Département de BiologiePavillon Vachon
Université Laval, Québec
Québec G1K 7P4
Canada
Email: marie.lionard(at)bio.ulaval.ca
My current research focuses on the ecophysiology of dominant Arctic picophytoplankton
and their potential response to changing irradiance and temperature. The objective of
my project is to gain a better understanding of the ecophysiology of Arctic picophytoplankton
and their mechanisms of protection and acclimation to environmental change. I will
test specifically the hypothesis that new irradiance conditions and increased temperatures
that accompany climate warming will lead to a shift in the Arctic Ocean from prasinophyte
to picocyanobacterial dominance, with major implications for marine food web processes.
I obtained my undergraduate degree in Oceanography from the University of Lille, France. Afterwards, I spent one year working on phytoplankton communities as a tool to assess water quality at the University of Valencia (Spain) within the Erasmus European program. In 2006, I defended my PhD thesis in Biology at the University of Ghent (Belgium). My doctoral research focused on spatio-temporal phytoplankton dynamics along the Scheldt- North Sea continuum using HPLC/CHEMTAX pigment analysis. As part of my postdoctoral research at the ISMER in Rimouski (Québec, Canada) from 2007-2009, I investigated the impact of global warming with emphasis on UV-B and temperature increase on sub-polar phytoplankton communities using PAM and HPLC pigments analysis.
