Features

With Ottawa currently discussing a federal plan to reduce Canadian greenhouse gases, research by University of Guelph environmental scientists suggests that planting cover crops may help farmers mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from soil.

The team’s field experiments showed for the first time that planting cover crops such as red clover to protect and enrich soil over the winter can also reduce agricultural emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas.

Amid record-breaking heat waves and growing migration into cities, a University of Guelph atmospheric scientist has helped assemble a comprehensive overview of the problem of urban overheating, defining some key ways that cities can adapt as the planet warms. 

Dr. Scott Krayenhoff, a professor in the Ontario Agricultural College’s School of Environmental Sciences who studies the effects of urban development on climate, is one of two lead authors on the new paper, which appears in the journal Earth’s Future. 

What goes up must come down. That rings true for physics and for a batch of barley seeds University of Guelph scientists sent to space last year. Now that the seeds provided by The Glenlivet have returned to Earth, Dr. Mike Dixon, a professor in the School of Environmental Sciences and director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility, is overseeing their germination.

It’s common practice for farmers to apply insecticides to their crops, but one University of Guelph research team wants to know if the substances they’re using are pollinator friendly. 

Sneha recently graduated with her BScAgr as part of the OAC Class of 2022. She came to Guelph in 2018 as an international student from Mauritius, and despite studying abroad at a particularly challenging time, she excelled. Sneha attributes part of her success to the OAC scholarships she received and the encouragement they inspired in her, including the Rosemont Scholarship in Food Sustainability and Class of '51 O.A.C. Leadership Prize she received at convocation.

It’s not exactly a varsity sport, but training and competing in the annual “weed Olympics” can be equally gruelling. 

The Northeastern Collegiate Weed Science Contest, an annual event that pits the finest plant science students against one another in tough but friendly competition, is set to return this week after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

Continue reading, "Plant Science Students to Compete in International ‘Weed Olympics’" here. 

Ondose. In Ojibwe, it means “to walk from a certain place.”

Brad Howie, the former Anishnaabe environmental educator at the University of Guelph Arboretum, knows how the story of a journey is just as important as its culmination. In his case, the journey was his master’s degree in environmental science, which took place as U of G was welcoming its first students to the new bachelor of Indigenous environmental science and practice (BIESP) program.

Climate change profoundly affects Indigenous peoples in Canada and abroad, but their concerns continue to go unheard, according to a new University of Guelph study led by First Nations communities in Ontario.

Based on a landmark gathering of First Nations representatives from the Great Lakes region, the study urges decision makers to include Indigenous knowledge and perspectives in discussions about climate change impacts, said Dr. Ally Menzies, a post-doc in the School of Environmental Sciences (SES) within the Ontario Agricultural College, and first author of the paper.

For almost a year, the COVID-19 pandemic kept most researchers away from the Arctic, a region key to groundbreaking research on climate change and other pressing environmental concerns. Now, a $205,000 federal grant will enable University of Guelph researchers and their partners in Nunavut to begin an Inuit-led project to help strengthen multi-year science programs in the North.

Amber Zupan completed her undergraduate degree in animal biology at the University of Guelph. She is completing a master of science in animal biosciences focusing on animal nutrition. Her current research is looking at the minimum fibre requirement for feedlot cattle and improving the prediction of ruminal pH. Amber looks forward to working full-time with Grober Nutrition after graduation.