of nature is all around us,” Hampton says. “If we create more awareness of that and then express our connection through sharing music or making art or taking photographs, then that is the first step of conservation.”

“This project helped me realize that nature exists all around us,” says Miatello, a member of Woodsworth College who is hoping to complete a double major in religion and book and media studies. “With patience and attention, we will see that our neighborhoods are actually home to many natural wonders just waiting to be discovered.

“Now, months later, I still try to carefully observe nature when I am outdoors, making sure not to miss the small details that can easily be overlooked.”

Building on the success of the dawn chorus pilot project, Hampton would next like to engage the public by partnering with community organizations and public institutions such as conservation groups, schools and museums. He is also curious about branching out into preserving and interpreting other types of soundscapes.

“For instance, Toronto is home to a vast ravine system – what do these rivers sound like? There are a lot of different layers to tune into, and all sorts of things in bioacoustics that one can measure that we don't necessarily register in our own ears, like the sound that trees make,” Hampton explains.

“There is a conversation to be had with nature on its own terms. The dawn chorus project brings humans back into that conversation by listening and responding to non-humans as part of the environment that we all share.”

U of T’s Eric Davies pitches public-private partnership to save native Toronto trees: CBC News

perry.king — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 14:59:57 +0000

U of T’s Eric Davies pitches public-private partnership to save native Toronto trees: CBC News

perry.king Mon, 06/24/2019 - 10:59

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University of Toronto PhD student Eric Davies has launched a campaign to save native plant species in Toronto's ravines (photo by Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Topic

Eric Davies, who is doing a PhD in forestry at the University of Toronto, has a plan to save native plant species in Toronto’s many ravines – and it includes the private sector.

He has launched a campaign that includes lobbying the city, enlisting support from other foresters and drawing public attention to the problem of invasive species, according to CBC News.

A public-private partnership is also a part of the solution, Davies told the CBC. He said it could be modeled on the non-profit Natural Areas Conservancy group in New York City and could draw upon the resources of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA).

“The problem is so big that the only thing that can fix it now is to utilize private funding to help buoy up the capacity of the city, the TRCA, and all of these people that want to help out,” Davies said.

More than a spring cleaning: Simcoe Hall and Convocation Hall undergo delicate restoration work

noreen.rasbach — Thu, 30 May 2019 15:31:25 +0000

More than a spring cleaning: Simcoe Hall and Convocation Hall undergo delicate restoration work

noreen.rasbach Thu, 05/30/2019 - 11:31

Cutline

“We take tremendous pride in our role as caretakers of Simcoe Hall, Convocation Hall and the other architectural jewels of our campus,” says U of T's Scott Mabury about the cleaning of the buildings taking place now (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Topic

University Operations

Conservation

Convocation Hall

If you’ve walked through King’s College Circle lately, you may have noticed something different about the exterior of Simcoe Hall: gleaming yellow brick where there was previously an ashen façade.

That’s because Simcoe Hall and the adjacent Convocation Hall – the 112-year-old building, site of an important rite of passage for generations of University of Toronto students – are getting a cleaning.

The job is a delicate – and high-profile – one given the age of the structures, which are among the most recognizable heritage buildings on campus. The work will be paused for spring convocation and other events, but is set to resume in July.

“We take tremendous pride in our role as custodians of Simcoe Hall, Convocation Hall and the other architectural jewels of our campus,” says Scott Mabury, vice-president of university operations and real estate partnerships.

“That’s why we make sure we’re working with the right people to ensure that we’re maintaining our heritage buildings the best we can.”

The restoration project began by enlisting external expertise in buildings sciences and restoration. Next, a series of tests on mock-ups and on inconspicuous patches of brick on non-visible areas of the buildings were carried out by heritage restoration specialists.

After experimenting with different approaches – from the composition of cleaning materials to the pressure levels of compressed air and water – restoration specialists working under the guidance of consultants settled on different methods to use based on the type of brick, says Ron Saporta, chief operations officer of facilities and services.

He adds that these methods are widely used in the heritage building maintenance world.

“It’s important that we bring in specialty consultants and contractors to give us advice on this,” Saporta says.

“They advise us on the methodology based on the specific condition of the building, and they continually do site reviews and monitor the progress of the work.”

With more than 50 heritage buildings on its three campuses, and another 30 owned by federated colleges, U of T is a major steward of the city’s historic structures, working closely with the City of Toronto and observing best practices and standards for the care of the buildings.

In the case of the Simcoe Hall and Convocation Hall projects, among the key factors taken into consideration was the colour of the brick. Being light yellow, the bricks on the façade of Simcoe Hall and Convocation Hall are prone to staining, the extent and character of which can vary from one brick to the next.

“Being a lighter colour, these bricks may be more vulnerable to staining than a darker-coloured brick, but that also makes them more dramatically good-looking when you clean them,” Saporta says.

The cleaning also reveals subtle differences between the bricks in Convocation Hall and the attached Simcoe Hall, built 17 years later. The buildings’ bricks feature complementary shades of yellow, but Saporta says they’re not identical.

“That’s because they were two slightly different looks of bricks to begin with.”

There are even variations in the texture of bricks within the façade of Simcoe Hall itself, notably on the west elevation of the building, which has yet to be cleaned.

The bricks have a coarseness to them that pre-dates the cleaning process, so crews working their way through each elevation must continually adjust their cleaning methods to account for differences in brick texture.

Another important element of the cleaning effort was the removal of ivy draping the outside of the building. While the foliage lends a distinguished aesthetic to campus buildings, it comes at a potentially high cost.

“Ivy on a heritage building can cause a lot of surface damage,” says Patrick Brennan, senior property manager. “The removal of ivy makes the building look a little different than it may have looked in the past, but it’s the right thing to do to protect the brick.”

Once the time-consuming work is completed, it will likely be many years before Simcoe Hall and Convocation Hall are due for another cleaning.

“The due diligence taken in caring for Convocation Hall in particular speaks to the pride and seriousness with which we take our responsibility as stewards of our heritage buildings,” says Mabury. “As the site of convocation ceremonies, lectures and so many other momentous events for over a century, Convocation Hall is truly a bridge to our past.”

“Our careful efforts at cleaning and heritage conservation will ensure that we carry forward that connection to future generations of U of T students.”

Conservation

Drone-based technology remotely assesses health of trees impacted by climate change

The dawn chorus: To connect with nature, students combine morning birdsong with music

U of T’s Eric Davies pitches public-private partnership to save native Toronto trees: CBC News

Read more about Eric Davies at CBC News

More than a spring cleaning: Simcoe Hall and Convocation Hall undergo delicate restoration work