In a section of Stony Brook University Hospital, undergraduate student Amy Chen is leading a project to use artificial intelligence (AI) in detecting ozone damage on plants. The initiative is part of the National Ozone Garden Network, which is funded by NASA’s TEAM II program and aims to monitor ground-level ozone using bio-indicator plant species.
Chen, an information systems major with a minor in environmental studies, started the project under the guidance of Guanyu Huang, assistant professor at the Program in Public Health and School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. The garden is located atop the Health Sciences Center as part of the Stony Brook Heights Rooftop Micro-Farm. This micro-farm covers 2,242 square feet and supplies fresh produce for patient nutrition; it is managed by the Nutrition Division of Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine along with student volunteers.
“I’ve never had direct research experience other than like in some of my classes,” said Chen. “I wanted to do something that involves me being outside because I really miss being in nature.”
The ozone garden features plant species such as milkweed, potatoes, snap beans and coneflowers that show visible reactions to ozone pollution. According to Huang: “Plants can serve as bio-indicators of ozone, and so that means they can visually show the ozone damage on the leaves of their plants.” He added that this effort provides “an opportunity to tell the people what’s going on, what’s the damage of ozone, not only public health, but also plants and agriculture.”
Signs of ozone damage include leaf discoloration like yellowing or spots and premature dropping. Snap beans have been particularly effective at showing these signs in Stony Brook’s garden. An air quality sensor installed at the site records data for a national database used by researchers including Huang.
Preliminary results from June and July indicated low local ozone concentrations compared with atmospheric measuring systems elsewhere. However, Suffolk County consistently fails federal standards for ground-level ozone according to reports from organizations such as the American Lung Association.
Catherine Kier, professor of pediatrics at Stony Brook Medicine and division chief of pediatric pulmonary medicine, explained: “can have an impact on people’s health, especially seniors, children and other vulnerable populations,” as well as during extreme heat days.
Despite relatively low readings over recent months locally, plants continue to display signs consistent with ongoing exposure to elevated levels over time—a trend Huang notes may threaten both agricultural output and human health: “can harm our commercial farming agricultural production and impact human health.”
“We want to show people that the air pollution is real. We actually can see it,” Haung said. “We want to visualize the damage of their air pollution to show not only damage to the plants but also to our health.”
Supported by SUNY SOAR (Summer Opportunity for Academic Research), Chen will shift her focus this fall toward technical development: “In the upcoming fall, I’ll be working on more of a technical side. So we want to implement a convolutional neural network — or an AI model — that helps automatically detect the ozone damage on the leaves,” she said.
This approach involves capturing images using a GoPro camera before analyzing them through AI models designed to quantify leaf damage while factoring in variables such as temperature or cloud cover.
Becca Hatheway directs UCAR Center for Science Education—part of Boulder-based National Center for Atmospheric Research—which houses coordination efforts for gardens across multiple locations nationwide: "the levels of ozone spatially across different locations and also temporal, like when in the season the damage is showing up." She added that information gathered at sites including Stony Brook could help improve responsiveness around air quality alerts targeting those most vulnerable.
“At our network workshop, our garden hosts will do some training, come together and talk about ideas and resources. We also provide a stipend that can give support to the garden hosts to do activities that you are already doing in their garden here at Stony Brook,” Hatheway said. “Other places are using it to actually build out a garden if they didn’t have any — Stony Brook has a wonderful garden space here.”