Media releases

• Expert Advisory: Brock scientists help protect vineyards during frigid temperatures

  Thursday, January 31, 2019 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 31 January 2019 – R00014

  With extreme cold weather alerts across most of the province, scientists at Brock University are helping grape growers avoid crop loss.

  As the mercury plummeted, researchers and students were already out in the vineyards collecting grapevine buds for the VineAlert program run by Brock’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI), in partnership with the Grape Growers of Ontario.

  Back in the lab, scientists have been analyzing the data to track a grape bud’s ability to survive these cold temperatures. This helps growers and wineries know when they should turn on wind machines to protect vines from winter injury and how to manage any damage they may have sustained.

  “We are closely monitoring this extreme weather across Ontario and sampling in vineyards to determine what impact it will have on bud survival,” said Jim Willwerth, CCOVI’s Senior Viticulturist. “We are then able to provide that timely information to the industry to help mitigate any impact through pruning practices and adjustments in the vineyard to reduce economic loss.”

  Although the cold snap is set to end this weekend, the work has just begun in the cold hardiness lab. Scientists should know within the next few weeks what sort of impact this deep-freeze has had on crops.

  Jim Willwerth, CCOVI Senior Viticulturist, is available for interviews.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Britt Dixon, Communications Officer, Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute, Brock University bdixon@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x4471

   * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

  Categories: Media releases

• Excavation of abandoned shipyard among innovative Brock projects awarded federal funding

  Thursday, January 31, 2019 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 31 January 2019 – R00013

  Along the winding river that cuts through the heart of St. Catharines lie keys to the Garden City’s maritime past, relics of a glorious industrial era still evident today.

  A research team led by Brock University archaeologist and maritime historian Kimberly Monk aims to uncover an abandoned shipyard built by a Maltese immigrant in the 19th century, along with workers’ cottages and even the hull of a ship.

  Monk’s project, the first of its kind in Canada, is one of five headed up by Brock University faculty members that have been awarded Insight Development Grants (IDG) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Brock University’s IDG awards totalled $282,388 in 2018.

  Monk’s project will see a team of archaeologists, historians, geographers and geophysicists from three Ontario universities and their students excavating and documenting the Shickluna Shipyard, which operated from 1838 to 1891 along St. Catharines’ Twelve Mile Creek.

  “Shipyards form an important part of the maritime landscape but opportunities to study them are rare,” says Monk, Professor of History. “The location and extended use of this site will provide an unmatched opportunity to investigate how the shipbuilding industry shaped the social and economic culture of Niagara.”

  In addition to Monk, other IDG recipients include:

  • Julia Baird, Canada Research Chair, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences: A comparative analysis of approaches to evaluating ecological outcomes from environmental stewardship. Baird and her team are working with the Niagara Parks Commission to compare different approaches in monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of environmental stewardship initiatives.
  • Jessica Clark, Faculty of Humanities: Scents of Change: smell and selfhood in modern Britain, 1880-1930. Clark is studying modern British nationalism, identity and difference through attention to smell. She asks how certain scents, such as lavender, came to be associated with a British identity while others, including cooking odours or pollutants, could be associated with difference. This increases general understandings of historical ideas about British identity and how groups such as the urban poor or foreign nationals fit into this identity.
  • Hannah Dyer, Faculty of Social Sciences: Drawing Queer and Trans Family: Understanding Kinship through Children’s Art. Dyer and her team will ask children to draw and describe their family portraits as a way of deepening understanding of the needs and aspirations of children in LGBTQ2+ families.
  • Tim Fletcher, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences: Meaningful physical education: Testing a model for teaching and learning. Fletcher and his team will test a model for teaching physical education that prioritizes “meaningful experiences” for students, which consist of social interaction, challenge, fun, motor competence, personally relevant learning and delight.

  “We’re very proud of our researchers and scholars, whose groundbreaking work increases our understanding of issues that touch upon the environment, children, history and culture,” says Brock Vice-President, Research Tim Kenyon.

  For her part, Monk says her team’s award will go far.

  “These funds will enable our multidisciplinary goals so we may address how to re-engage local historic environments and ensure heritage corridors are managed and interpreted effectively,” she says.

  “We are grateful for the opportunity to document this nationally-significant archaeological site and look forward to sharing our results with the community.”

  Insight Development Grants support research in its initial stages. The grants enable the development of new research questions, as well as experimentation with new methods, theoretical approaches and/or ideas. Funding is provided for short-term research development projects of up to two years, proposed by individuals or teams.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases