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Funded Project |
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Funding Program:
Regional IPM Grants (S-RIPM) |
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Project Title:
Diagnostic Image Series Development for Supporting IPM in the Southern Region |
Project Directors (PDs):
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Lead State: FL Lead Organization: University of Florida |
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Cooperating State(s):
Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia |
| Undesignated Funding: $83,000 |
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Start Date: Sep-01-2011 End Date: Aug-31-2013 |
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Summary:
Proper identification is the first step to selecting the best IPM option for a given pest, increasing the number of options for best management, and decreasing the chance of off-target management ramifications. Often, diagnosticians turn to online searches for relevant images to assist them with their identifications. A multitude of image libraries and databases exist in the US and abroad. However, these databases house relatively few images of morphologic diagnostic features such as close-ups of symptoms, culture plates, spores, mycelia, are narrowly-focused to a few high-impact organisms of regulatory significance, or contain few images with relevance to southeastern US agriculture. We have been working to fill this void at the request of our Southern Plant Diagnostic Network (SPDN) members (via previous SRIPMC seed grant funding of $25,000), and to make these images available through the existing and oft-used IPMimages.org. However, expanding the scope of the image collection to include six more states in the region, as well as incorporating said images into sets to be used in Pathogen Profiles and Disease Profiles, will require support and intense coordination. It is the intent of this proposal to i) capture images of diagnostic samples throughout the southeast US (six more states in addition to Florida), ii) develop regionally-relevant images sets that are screened for quality and to avoid duplication with existing images, iii) develop Pathogen Profiles; image-rich fact sheets pertaining to specific pathogens of importance to agriculture in the SE US (as indicated in the PMSPs and Crop Profiles already in use in our region), and iv) develop Disease Profiles; image-rich fact sheets that include relevant symptom and sign information for particular crops. We foresee these being linked to existing and new Crop Profiles, PMSPs, and other relevant IPM Documents. In addition, this project is one of three sister-proposals with similar goals, but representing three distinct IPM regions (Southern, North- Central, and Northeast). Letters of collaboration from the PIs of the other two indicate an effort on the part of all three to work together to minimize duplication of efforts and maximize deliverables to our extension and IPM clientele. The proposed effort represents an enhancement to public image resources with a finite timeline. We plan to leverage existing support for diagnostician training and educational content development with the proposed budget to accomplish the project goals and accelerate the availability of deliverables (pathogen/disease image collections and fact sheets relevant to southeastern US agriculture and ecosystems). This leveraging of existing resources should assist in the maintenance of this projects goals and function beyond the 2-year lifespan of the proposed grant.
Objectives: Plant Pathogen Profiles: The key output of this project is a set of pathogen profiles, which will consist of detailed descriptions of important plant pathogens, combined with high quality images to create concise identification tools for diagnosticians and others. The pathogen profile pages will include morphological descriptions of key features, macro- and microscopic images of the pathogen, taxonomic standing; links to other online resources such as the Widely Prevalent Fungi site, and links to selected disease image sets (Plant Disease Profiles, see below). Online image upload and review methods at IPM Images will be augmented by providing additional tools and fields for incorporation of necessary morphological descriptions and resources links. We propose to develop from the Southern region at least 35 Pathogen Profiles in year one of the project and at least 35 Profiles in year two. These Profiles will be developed in collaboration and coordination with similar projects proposed in the North-Central and Northeastern IPM regions to avoid duplication of effort between regions. A long-term goal is creation of enough Plant Pathogen Profiles to attract widespread use by diagnosticians and to encourage submission of their own image sets from their areas of expertise and experience, thereby encouraging the sustainability of the project long after the grant period expires. Plant Disease Profiles: The second objective is development of a new series of illustrated disease fact sheets geared toward farmers, gardeners, homeowners, pesticide applicators and other IPM stakeholders. Built from the best representative images of disease symptoms these concise fact sheets will also be useful for diagnosticians and other extension personnel as they make IPM recommendations. The images will be selected from the best examples in the existing IPM Images collection, from image collections at Mississippi State University, North Carolina State University, Texas A&M University, University of Tennessee, and University of Kentucky, and Virginia Tech and from image collections currently under development by NPDN labs in the North-Central and Northeastern IPM regions. The number of disease diagnostic profiles developed under this project will depend on the available images submitted to IPM Images. We anticipate development of at least 50 of these during the two years of the project. Enhanced image capture capability: The proposal provides funding for some minor photographic equipment for a few labs, but focuses mostly on involving students and others in the actual photography and image submission process. The funding for each collaborating state will be used to enhance the online database as more sample images are captured, reviewed, and uploaded. The limited personnel resources in the diagnostic laboratories has been a major hindrance to building a critical mass of southern-US-specific image sets. |
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