Study of northern Ontario insects aims to help increase food production
Northern Ontario is well known for its abundance of bugs.
Now, researchers from southern Ontario are curious to know more about our insects for several reasons, including being part of a larger project to increase food production.
A team from the University of Guelph has set a number of fly traps and is collecting samples.
Tents are being set up in northern Ontario's boreal forest. Known as a 'malaise' tent, it's used to trap insects.
Junior research technician Emily Kyle said they're trying to catch flying insects.
"So they fly into the sides of the trap and then they fly up into the bottle and fall back down into the alcohol bottle," Kyle said. "It traps them.”
Researchers are venturing north because they say there's nothing original left in the south's mixed-wood plains due to urbanization. They say the north is less impacted by humans, which will allow them to do a comparison.
Dirk Steinke, of the University of Guelph, said the goal is to understand the diversity of the bugs in this part of Ontario.
"That’s why we chose particular sites, or particular regions," Steinke said. "We’re tying to understand how much impact we humans already had on these species.”
Kyle said she comes to town every two weeks to collect samples.
"We’ll see what this one has in this sample today," she said. "There’s a lot of flies, moths, and butterflies today, but it’s different every time I come back."
There are 45 tents set up throughout northeastern Ontario. They're in urban locations, provincial parks and areas that have had trees harvested.
"We’re trying to identify everything that is in one of those bottles by using DNA-based methods," Steinke said.
"So there’s a small section of the genome that’s characteristic for each species and then we can tell what types of animals were trapped at the particular time there.”
Officials said some insects can tell us things about the health of the environment.
The project is also part of a bigger program called Food From Thought, a University of Guelph research project looking to develop solutions to improve agricultural production.
The sampling began in May and runs until October.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge U.S. to prosecute the company
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.