OVERVIEW
|
Landscape Four is centered on supporting the development of sustainable northern food systems in a time of climatic change. We have focused on identifying and quantifying key ecosystem service trade-offs facing northern communities both now and in the potential climates that may come. To do this work we have taken a two-pronged approach considering emerging, paradigm shifting food production practices being developing in Canada’s far north while also studying the expansion of more traditional agricultural practices at it’s northern limits. Specifically, we have partnered with rural communities in the Northwest Territories (NWT) to help leadership navigate the costs and benefits of maintaining boreal forest lands that support traditional country foods or converting those lands into small-scale, community-centered cultivation systems. In Northern Ontario, we are exploring potential opportunities and barriers for expanding field crop production and discussing the trade-offs in ecosystem services that would result from development. We are also conducting participatory mapping exercises to generate a greater understanding of how critical components of the food system in Indigenous communities may be impacted by climate change.
|
|
|
Moving forward we have expanded our community partnerships in NWT and are working with leadership to (1) provide a soil fertility testing program across the South Slave region and (2) identify local scale drivers of soil fertility that are dependable indicators of productive lands in the north.
In northern Ontario, we are working on the characterization of food systems that will shed light on the preconditions to building resilience in Indigenous food systems as climate change progresses. |
|
LANDSCAPE 4 TEAM
Evan Fraser Co-lead University of Guelph 
Oveka Obroh she/her Phd student University of Guelph 
Merritt Turetsky Collaborator University of Colorado Boulder |
Catherine Dieleman she/her CO-LEAD University of Guelph 
Elisha Robbins she/her Master's student University of Guelph |
Krishna KC POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER University of Guelph 
Evan Schijns he/him Master's student University of Guelph |
Jane Mariotti she/her Master's student University of Guelph 
Andrew Spring COLLABORATOR Wilfrid Laurier |
David Bysouth he/him ALUM |
Bowen Roger she/her ALUM |
PARTNER ORGANIZATION
Government of Northwest Territories
FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
|
Post-fire recovery of soil organic layer carbon in Canadian boreal forests.
Bill, K.E., Dieleman, C.M., Baltzer, J.L., Degre-Timmons, G.E., Mack, M.C., Day, N.J., Cumming, S.G., Walker, X.J., and Turetsky, M.R.(2023)
Conifer forests historically have been resilient to wildfires in part due to thick organic soil layers that regulate combustion and post-fire moisture and vegetation change. However, recent shifts in fire activity in western North America may be overwhelming these resilience mechanisms with potential impacts for energy and carbon exchange. Here, we quantify the long-term recovery of the organic soil layer and its carbon pools across 511 forested plots.
|
|
Opportunities beyond CO2 for climate mitigation
Dieleman, C.M., Bhatia, A., Ravikumar, A., Llovell, F., Svane, S., Tibrewal, K., Zaelke, D., and Murphy, A. (2023)
Most climate change mitigation strategies focus on reducing CO2 emissions. However, non-CO2 greenhouse gases and other anthropogenic climate drivers, though less abundant than CO2, can be more powerful climate warmers. This Voices asks, “What are the important actions to reduce non-CO2 warming forcers to help the world reach Paris Agreement targets?”
|
|
Climate change–driven agricultural frontiers and their ecosystem trade-offs in the hills of Nepal
KC, K.B., Tzadok, E., and Mandal, A.K. (2023).
This paper approximated how much new land could become suitable for cropping maize, rice, wheat, millet, buckwheat, and barley in Nepal by 2041–2060 and 2081–2100 periods under climate change projection. Additionally, this paper estimates the potential environmental trade-offs of agricultural expansion in Nepal by evaluating how carbon stores, protected areas, tree cover, and river systems would be traded for agriculture. Results show that under climate change projected by WorldClim under three different climate change scenarios, up to ~36,983km2 of land may become available for agriculture by 2100 in the high mountains of Nepal
|
|
Agriculture for the Anthropocene: novel applications of technology and the future of food
Newman, L., Newell, R., Dring, C., Glaros, A., Fraser, E., Mendly‑Zambo, Z., Green, A. G., and KC, K. B. (2023).
This paper explores the challenges and opportunities of integrating emerging technologies and food production approaches (e.g., digital agriculture, genomic innovations, cellular agriculture, hydroponic farming) and coupling these with industrial and urban design principles (e.g., industrial ecology, mixed-use densification). We characterize a high-yield, local (HYL) agriculture approach, which involves shorter supply chains, decentralized control of the food system, and potentially reduced land use as well as a lower environmental footprint.
|
