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Trees Can Help Save the World - Chapter 1 Watch complete playlist (Chapters 1-7) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeR2DZtnlTQtik4SxT9unDrVP5Gu2aEPb For more information about the Canadian Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Program, visit: http://agr.gc.ca To contact researchers: agordon@uoguelph.ca nthevath@uoguelph.ca Robert.Bradley@USherbrooke.ca Thanks to: William F.J. Parsons (translation) and Michel Caron (videography) at the University of Sherbrooke Edited Transcript: Farm fields emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere - gases that contribute to global warming. In this video and the chapters that follow, you’ll see how Canadian scientists are quantifying the ability of trees to mitigate the release of greenhouse gases from farm fields. This information didn’t exist until now, within the context of agroforestry land-use in Canada. The research project focuses on tree-based intercropping systems. Trees are planted in rows and farm crops are grown in the alleys between the rows of trees. The project is funded by Canada’s Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Program. Dr. Naresh Thevathasan manages the project. Dr. Thevathasan: The Canadian government identified four major areas of the agricultural sector under the AGG program. These areas are the livestock sector, cropping systems, water use efficiency and agroforestry. We received funding for the tree-based inter-cropping system research under the agroforestry stream. Canada is a founding member of the Global Research Alliance, an international organization dedicated to solving some of the world’s biggest problems. Dr. Thevathasan: The Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Program is Canada's contribution toward the Global Research Alliance's effort to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector. There are six universities involved. The University of Guelph is the lead university. We have the University of Toronto involved in this project, Sherbrooke University, Laval University, McGill and the University of Alberta. We have about ten graduate students involved across these universities. And about 14 researchers are involved across Canada. Here at the University of Guelph, intercropping research got its start in 1987 when two-year old trees were first planted at this site. Dr. Andrew Gordon is the director of the university’s agroforestry research and development program. Dr. Gordon: So this makes these trees, twenty-nine years old. In the early stages of the research, we were very much interested in the effects that the crop had on the tree. As the trees aged, we became very much interested in the effects that the trees had on the crops. So the project was set up initially with ten species of trees, three crops, corn, beans and wheat, two row spacings, twelve metres and fifteen metres and six soil types, all possible combinations. So I think this is probably the largest randomized complete block design experiment in the entire world. In Quebec, Dr. Robert Bradley manages the project at Sherbrooke University. Dr. Bradley: The project started in 2004 with the participation of the Universities of Sherbrooke, Montreal, Laval and McGill. Since then, we’ve been collecting a lot of data. We installed probes for measuring soil temperature and soil moisture over time, as well as greenhouse gas emissions at two soil depths. Dr. Bradley: This experiment follows up on a study that we performed in 2007 and 2008, which showed that tree-based intercropping reduced nitrous oxide emissions by up to two-thirds. Nitrous oxide is among the most important greenhouse gases that are linked to agriculture practices in Quebec. Dr. Gordon: We have a research partner at the University of Alberta as well, Dr. Robert Grant. He's a computer modeler. So with a graduate student, he's been looking at data that we have supplied him and that Dr. Bradley has supplied him and is actually using different types of models to project into the future, how much carbon can be sequestered, how many greenhouse gases, which types of greenhouse gases can be mitigated, etc. Providing all this information to farmers is a key element of the research project. Dr. Thevathasan says they are channeling their research results in two directions. Dr. Thevathasan: One, to the Global Research Alliance through scientific publications. Two, we are also working with non-governmental organizations who are working closely with the farming communities such as the Ontario Soil & Crop Improvement Association in Ontario and the Young Farmers Club in Quebec, so that the research findings reach a wide audience especially to the farming communities. Farmers need answers to questions they have about tree-based intercropping. This research provides science-based information about the effects that trees may have on farm crops and how farmers can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.