This research will assess if there may be an opportunity to extend the crop harvest beyond the grain to include some portion of the crop residues, without appreciably impairing soil health. Most field studies to investigate the effects of crop residue exports on agroecosystem performance and soil status run for fewer than 10, and often for only 3 yrs. Such short time spans often are too small to appreciably alter C or nitrogen (N) cycling. This project will take advantage of a simple residue manipulation experiment that has been maintained for 20 years at AAFC Lethbridge.
Read MoreThe overall goal of the proposed research is to optimize arbuscular mycorrhizae inoculation potential and subsequent nitrogen use efficiency in cereal crops. This research will provide valuable agronomic knowledge that will enable producers to be more efficient in the application of nitrogen fertilizers and validate the efficacy of AMF inoculation in conjunction with common pesticides used in Canadian cereal crops.
Read MoreThe proposed research into wheat and triticale that can fix atmospheric N2 for their own needs would increase cereal crop productivity in nitrogen-deficient soils and enhance sustainability of system management practices in agriculture by reducing the amount of N fertilizer application, thus saving both money and the environment. The proposed project aims at generation of triticale and wheat varieties with stable trait of Biological Nitrogen Fixation, by genetic engineering of crop plant mitochondrial genomes with the nitrogen fixation genes originating from BNF bacteria.
Read MoreThis project will generate information on how P fertilizer source (form) and its interaction with placement and rate influences yield, fertilizer P recovery and use efficiency in a cereal-pulse-oilseed rotation. This study will also analyze the potential loss of soluble reactive phosphate off-site in spring snowmelt runoff in contrasting soils, and its relationship to the forms of P that accumulate in the soil and water. There is limited information on how different P fertilizer forms may behave as available P sources for crops when added to prairie soils, and no information on how they relate to P export off-site in comparison to conventional mono-ammonium phosphate.
Read MoreThis project will generate information on how P fertilizer source (form) and its interaction with placement and rate influences yield, fertilizer P recovery and use efficiency in a cereal-pulse-oilseed rotation. This study will also analyze the potential loss of soluble reactive phosphate off-site in spring snowmelt runoff in contrasting soils, and its relationship to the forms of P that accumulate in the soil and water.
Read MoreThus, the focus of this project is to provide spatially and temporally integrated data on greenhouse gas (GHG; N2O and CO2) emissions at the field scale level obtained using micrometeorological techniques that will be used to determine net ecosystem exchange and the net carbon footprint of the cropping system (canola cereal rotation). This research will support the policy development for local producers as they enter the carbon economy and to ensure the competitiveness of Saskatchewan agriculture.
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