Haematococcus pluvialis is a green microalga that concentrates the compound astaxanthin, a commercial product with nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, aquaculture, and food applications.

I am conducting a multi-species fish population monitoring project in Quebec’s largest lake (Mistassini), to facilitate community-based fisheries management with the Cree Nation of Mistissini. Mistassini is home to recreational fisheries for walleye, lake trout, brook trout and pike. With a 31% increase in the regional human population since 2001 and increasing fishing pressure, effective monitoring of Mistassini’s harvested fish populations is essential.

Twin Rivers Paper previously installed and ran a reject refining process in order to improve their pulp yield. However, once the process was implemented it decreased the cleanness in the produced pulp which is undesirable for customers therefore the process was shut down. Currently the rejected chips are either being burned or sent to landfill but the issue with this is that there are still good fibers within those rejects that are able to be pulped.

The proposed research project will focus on understanding the in-vineyard and in-winery mechanisms responsible for the phenomenon of smoke-taint in wines—that is, the tendency of grapes exposed to forest fire smoke to produce smoke-flavoured wines in the absence of any perceptible aroma in the grapes. Of interest here is discerning exactly how the flavoured compounds of smoke are biochemically stored within ripening grapes in addition to how they are released again by yeast enzymes during the fermentation process.

The production of chicken requires a large amount of protein, and producers currently use antibiotics to help keep chickens healthy. However, there is a leading trend to reduce the amount of antibiotics used today, and with the growing population there is a need to find alternative protein sources. Insects, like crickets, could be a solution to both of these problems. Crickets have shown antimicrobial capacity and are high in protein, so they maybe able to reduce feed cost, while also reducing the need for antibiotics.

Forests provide habitat to more than 65% of terrestrial biodiversity, yet are being eliminated or greatly simplified at an alarming rate under global change (GC). Current forestry practices tend to favour a handful of species, without considering resilience of resulting forests to GC. During the past two decades, studies have investigated the complex relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem service provision to humanity.

Over the past eight years we have a diagnostic test for disease resistance in honey bees and then attempted to use this test to selectively breed disease-resistant bees. The bees selected in this way appear to not lose other economically important traits (e.g., honey production) but are far better equipped to deal with disease than ‘average’ bees. This then opens up many doors, some of which we would like to pursue here. First and foremost though is to get the tools we have developed into the hands of the bee industry.

The Mixedwood Growth Model (MGM) is used by forest managers in estimating growth and yield outcomes for common boreal tree species in North America. MGM has been shown to effectively model both managed and unmanaged stands in Alberta and surrounding regions. Currently, climate effects are not accounted for in growth functions used in MGM. Recent work for black spruce has shown that there is need to understand and model the effect of climate for other boreal tree species including white spruce, aspen, balsam poplar, lodgepole pine and jack pine.