Alan Lyons family soils at guelph graduate scholarship
Each year, the Alan Lyons Family Soils At Guelph Graduate Scholarship supports graduate students at the University of Guelph whose work is shaping the future of sustainable soil management in Ontario and beyond. Established by Alan Lyons in recognition of his family’s long legacy of farming in Ontario, the scholarship reflects a deep personal commitment to the next generation of soil health researchers.
The 2025 year’s recipients are tackling two pressing challenges facing Ontario agriculture: how to keep nitrogen fertilizer in the field where it belongs, and how the invisible microbial world beneath our feet responds and adapts to the management choices we make above it.
Here’s a look at the research being conducted by the 2025 Alan Lyons Scholarship recipients.
2025 recipients:
Henry Bourret
Assessing Fertilizer Nitrogen Leaching in Winter Wheat: Can Nitrification and Urease Inhibitors Help?
Henry Bourret is a Master of Science student in Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph, working under the supervision of Dr. Claudia Wagner-Riddle.
Over 80% of Canadian winter wheat production takes place in Ontario, making it one of the province’s most important crops. Each spring, growers apply nitrogen fertilizer to support the crop through its critical growth stages — but that same season presents a serious challenge. Spring in southern Ontario typically brings a water-budget surplus, meaning more water enters the soil than leaves through evaporation or plant uptake. The result: large drainage events that carry nitrogen fertilizer deep into the soil profile and out of reach of the crop.
This leaching of nitrogen is not just a yield program – it is an environmental and economic one. Nitrogen lost below the root zone can enter waterways, contributing to nutrient pollution and representing a direct financial loss for growers.
Henry’s research is investigating whether a nitrification and urease inhibitor (NUI) added to standard urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) fertilizer can reduce how much nitrogen is lost to leaching during this vulnerable window. To track the fertilizer’s movement precisely, Henry is using 15N traced fertilizer — a form of nitrogen with a slightly heavier atomic weight that can be identified and measured separately from the nitrogen already present in the soil. This approach allows him to quantify exactly how much of the applied fertilizer is leaching, rather than relying on estimates.
The study is being conducted on weighing lysimeters — instrumented field plots that allow researchers to collect water samples from 90 centimetres below the soil surface at regular intervals. Henry is comparing four treatment combinations across two soil types (silt loam and loamy sand), each receiving either UAN alone or UAN with the NUI. Water samples collected approximately every seven days are analyzed for nitrogen concentration, and 15N samples are processed using isotope ratio mass spectrometry to determine the fertilizer’s contribution to leaching.
The research trials are actively underway. Fertilizer was applied in late April 2026, with the first leachate samples collected in early May. Results from this study could give Ontario winter wheat growers a clearer picture of whether inhibitor-treated fertilizers are a worthwhile investment for protecting both their bottom line and local water quality.
For more information about Henry Bourret’s research, please contact Dr. Claudia Wagner-Riddle.
Hayden Hornick-Martyk
Can Cover Crops Help Corn Survive Drought? Looking to the Microbiome for Answers.
Hayden Hornick-Martyk is a Master of Science student in Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph, working under the supervision of Dr. Kari Dunfield, Professor of Soil and Environmental Microbiology, in collaboration with Dr. Laura Van Eerd, Professor of Sustainable Soil Management.
Every plant growing in a farmer’s field is surrounded — and inhabited — by a complex community of microorganisms. Bacteria, archaea, and fungi live in the soil and inside plant roots, forming what researchers call the plant microbiome. These microbial communities are not passive bystanders. They convert nutrients from forms the plant cannot use into forms it can, produce compounds that help plants tolerate stress, and respond dynamically to changes in the growing environment.
Plants, in turn, actively shape the communities around them. By releasing compounds through their roots, known as root exudates, they can attract and sustain microorganisms that benefit their growth and survival. Hayden’s research focuses on how that relationship between plant and microbiome changes when farming practices change — and what that means when crops face stress.
Specifically, Hayden is asking whether long-term cover cropping gives sweet corn a biological advantage during drought. If cover crops build a more diverse and beneficial microbial community in the soil over time, does that community help the plant cope when water becomes scarce?
To find out, Hayden is analyzing soil and root samples collected from Dr. Laura Van Eerd’s long-term cover cropping trial in summer 2025, during which a drought treatment was imposed on the plots. By extracting DNA from these samples and sequencing the microbial communities present, Hayden can identify which microorganisms were active in cover-cropped versus non-cover-cropped soils during the drought period. He is also characterizing the functional potential of those communities — in other words, not just who is there, but what they can do for the plant.
If the results show greater numbers of plant-beneficial microbes and stress-tolerance functions in cover-cropped soils under drought, it would offer growers something concrete: a biological explanation for why cover crops may be especially valuable in seasons with dry spells, and a compelling reason to adopt or maintain them.
For more information about Hayden Hornick-Martyk’s research, please contact Dr. Kari Dunfield
About the Alan Lyons Family Soils at Guelph Graduate Scholarship
Alan Lyons and his family have a long legacy of farming in Ontario. Mr. Lyons established this scholarship in recognition of his family’s contributions to agriculture and to promote soil health research through up-and-coming young scientists. Soils At Guelph is proud to be the partner advancing this mission — making research accessible and facilitating knowledge exchange across the province.
Award details:
- 2 MSc awards of $10,000 each (payable over 3 semesters), or 1 Doctoral award of $20,000 (payable over 9 semesters)
- Awarded in the fall; recipients must be registered to receive the award
- Open to Canadian and non-Canadian permanent residents
Eligibility: Students entering a MSc or Doctoral program in the Winter, Summer, or Fall of the award year (semesters 1–3), enrolled in the School of Environmental Sciences or the Department of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph, who plan to undertake research in sustainable soil management (such as cover crops) and have demonstrated experience in this area.
Selection criteria: Applications are evaluated on the quality of the research proposal and academic excellence as demonstrated by publications, conference presentations, and applied field experience. Recipients are required to submit an annual summary of their research.
Applications for the 2026 award are now open. The deadline is August 15, 2026.
Apply using the OAC Graduate Fall Award Application Form, available through the College or Department Scholarship Application process.
