Federal government researchers have undertaken the controlled destruction of a riparian area along a small experimental watershed in the South Nation River basin east of Ottawa in order to study the impact of common agricultural and water management practices on both ecosystem and human health.
Researchers at the AAFC research station at Harrow in southwestern Ontario are collaborating with a team from ECCC to study how agricultural practices can affect microbial communities in the soil and the impact on the health of the soil and nearby watercourses, including contributing to the development of harmful algal blooms.
Researchers at the Public Health Agency of Canada have developed a computer-based tool for subtyping Salmonella bacteria. Called BioHansel, the new tool will allow enhanced surveillance, source attribution and risk assessment for Salmonella, one of the most common causes of food poisoning in Canada and the world.
Equipped with advanced genomic technologies, federal researchers are building the knowledge that may enable prediction and possibly even prevention of harmful algal blooms—the often-toxic green slime caused by uncontrolled growth of cyanobacteria that invades our waterways every summer.
Federal researchers are using genomics technologies to enhance monitoring of biodiversity at the bottom of Canada’s lakes and rivers—a key indicator of the health of a body of water.
Researchers from 7 federal departments involved in the Ecobiomics project have adopted the same protocols for conducting and reporting metagenomic analysis of thousands of soil and water samples collected across Canada.