College of Agriculture and Bioresources

Research Area(s)

  • Agronomy
  • Cropping Systems
  • Crop Physiology

Department

  • Department of Plant Sciences
  • Department of Soil Science

Research Interests

My research program aims to conduct interdisciplinary systems-based research to improve the resilience, sustainability and profitability of grain production in Western Canada and semi-arid environments in general. Through collaborations with the existing expertise present at the University of Saskatchewan, as well as engagement with grain producers, my program aims to take a broad look at how agronomic practices can be developed or adapted to address sustainability issues. I am particularly interested in testing new systems, for example, cover crops, intercropping, re-integrating livestock with grain cropping, and winter broadleaf cultivation, among others. I am also trained as a crop physiologist, and I am interested in investigating drought adaptive traits, with an emphasis on improving water use efficiency in pulses.

Education

Ph.D, McGill University, 2004-2009, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Plant Science Department, Crop Physiology.

Selected Recent Publications

Bourgault, M., Webber, H.A., Chenu, K., O’Leary, G.J., Gaiser, T., Sibert, S., Dreccer, F., Huth, N., Fitzgerald, G., Tausz, M., Ewert, F., 2020. Early vigour in wheat: could it lead to more severe terminal drought stress under elevated atmospheric [CO2] and semi-arid conditions? Global Change Biology (In Press).

Tausz-Posch, S., Tausz, M., Bourgault, M., 2020. Elevated [CO2] effects on crops: Advances in understanding acclimation, nitorgen dynamics and interactions with drought and other organisms. Plant Biology 22(Suppl 1):38-51.

Bourgault, M., Löw, M., Tausz-Posch, S., Nuttall, J., Delahunty, A.J., Brand, J., Panozzo, J., McDonald, L., O’Leary, G.J., Armstrong, R.D., Fitzgerald, G.J, Tausz, M., 2018. Effect of a heat wave on lentil grown under Free Air CO2 Enrichment in a semi-arid environment. Crop Science 58, 1-10.

Christy, B., Tausz-Posch, S., Tausz, M., Richards, R., Rebetzke, G., Condon, A., McLean, T., Fitzgerald, G., Bourgault, M., O’Leary, G., 2018. Benefits of increasing transpiration efficiency in wheat under elevated CO2 for rainfed regions. Global Change Biology 24, 1965-1977.

Bourgault, M., Brand, J., Tausz-Posch, S., Nuttall, J., O’Leary, G., Armstrong, R., Fitzgerald, G., Tausz, M., 2017. Growth, yield and grain nitrogen response in six lentil (Lens culinaris) cultivars grown under Free Air CO2 Enrichment in a semi-arid environment. European Journal of Agronomy 87, 50-58.

Funding Sources

Western Grains Research Foundation Research Chair in Integrated Agronomy

Courses

PSLC 222.3: Introduction to Field Crops (January 2021)