In a project at Stony Brook University Hospital, undergraduate student Amy Chen is working to use artificial intelligence (AI) to detect damage caused by ground-level ozone on plants. The initiative takes place in the Stony Brook Heights Rooftop Micro-Farm, a space managed by the Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine’s Nutrition Division and supported by student volunteers.
Chen, an information systems major with a minor in environmental studies, started the ozone garden under the guidance of Guanyu Huang, assistant professor at the Program in Public Health and School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. “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 garden is part of the National Ozone Garden Network, funded by NASA’s TEAM II program. This network supplies bio-indicator 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 also noted that the garden 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.”
Ozone damage appears as discoloration or spots on leaves and premature leaf drop. Snap beans in particular have shown clear signs for detection in this garden. An air quality sensor records measurements that are added to a national database for scientific analysis.
Preliminary data from June and July indicated low ozone concentrations at Stony Brook; however, Suffolk County continues to fall short of federal standards for ozone according to annual reports from organizations like the American Lung Association.
Catherine Kier, professor of pediatrics and division chief of pediatric pulmonary at Stony Brook Medicine, explained that persistent high levels of local ozone—largely due to vehicle emissions and industrial sites—can impact health: “can have an impact on people’s health, especially seniors, children and other vulnerable populations,” she said.
Despite lower readings this summer locally, Huang cautioned about ongoing risks: “can harm our commercial farming agricultural production and impact human health.” He added: “We want to show people that the air pollution is real. We actually can see it. 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 further develop her work by implementing a convolutional neural network—a type of AI model—to automatically detect ozone damage using images captured with a GoPro camera. The system will also consider variables such as temperature and cloud cover.
Becca Hatheway from UCAR Center for Science Education in Boulder described how data collected nationally helps track both spatial and seasonal patterns in ozone exposure: “the levels of ozone spatially across different locations and also temporal, like when in the season the damage is showing up.” She added that this information supports more responsive air quality alerts for those most affected.
“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 the 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.”
