Saskatoon StarPhoenix Staff
Two out of 17 grants awarded recently by the Canadian Space Agency will go to projects at the University of Saskatchewan.
The CSA committed just under $750,000 over three years to a pair of U of S research initiatives that rely on sophisticated satellite imagery.
A team led by agriculture professor Steve Shirtliffe will receive just under $440,000 over three years for a project using machine learning and satellite data to pinpoint “hot spots” where farm fields will be likely to emit nitrous oxide.
The information would enable farmers to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas using “optimized nitrogen fertilizer strategies with products to reduce overall emissions,” according to a U of S media release.
Shirtliffe’s project is trying to achieve “wall-to-wall mapping” of the spatial variabililty of every relevant farm field in Western Canada using satellites, on-the-ground data and machine learning algorithms. The data generated by the project should help farmers boost productivity through more efficient practices, while lowering emissions.
“Efficiency is good for everyone,” Shirtliffe said in the media release.
The CSA gave a further $300,000 over three years to support a project led by Xulin Guo, head of the university’s department of geography and planning.
Guo’s team of researchers is working to develop new ways to monitor the effect of encroachment by woody plants on Saskatchewan grasslands.
Such monitoring is expected to help land managers and conservationists better preserve grassland ecosystems, and better assess “the economic value and social environmental benefits of preserving a healthy grassland ecosystem,” the media release stated.
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Irini Soubry, one of the lead researchers on Guo’s team, noted Prairie grasslands are being degraded by the spread of thick brush and bushes as tall as 1.5 metres.
“We need to know where the woody plants are, how many are present in the grasslands, and how much they have expanded through time,” Soubry said in the release. “And then what is driving this phenomenon, is there a way for us to stop this or reduce the pace at which it’s happening?”
The University of Saskatchewan has had other recent success in securing funds for space-related initiatives.
The province in June announced $600,000 over three years toward an ongoing project at the U of S department of physics and engineering physics that involves teams working to develop instruments that will be used as part of an upcoming NASA satellite mission.
