Tributaries adjacent to greenhouse operations in Leamington, Ontario were found in 2012 to have elevated levels of phosphorus. The objective of this research is to identify the source of elevated nutrients in greenhouse ponds by collecting water and sediment samples over the course of 2 years. These samples will be analyzed to find linkages between […]

Bell pepper (Capsicum annum L.) is one of the most profitable greenhouse vegetable crops in Canada. Over 12 million square feet of greenhouse has been established to cultivate bell peppers in British Columbia alone. In this project, Randhawa Farms Ltd. and University of British Columbia aim to collectively determine and characterization of fungal species in […]

In partnership with KeyLeaf (KL), Saskatchewan Polytechnic (SP) is developing a system for the bioprocessing industry that will interface through a mobile app, collect data on a NoSQL database, and use analytics to mine it for new insights into all processing aspects. The Engage phase of the project will commence in tandem with a MITACS […]

Our proposed research is to measure soil erosion and runoff in the field and use it to calibrate water runoff models. The approach is twofold: a) Use of field data for to determine runoff rates and nutrient loading and b) use high resolution non-destructive methods to monitor water runoff after a precipitation event through unmanned […]

Stocking remains an important component of managing and conserving Atlantic Salmon populations, but it also has the potential to cause negative effects to wild populations. To understand the cause of these effects and the potential consequences of using a smolt-to-adult supplementation approach we will use cutting edge technology to investigate epigenetic changes in captive reared […]

The proposed research will examine potential alternatives for respooling buoy line from trap fishing applications into caged underwater rope enclosures. Previous research conducted for Ashored Innovations found that cage rope enclosures demonstrated the most favorable results for ropeless fishing given the environmental conditions in Atlantic Canadian trap fisheries. However, one major concern highlighted from fishers […]

Canola growers recognize that the beneficial arthropods that live in natural habitats and non-crop areas may play an important role in augmenting and stabilizing crop yields. These bees, flies, beetles, spiders and other arthropods may spill over into the crop, and through pollination or pest control, help to improve yields, decrease inputs, and increase profitability. […]

While intestinal bacteria are increasingly understood to be important for maintaining health, many questions remain about how probiotic bacteria act to influence the immune system. We have previously found that one of these bacteria, Lactobacillus rhamnosus R0011, produces mediators able to influence communication between intestinal epithelial cells and antigen-presenting cells, cell types important for our […]

This research project will develop an intelligent UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) system, which is capable of autonomous navigation, for the inspection of power lines and utility. The automated inspection is based on the technologies of computer vision and artificial intelligence. The UAV flies autonomously over the infrastructure capturing the images with high-definition RGB camera and […]

Mounting evidence shows that boreal and mountain forests are not solely driven by high severity fires that kill most of the above-ground vegetation (i.e. stand-replacing fires). Indeed, wildfire severity can be highly heterogeneous, leading to spatially complex forest landscapes, with multiple species and uneven ages. Many existing fire dynamics models do not explicitly consider the […]

Probiotics are a form of good bacteria that have been shown to have health benefits in offspring that have been exposed to early life stress. One such form of early life stress that has a lasting impact on offspring stress resiliency is poor maternal care. Based on unpublished research from our laboratory, we have found […]

Research shows that the gut, the brain, and the collection of bacterial species that inhabit the gut (i.e., the microbiota) affect mental and physical health. Furthermore, stress seems to exasperate these disorders and this relationship may be explained by the unique connection between the gut, the brain, and the microbiota). In this experiment, we will […]