In this interdisciplinary project, we (1) develop and test new methods with unmanned aircraft systems (UASs or drones) for monitoring wind-dispersed pollen from genetically-engineered (GE) crops, (2) generate and validate an atmospheric model to track the long-distance transport of GE pollen from these crops, and (3) predict the regional transport of wind-dispersed pollen using these model. See the press release about this project:
We mapped wind-borne Cannabis pollen across the U.S. and assessed the risk of unintentional cross-pollination. Our open-access manuscript on this topic, published in Scientific Reports, was selected among the Top 100 most downloaded Scientific Reports research papers of 2024. See the press release about this manuscript:
Physics-based modeling identifies cross-pollination vulnerabilities for hemp farms