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Soil assessment for urban agriculture: a Vancouver case study

Urban agriculture is becoming more prevalent in North American cities. With the rise of urban farming comes the need to evaluate the soil and the urban environment to assess potential risks of metal contamination due to pollution in urban-grown food. Community gardens and urban farms are often…

Quinoa Production in the Urban Environment

With urban agriculture becoming more prevalent in cities comes the need for health assessments of crops grown in urban environments. Many urban farms are located on “brownfields,” lots that have become contaminated with trace metals. Plants grown in brownfields can take up trace metals from…

Balancing nitrogen and phosphorus on organic vegetable farms

In the first episode of the Organic BC podcast, they discuss on-farm research trials that compared different combinations of organic amendments (composts and organic fertilizer) and their impact to crop yield, soil carbon, input costs, and residual soil nutrients. Amy Norgaard, a former Master of…

Using tarps as overwinter soil cover

In this episode of the Organic BC podcast, we'll be learning about on-farm research trials that examined the role that silage tarps can play in managing agricultural soils in the winter months in British Columbia. Raelani Kesler, Master of Soil Science student with the Sustainable Agricultural…

The Impact of Biosolids on Soil Quality and Native Grasses

Biosolids are organic amendments resulting from municipal wastewater treatment processes. They contain appreciable amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and organic matter, and are regulated to meet safe pathogen levels and metal contents. In British Columbia (BC), 38,000 dry tonnes of biosolids are…

Vancouver Soil Map

This web-based tool provides unique learning opportunities on the topics of soil formation, urban agriculture, and ecological processes within an urban setting. The tool was designed with the intention of providing greater access to valuable information on land-use opportunities within the city of…

SoilWeb200: An Introduction to Fundamental Soil Science Concepts

SoilWeb200 is an interactive introduction to basic soil science concepts, including soil classification, soil biology, and soil components.  It relates these concepts to soil various soil management issues.

Barley–Pea Intercropping: Growing Crops Together to Improve Land Productivity

Growing barley as the sole crop in a field has impacts on land productivity by decreasing soil carbon and nitrogen. Sustainable nitrogen management is challenging due to the increasing cost of nitrogen fertilizers, the emission of nitrous oxide, and the potential of nitrates contaminating both…