Efforts to sequester atmospheric carbon in soil require effective monitoring methods. Soil water content confounds the conventional application of infrared absorption. Raman spectroscopy contends well with water, but suffers from the overwhelming fluorescence typically encountered in the analysis of soil samples. Here we
propose to combine an modulated two-colour illumination scheme with antiphase lock-in detection that will serve to suppress fluorescent backgrounds and uncover Raman signatures of organic substances captured in soils.

There is a growing need to develop new crop protection products that are more effective against fungal disease and mitigate pathogen resistance. The fungicide product development process is time consuming and expensive and there is a great opportunity to reduce costs and time by using machine learning. In this project, an existing deep learning algorithm for quantifying fungal growth in 96-well plate images will be transferred to new pathogens to extend Terramera’s automated high-throughput screening pipeline.

Climate change is affecting BC farmers, with associated impacts to food security, community economic development, business risk management programs, and trade and innovation. With some of the oldest farmers in Canada, BC’s farmers also experience some of the lowest incomes in Canada.

Spotted Wing Drosophila is an aggressive invasive pest that is high research and management priority for the BC and Canadian berry and small fruit industry. Spotted Wing Drosophila can substantially reduce crop yields despite heavy uses of chemical insecticides, which in some cases can be harmful to the environment and human health. Botanical extracts from plants and insecticidal microbes that are naturally toxic to insects have great potential to provide enviromentally-friendly options for growers to manage Spotted Wing Drosophila.

Efforts to sequester atmospheric carbon in soil require effective monitoring methods. Soil water content confounds the conventional application of infrared absorption. Raman spectroscopy contends well with water, but suffers from the overwhelming fluorescence typically encountered in the analysis of soil samples. Here we propose to combine an modulated two-colour illumination scheme with antiphase lock-in detection that will serve to suppress fluorescent backgrounds and uncover Raman signatures of organic substances captured in soils.

Fungal rust infection of wheat is an ongoing problem in Canada and use of commercial fungicides is increasing while the problem of fungicidal resistance is also arising. This project aims to develop optimized fungicidal treatments for fungal rust infection of wheat. The issue of inefficient penetration of commercial fungicides will be addressed by applying a specific technology to enhance delivery of the active ingredient to target fungal pathogens thereby reducing the dose of fungicidal application. The mechanism of action of the resulting fungicidal formulations will also be explored.

The global population is rising, generating a need to produce more food to feed the world. Along with climate change, the food crops across the world are facing growing challenges from pests, pathogens and viruses that attack and destroy crops. In Canada, we export more than $7 billion worth of wheat every year. The Terramera-led Computational Biochemistry Platform project is tackling this crop loss with a research consortium bringing together 9 companies and research organizations. Simon Fraser University is an integral part of the consortium.

Spotted Wing Drosophila is an aggressive invasive pest that is high research and management priority for the BC and Canadian berry and small fruit industry. Spotted Wing Drosophila can substantially reduce crop yields despite heavy uses of chemical insecticides, which in some cases can be harmful to the environment and human health. Botanical extracts from plants and insecticidal microbes that are naturally toxic to insects have great potential to provide enviromentally-friendly options for growers to manage Spotted Wing Drosophila.

Climate change has major present-day and anticipated consequences for Canadian and global food security. Increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) levels can lead to decreased plant nutritional quality: more fixed carbon and sugar means that plants have less protein and micronutrients per gram. Additionally, increased CO2 levels can exacerbate insect pests on crops because elevated CO2 interferes with plant signalling and suppresses plants' ability to respond to stressors.

Phenotyping is used to develop new strains of plants, understand plant-affecting diseases (phyto-pathology) and evaluate the effects of various substances on plants. A growing variety of sensors and sensor technology is used to gather data used for phenotyping, in a non-destructive manner, and this overall process of data acquisition and analysis is being automated, leading to high-throughput pheno-typing. These technological changes pose challenges both in terms of which models to apply to these heterogeneous data, as well as the scalability of the data and analytics pipeline.