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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		Drones help monitor the health of Californian trees
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:03
	Publish Date:		2017-01-14 18:00:00
	Description:		This is Science Today. As drone technology is getting cheaper, they’re being used in a host of different ways, including environmental science. Todd Dawson, a molecular biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, is using drones to study how forests get affected by droughts, particularly those that have been affecting the Golden State’s iconic sequoia trees. "We see a lot of trees dying in California but we don't really understand why certain places are dying more than others. And now we are starting to get, with this drone images, a more refined picture in areas where is a lot of tree mortality". In a matter of minutes researchers can survey canopies of individual trees and entire forests, as drones fly over and take images with multi-spectral cameras. "That means we are basically keeping our finger on the pulse of the forest change, which we have never been able to do with any of our other tools before." Dawson says the need to save the trees is urgent, as the drought killed over 60 million of them in California last year alone.
	Total Play:		0