Centre d’études nordiques & Département de BiologiePavillon Abitibi-Price
Université Laval, Québec
Québec G1K 7P4
Canada
Phone: 1-418-656-2131 ext. 8298
Fax: 1-418- 656-2978
Email:
My current research is focused on paleoenvironmental proxy reconstructions from aquatic ecosystems on northwestern
Ellesmere Island, primarily using diatoms and algal pigments, witin the program ArcticNet. I am studying the
potential of epishelf lakes (surficial freshwater layers in ice-dammed fiords) as paleoenvironmental indicators.
Our hypothesis is that these epishelf lakes will record variations in both freshwater inputs and the extent of
northern ice shelves. We will detect these changes by examining fluctuations in the composition and concentration
of freshwater fossils found in their sedimentary record. A second focus of my research is the study of high arctic
meromictic lakes. These lakes are density stratified and have anoxic bottom waters, which permits the deposition of
varves (annual layers) and thus the recovery of high-resolution sedimentary records. My examinations of biological
proxies in these lakes are undertaken in conjunction with sedimentological research on these records by ArcticNet
colleagues and involve Jessica Tomkins (Queen’s), Scott Lamoureux (Queen’s), Reinhardt Pienitz (ULaval) and Warwick
Vincent (ULaval).
My graduate research was completed in the Department of Geology at the University of Toronto. I undertook detailed taxonomic studies of diatoms from three high arctic regions (Alert, Ellesmere Island, Isachsen, Ellef Ringnes Island, and Mould Bay, Prince Patrick Island) that resulted in the production of a monograph (currently under review). I also completed species-environment calibrations (training sets), and then applied these transfer functions to sediment cores to reconstruct high arctic paleoenvironmental change.
