Les conditions climatiques et géographiques et les particularités socio-économiques de la population ont fait du Canada un pays propice au développement d’une flore fongique sécrétrice de toxines naturelles, les mycotoxines. Ces mycotoxines s’avèrent de puissants contaminants de l’environnement et particulièrement de la chaîne alimentaire. A l’heure actuelle, la situation est davantage aggravée par la multi-contamination […]

Our intention is to find excellent resistance sources in the Canadian canola cultivars, and other available genotypes through field, greenhouse and lab research to enhance resistance. This will supplement the new resistance sources including novel R gene and quantitative resistance in canola against blackleg disease in Canada. It will also reduce it to become endemic […]

Wastewater testing can measure levels of COVID-19 in a population that is contributing to the sewer system being monitored. This testing provides an early warning signal of the burden of COVID-19 in municipalities, independent of clinical testing. Calgary based start-up company C.E.C. Analytics (CEC) has developed a compact wastewater autosampler that enables this kind of […]

Raman spectroscopy is used for analysis of minerals for two main reasons: 1) instrumentation sensitivity, and 2) “libraries” of spectra used as reference for a range of minerals. However, even the industry-best Raman libraries have 5000 approved mineral species, partially due to the fluorescence that obscures Raman measurements. Fluorescence and Raman effects have different lifetimes […]

Birds and small mammals are essential members in maintaining a healthy ecosystem and rely on complex habitat structure, such as a diverse mixture of trees, understory growth, or open patches. I will be identifying bird and small mammal composition in relation to forest stand complexity across various forest harvesting treatments, such as clear-cut and new […]

When Indigenous rights and leadership are prioritized, Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) like forest carbon management present an opportunity to advance reconciliation while combatting climate change and biodiversity loss. Wahkohtowin Development GP Inc. is taking steps to drive NCS in the Missinaibi Forest toward Indigenous-led climate action and social-ecological benefits for its owner First Nations (the […]

Many bird species are highly vocal, and this provides opportunities to monitor avian biodiversity by acoustic surveys. In recent decades, the use of Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs) has gained popularity as a mechanism to census birds through passive acoustic monitoring. Further, automatic algorithms for identifying bird species by their vocalizations have been developed to improve […]

House crickets are a promising sustainable source of protein for human food and animal feed in a changing world. A current focus is to scale up and automate cricket production, and to optimise production for specific outcomes (e.g. maximise biomass production or protein content). Insect growth rate, nutrient content and survival are all dependent on […]

Using simplified language understandable to a layperson, provide a general, one-paragraph description of the proposed research project to be undertaken by the intern(s) as well as the expected benefit to the partner organization. (100-150 words) Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are essential for plant growth, yet their genetics are very poorly understood. The proposed research aims […]

Bovine production uses a combination of Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ARTs) to improve yield and reduce generation time. In bovine production and in clinical settings, ARTs are associated with elevated rates of developmental disorders in offspring, leading to animal distress, high costs and delayed results. These include Large Offspring Syndrome (LOS) and musculoskeletal anomalies, reported to […]

The proposed research aims to develop machine vision-based decision support system for variable crop management. This research will deploy the deep learning models for plant/weed detection, plant growth indicators and soil organic matter assessment. The information retrieved from these models will be used to devise variable rate management map to optimize the consumption of agrochemical […]

The intestinal tract is at the centre of animal production because it is responsible for absorption of nutrients and is the place of action of important pathogens. The characterization of bacterial communities has been revolutionized by the development of DNA sequencing technologies, which allowed the discovery of many new species and a better understanding of […]