“Can we simultaneously decontaminate and cultivate? An urban cherry tomato story” with Marie-Anne Viau and Dr. Adrian Paul

Contamination of various kinds can make it difficult to ensure healthy and safe food crops in urban agriculture. Phytoremediation is a strategy where we may be able to use plants’ incredible natural abilities to help with this problem. This episode, Marie-Anne and Adrian join me to discuss harnessing phytoremediation to help clean soils for tomato crops.

Tune in to learn:

·        How phytoremediation works

·        How researchers process contaminated plant material

·        Whether phytoremediation can help boost soil health and yields

·        How phytoremediation compares to other phytoremediation methods

If you would like more information about this topic, this episode’s paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.1002/uar2.20051

This paper is always freely available.

Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe. If you’d like to see old episodes or sign up for our newsletter, you can do so here: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/.

If you would like to reach out to Marie-Anne, you can find her here: [email protected]  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marie-Anne-Viau

If you would like to reach out to Adrian, you can find him here: [email protected] 

If you would like to reach out to Charanpreet Kaur from our Student Spotlight, you can find her here: [email protected] Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charanpreet-kaur-dhiman Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Cpk_Dhiman

Resources

CEU Quiz: https://web.sciencesocieties.org/Learning-Center/Courses/Course-Detail?productid=%7b3C0FB739-3B24-EF11-840A-000D3A37CD5C%7d 

Transcripts: https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/shared/FQ_1GJJOxhareqg61_gneDKAlS_TJH6X9rTcwz4TH_Rg92t-q_J6qkO_FYzxWZYK6Av9vFe0qOJbXgZZo1-Dbdx9kTE?loadFrom=SharedLink 

The Potential for Urban Agriculture in New York City: growing capacity, food security & green infrastructure: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268516292_The_Potential_for_Urban_Agriculture_in_New_York_City_growing_capacity_food_security_green_infrastructure

Carrot City: Creating Places for Urban Agriculture: https://www.torontomu.ca/carrotcity/book.html

Articles mentioned by Adrian:

“Beyond Cleansing: Ecosystem Services Related to Phytoremediation” article: https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/12/5/1031

“Reclamation of urban brownfields through phytoremediation: Implications for building sustainable and resilient towns” article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1618866721003915

Coverage on research presented in English:

“Montreal researchers use willows to decontaminate polluted soil, groundwater” article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-researchers-use-willows-to-decontaminate-polluted-soil-groundwater-1.4672233

“Researchers are using plants to tackle urban pollution” article: https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/researchers-are-using-plants-to-tackle-urban-pollution/

“Where there's a willow, there's a way: City using saplings to decontaminate land” news story: https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/where-there-s-a-willow-there-s-a-way-city-using-saplings-to-decontaminate-land-1.3947252

Research leader Michel Labrecque’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichelPhyto

Plant Biology Research Institute Twitter: https://twitter.com/IRBV_Montreal

Website for research leader Michel Labrecque: https://irbv.umontreal.ca/le-personnel/michel-labrecque/

Urban Agriculture program at Collège Ahuntsic (French): https://www.collegeahuntsic.qc.ca/programmes-dec/techniques/agriculture-urbaine

Cultive ta Ville Montreal (French): https://cultivetaville.com/fr/cartes/montreal

Correction

Adrian mentions a plant with up to 25% of Ni, but it is 25% of Ni in the latex, not the sap. More information can be found here: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45398434

Field, Lab, Earth is Copyrighted by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.