Project Number: 5302-43000-037-10
Project Type: General Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jul 15, 2011
End Date: Jan 14, 2014

Objective:
The overall goal of this project is to ensure strategic application of chemicals to control navel orangeworm (NOW) in almonds by mapping the environmental fate and transport of insecticides, particularly degradative pathways involving fungal metabolism.

Approach:
Utilizing a cooperative effort between USDA-ARS, industry, and U. California at Davis, research will be conducted in the context of enhancing production of California almonds via development of efficient, economical, and environmentally benign chemical strategies to reduce pest pressure, including those of synthetic and natural product origin. This research will integrate laboratory, model ecosystem, and field studies for the purpose of tracing the signature of organic chemicals through the environment and particularly fungi-mediated processes. Unique and complementary features of this research team include 1) daily access to almond orchards to gain seasonal insight, 2) utilization of world-class mass spectrometry and irradiation facilities, 3) and pre-existing infrastructure for sampling and anlysis of runoff from almond orchards.