Soil moisture is one of the sensitive variables in environmental modelling and management. Periodical estimation of soil moisture is crucial for scheduling and managing timely irrigation. Therefore, this study involves Sentinel-1 (S-1) Single Look Complex (SLC) & Ground Range Detected (GRD) data products to remotely extract topsoil moisture (~ 5cm) by relating their backscatter coefficients to the in-situ soil moisture and optical vegetation indices (NDVI, DpRVI). The S-1 images were collected and analyzed for five individual field sites in Quebec. Canada. Several model combinations of these input variables were framed and statistically analyzed for their significance in soil moisture retrieval through inverse modelling techniques. Supervised machine learning techniques Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) were employed for the algorithm development and testing. The input data was divided into 60:40 ratio as the training and testing set, respectively. The results of this study prove that there is a significant effect of optical vegetation indices on soil moisture extraction.

Planting density, or the number of plants per unit area, is an important factor in determining the production capacity of a controlled environment plant factory. The aim of this study was to investigate plant competition by examining how plant growth and productivity are affected by plant density, focusing on two romaine lettuce cultivars (Lactuca sativa var. longifolium ‘Valley Heart’ and ‘Breen’). To compare the performance of these cultivars, four different spacing conditions were implemented in an ebb and flow hydroponic system in the research greenhouse at the McGill’s Macdonald campus. Both square and rectangular spacing conditions were utilized to assess lettuce head and heart formation. Valley Heart had a higher yield in lower spacing conditions than Breen. The formation of heads and hearts varied among cultivars in different spacing conditions. Breen exhibited the potential to form heads and hearts in lower density conditions, while Valley Heart demonstrated a tendency to bolt under these same conditions. These findings contribute to a better understanding of different cultivars’ responses to planting density in terms of productivity, providing valuable insight into optimizing lettuce cultivation in hydroponic systems.

The benefits of using carbonized organic matter (biocher) as a trickling filter in a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) has shown to provide not only fine mechanical filtration capacity, but also a huge surface area that provides for efficient biological filtration as well. The combined action of this material in RAS has proven itself very beneficial to improving water quality and fish health for a small commercial sized tilapia production facility. The impact, restrictions and limitations of this technology will be reviewed in its use at the Aquaculture Centre of Excellence, Lethbridge College.