The registration desk will be located in the Agriculture atrium and open from 18:00–21:00h during the CSSS/CSAFM reception on Tuesday. Wednesday morning, registration will be available from 07:30-10:30h in Health Sciences and then back in the Agriculture atrium Thursday and Friday.

**Online registration is now closed. On-site registration will be available Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.**


Sessions

Room

Day

Session

Conveners

Ag 2E25 Thu AM II 4R N Management Mario Tenuta; Keynote: Rich Farrell
Ag 2E25 Thu AM I 4R P Management Jeff Schoenau; Keynote: Don Flaten
Ag 5C61 Fri AM I Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Program (AGGP) Diane Knight & Colin Laroque
Ag 2C71 Thu AM II CSAFM - Land Atmosphere Shannon Brown & Elyn Humphreys
Ag 2C71 Thu PM CSAFM - Past, Present, Future Climate Sara Knox & Manasah Mkhabela
Ag 2E17

Fri AM I

Fri PM

Developments in Digital Soil Mapping Brandon Heung, Asim Biswas, & Angela Bedard-Haughn
Ag 2C71 Thu AM I Forest Soil Responses Paul Hazlett, Ken Van Rees, & Nicolas Belanger

HS 1150

Wed AM II

General Soil Science

Derek Peak

Ag 1E85

Fri AM II

Greenhouse Gases

Rich Farrell

Ag 2E25

Thu PM 

Nitrogen Cycling

Kate Congreves

Ag 1E85

Thu AM I

NSERC CREATE: Scaling Science to Solutions

Steve Siciliano & Steven Mamet

HS E1130

Wed AM II

Pedology

Dan Saurette Angela Bedard-Haughn

Ag 2E17

Thu PM 

Physics/Hydrology

Bing Si, Asim Biswas, & Miles Dyck

Ag 2E17

Thu AM I

Thu AM II

Remediation & Restoration

Katherine Stewart & Steve Siciliano

TCU Gallery D

Wed PM

Root Soil Interactions (Joint CSSS-Rhizo5 Session)

 Bobbi Helgason & Steven Mamet

Ag 2C71

Fri AM II

Fri PM

Soil Amendments

Ryan Hangs

Ag 2E25 

Fri AM I

Fri AM II

Soil Education (in honour of Prof Terry Tollefson)

Tom YatesMelissa Arcand, & Chukwudi Amadi

Ag 2E17

Fri AM I

Soil Organic Matter

Louis-Pierre Comeau, Hida Manns, & Judith Nyiraneza

Ag 2E25

Fri PM

Soil microbiology and the rhizosphere

Bobbi Helgason & Steven Mamet

 

Developments in Digital Soil Mapping

Conveners: Brandon Heung (Dalhousie), Asim Biswas (University of Guelph), & Angela Bedard-Haughn.

Description: Digital soil mapping (DSM) is the intersection of geographical information systems (GIS) and soil science; its purpose is to produce geographically referenced soil information by correlating legacy and/or field collected soil data to readily available environmental data using a variety of modelling approaches. Key issues in DSM include soil sampling procedures over space; acquisition of soil-environmental data layers; application of remote and proximal sensing techniques; comparison of soil prediction models; and the use and visualization of DSM products to perform digital soil assessments. The objective of this session is to facilitate the dissemination of DSM activities across Canada as well as to promote this subfield of pedology. 

Forest soil response to natural and anthropogenic disturbances

Conveners: Paul Hazlett (Natural Resources Canada-Canadian Forest Service), Ken Van Rees (University of Saskatchewan), & Nicolas Belanger (TELUQ).

Description: In addition to providing fibre and fuel, forests and forest soils provide vital ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, water purification and storage, erosion control, recreational and spiritual opportunities and biodiversity. Forest soils are impacted by natural and anthropogenic disturbances that can disrupt the flow of these services. This session will examine forest disturbances (e.g. climate change, pollution, wildfire, harvesting, mining, land use change) across a range from unmanaged to intensively managed to reclaimed ecosystems. Research focused on Identification of reference state conditions/benchmarking and site amelioration techniques will be included in this session. We invite presentations using field, laboratory and modelling approaches to examine ecosystem disturbance and recovery.

Nitrogen Stewardship: Tightening the Nitrogen Cycle in Agroecosystems

Conveners: Kate Congreves (University of Saskatchewan).

Description: This session focuses on the advancements made towards understanding the N cycle in agroecosystems. We invite contributions that expand the knowledge base for how to improve crop N use efficiency, mitigate N losses via leaching or gaseous emissions, advance methods for monitoring or modeling N, and to better balance crop productivity goals with environmental impacts. Research presentations will encompass a range of topics including management practices (cropping system designs, N input strategies, smart N technologies), soil fertility, plant-soil-microbe interactions, and the biotic and abiotic controls on N cycling and N budgets in agroecosystems.

NSERC CREATE Sustainable Applied Fertilizer and Environmental Remediation (SAFER): Scaling Science to Solutions Workshop 

Conveners: Steve Siciliano and Steven Mamet.

Description: Practitioners and supervisors present a real-world case study or "epitome problem" to inspire problem-solving group discussions related to fertilizer contamination and remediation. E.g., one involving balancing the often conflicting needs of multiple stakeholders
Following the presentation, practitioner-led groups of participants will brainstorm: 1) the challenges presented in the case study, 2) solutions or best practices to address the challenges, and 3) real-world examples of those solutions in practice and the resources available to recreate that success.
Student responses will be collected, organized, and shared with participants at the end of each case study to serve as the foundation for discussion on strategic planning and solution implementation.

Interested? Sign up here!

Pedology

Conveners: Dan Saurette (OMAFRA) & Angela Bedard-Haughn (University of Saskatchewan).

Description: This session will consider all aspects of pedology, from the foundations of soil genesis and classification through to explorations of how soils and associated landscape-scale processes are changing over time in response to changing climate and land use.

The Terry Tollefson Memorial Session on Soil Education: Linking Indigenous and Community Perspectives to Teaching

Conveners: Tom Yates (University of Saskatchewan), Melissa Arcand (University of Saskatchewan), & Chukwudi Amadi (University of Saskatchewan).

Description: As teachers of soil science we share a connection to the land with Indigenous and non-Indigenous land-based communities of many kinds. Soil science education is an excellent opportunity to engage communities and share knowledge from various perspectives. We invite you to share your teaching experiences, especially those that have an element of community engagement and/or those that incorporate Indigenous perspectives and involvement. In support of the theme of the CSSS 2019 Soil Education Session: Linking Indigenous and Community Perspectives to Teaching, we are please to present two invited speakers to open our session:

Marilyn Poitras, LLM Harvard Law – Designer, Facilitator, Saskatoon, SK

Brady Highway, BSc RRM – Resource Management Coordinator, Wanuskewin Heritage Park, Saskatoon, SK. 

SOM - Land-use and climate change influence on soil organic matter/ Process and change in soil carbon from plot to landscape scale

Conveners: Louis-Pierre Comeau (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)Hida Manns (University of Guelph), & Judith Nyiraneza (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada).

Description: Climate change affects soil organic matter (SOM) directly due to changes in soil moisture and temperature regimes, and indirectly through fauna and vegetation alterations. Human activities (i.e. land-uses and management practices) also impact SOM dynamic from molecular to watershed scale. This session will focus on new research regarding how SOM responds to these anthropogenic and environmental disturbances.

Soil carbon connects the earth surface to the biosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere.  Most nutrients are transformed by microbes within soil aggregates to atmospheric gases or stable states bound within organic matter molecules.  Soil carbon is also a major factor in the capacity of soils to hold water in the surface which is beneficial to plant growth.   This session will elucidate the role of soil carbon in maintaining our biosphere through examining the forces and management that increase soil carbon as well as the measurement and processes in loss of soil carbon.  Specific topics will focus on the processes and patterns of soil carbon from plot to landscape scale and in agriculture, forest and peat ecosystems and their intermediate stages.  The processes in the three major biomes need to be assessed for their similarities and their differences in soil carbon change.  Of special interest today is the change in carbon in both space and time that is complimentary to current efforts to measure soil carbon with remote methods.

 


CSAFM Sessions

Land-atmosphere interactions in a changing world (in honour of Professor Terry Gillespie who died on December 2, 2018).

Convenors:  Shannon Brown & Elyn Humphreys

Session Description:

Physical and biological land surface characteristics affect how energy, water, aerosols, and greenhouse gases are exchanged with the atmosphere. Thus, interactions between the land surface and atmosphere represent a key component of the climate system. Land-atmosphere interactions are sensitive to human activities such as management and land use and cover change, along with climate change-induced shifts in vegetation composition and disturbance patterns. Observational, experimental and modelling studies can improve our understanding of land-atmosphere interactions. For example, eddy covariance measurements of fluxes of energy and matter help constrain flux dynamics across multiple time scales from hours to years. Ecosystem models and land surface schemes provide powerful tools to explore biophysical and biogeochemical processes underlying land-atmosphere interactions. This session highlights innovative research of all aspects of land-atmosphere interactions.  

Understanding past, present and future effects of climate on agriculture, forestry and water resources

Convenors:  Sara Knox & Manasah Mkhabela

Session Description :

This session focuses on understanding relationships between climate and land based resource sectors such as agriculture, forestry and water. We invite contributions that expand our knowledge base on how we can use past, present and future climates to better adapt and reduce costs associated with climate change, variability and extreme events. We encourage submissions related (but not limited to) any of the following sub-themes:

  1. Exploring productivity limitations under different climatic regimes.
  2. Integrating climate extremes in ecosystem models.
  3. Mainstreaming climate information in resource based sectors.
  4. Trend, magnitude, frequency and severity analysis of sector specific climate indices under the past, present and future climate scenarios.
  5. Empirical/process-based methods for estimating climate variability impacts on ecosystems across multiple spatio-temporal scales.
  6. Translating weather forecasts into useful decision support tools for natural resource managers.
  7. Remote sensing application in agriculture and forestry

Modelling or measurement-based studies from the following sciences and fields are encouraged: agriculture, forestry, remote sensing, hydrology, climatology, geography, insurance, transportation, energy, actuary and media.