Calcium Carbonate Nanomaterial Foliar Sprays to Increase Climate Resiliency in Vineyards

Climate change is impacting food and agricultural crops through a variety of new challenges such as intense heat, unusually intense storms, unseasonal warming and freezing events and wildfires. Plants are not able to move and therefore cannot avoid climate shocks or relocate to find resources. Protecting crops from climate damage is critical to ensuring the sustainability of Canadian agricultural production systems. Imasco Minerals Inc. has a patented technology for production of nanomaterials of calcium carbonate. They have been working with several partners to develop proprietary manufacturing and blending technologies that produce foliar sprays to protect plants from climate damage. A small number of nano-calcium carbonate foliar sprays are already in the market in the USA and China. These sprays are thought to protect the photosynthetic apparatus in leaves thereby allowing the plants to continue to grow under intense light and heat. Agricultural industries in Canada use preparations of large clumps of calcium carbonate to control fungus blights but the nano-materials are not commonly used in Canada. As well, the exact physiological mechanisms of activity of nano-calcium carbonate in plants is not known.

Faculty Supervisor:

Susan Murch;Lauren Erland

Student:

Partner:

Imasco Minerals Inc.

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Agriculture and Food; Nanotechnology

University:

The University of British Columbia - Okanagan

Program: