Once again, we are collaborating with Living Lab New Brunswick to support their mission to develop climate-smart management practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance carbon sequestration in agricultural systems. This summer, we carried out two of their protocols: the Soil Your T-Shirt initiative and a pollinator survey.
Threads in the Dirt: When Cotton Meets Microbes
In early June, PWA staff participated in the Soil Your T-Shirt Initiative by burying two T-shirts, one at Creek Home farm and the other at W.A. Farm Ltd. You might be wondering why we would do such a thing. Well, this simple experiment is an easy and effective way to assess soil health. The 100% cotton T-shirts will remain buried for three months, during which we expect to see some level of deterioration. A highly decomposed T-shirt indicates a higher level of microbial activity, which is a sign of healthy soil.
For the Love of Bees
Pollinators are essential to the success of agricultural systems. While the soil, sunlight, and water are important, many fruit and vegetable crops depend on visits from bees, butterflies, and other pollinators for successful fruiting. We are proud have partnered up once again with Living Lab New Brunswick. This summer, we monitored two farms located in Salisbury to track local pollinator activity. Once a month during June, July, and August, team members deployed cup traps (in a variety of colors) and blue vane traps in grassy strips near agricultural plots. After a week, the traps were collected, and the insects caught were stored in ethanol to preserve them until they are sent to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for species identification.
This approach helps monitor both insect abundance and species diversity. We’re grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Living Lab New Brunswick again this summer and to contribute new data that can help further our understanding of pollinator processes.