We are seeking a soil scientist to play a leadership role in measuring the soil health, soil carbon, and biological community of soils as we trial crops, soil amendments, and best management practices for farming in northern soils. This postdoctoral position will co-lead a research team to evaluate the efficacy of experimental soil amendments, support other graduate student research involving soil, and replicate trials in a new location in the Northwest Territories. Activities will include soil sampling and analysis, controlled environment experiments, manuscript preparation and development of outreach materials to provide recommendations for soil amendment use and best management practices. This postdoctoral researcher will also directly support the development and implementation of agricultural practices for small-scale commercial food production as a major focus of their position. Additionally, we will consider soil amendment trials that remediate and/or track potential contaminants within northern firebreaks such as fire retardant and arsenic.

For more details, background information, qualifications and contact information please read the position posting.

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Fire suppression was required around many NWT communities in summer 2023 and concerns have been raised about the safety of food harvested on these lands. To address this concern, we will evaluate the impact of flame retardant application in northern plants and soils where food is harvested and/or grown.

Our goals will be to:

1. map the application of flame retardant in NWT in 2023 based on fire management records and calibrate this with Landsat data to more precisely map the spatial distribution of flame retardant and develop methods to apply this in previous years;
2. apply tools developed in 1 to evaluate the persistence of flame retardant on the landscape;
3. quantify the spectral response of lakes whose catchments received flame retardant to evaluate changes in productivity and detect algal bloom activity.

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There is a need for NWT specific research to support and scale commercial farming with the aim of improving food security and reducing carbon emission associated with the food system. The ideal PhD student will help to develop NWT-tailored research on cover cropping, including the impact of cover crop on soil health, soil carbon, soil biology; the impact of cover crop on improving low productivity soils, feasibility of cover cropping including timing, seed mixture, and seed production for NWT. The project will support project goals of reducing carbon emissions, improving soil health, reducing external input use, and creating NWT-specific growth and yield curves. 

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