Grant: Alliance Grants

Wild lowbush blueberry (WLB) is an important crop in the Canadian agri-food industry with about 160,000 acres in production and exports exceeding 200 million dollars per year. Although current carbon (C) storage in WLB fields remains unknown, a gross estimation suggests that WLB fields may store up to 400T CO2eq/ha (as soil C) in the first 20-cm soil layers only, making these lands one of the most important C sequestration potential of Canada. No literature nor documentation are currently available for WLB C sequestration potential in either the vegetation and the soil. The main objective of this research proposal is to leverage Canadian WLB fields to climate change mitigation by adopting management practices that enhance C sequestration into the soil and plant. This project will likely be divided in five sections lead by a multidisciplinary group of Canadian researchers. The first part (part 1) of this project will assess C storage in Canadian field systems. In this section, researchers aim to determine how C pools vary spatially at the field scale. Numerous factors may impact C storage, such as topography, field position to windbreak (or forest), field age, etc. The second part (part 2) will test how current management practices impact C storage. Long term (>6 years) existing experiments (plots) from Québec and Maritimes will be sampled. Third (part 3), the impacts of new and novel techniques will be evaluated. New research plots will be implemented, testing inputs with great C storage potential such as biochars. Fourth (part 4), life cycle assessment (LCA) will be done on the most significant practices to show the global positive (or negative) impacts of those relevant practices on climate change mitigation. Along with adapting Holos (soil C software) to WLB cropping system, LCA will help stakeholders targeting practices with greater global impacts. Finally, all perceptions, beliefs, and other social constraints will be assessed in part 5 to support producers in adopting these novel C-storage practices at the farm and at the global scales. All together, parts 1 to 5 will lever Canadian WLB industry to deeply and significantly participate to climate change mitigation within a near future.