Jean-Sébastien Moore
PI - Assistant professor

I am an evolutionary ecologist, with a particular interest in migratory fishes. My desire to work on applied problems led me to study anadromous salmonids. I've participated in projects on the three coasts of North America, but it is the Arctic for which I am especially passionate. I've now worked in Nunavut (and more recently Nunavik) for over 10 years and I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside Inuit harvesters. I am also a proud dad, an outdoors enthusiast, a mediocre guitar player, and a decent ultimate frisbee player. 
CV | Google Scholar profile | Research Gate profile

Anne Beemelmans - postdoctoral fellow

I am an evolutionary ecologist with a passion for marine life. During my Ph.D. and first postdoc, I studied how climate change-related challenges (high temperature, hypoxia) and/or biotic stressors (pathogen exposure) affect physiological stress and immune responses in Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) and Pipefish (Syngnathus typhle). I conducted multi-stressor and trans-generational experiments with these fish species and explored epigenetic mechanism to get a better understanding about their phenotypic plasticity and potential to acclimatize and adapt to new environmental conditions. My current second postdoctoral position with Jean-Sébastien gives me the great opportunity to broaden my research scope and study population genomics of Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus), a fish species that is culturally and socio-economically important for Inuit fisheries and communities in the Arctic. I am part of the FISHES project ("Fostering Indigenous Small-scale fisheries for Health, Economy, and food Security") in which we aim to develop and provide genomic tools to northern Indigenous Peoples important to manage their local community fisheries. I am keen on developing genomic monitoring tools that can be used to explore the population structure of wild and hatchery Arctic Char populations and will help us to better maintain food security in the northern regions. In my free time, I enjoy outdoor activities to be close to nature and wildlife such as hiking, cycling, kayaking, and snorkelling. I am part of "Girls Who Fish", a woman association for traditional and recreational fishing. 

Océane Perrot - PhD student

I obtained my MSc in biology in 2016 at the University of Montpellier (France). Thereafter, I achieved a university degree in science outreach in 2017 at University Paris-Diderot. I enjoyed transmitting my passion for biology through various media such as radio, blogs, or scientific journals as well as teaching.  I worked as a teacher in Biology for three years in secondary schools in France. However, I realized that even if I do love teaching and disseminate sciences, I love even more to practice biology. That is why I decided to perform a PhD, and this is how I joined Jean-Sébastien’s lab! My doctoral project will focus on the study of Arctic Char in Nunavut and Nunavik where the species is an important economic and food resource for Inuit . During my PhD, I will use molecular tools to quantify the contribution of different populations in mixed-stock fisheries to establish sustainable fisheries management plans. Using these molecular tools will also allow me to assess the impact of climate change on the dispersal and migration patterns of Arctic Char. Finally, I will investigate which factors (i.e., prey abundance, location, temperature…) can influence the quality of Arctic Char flesh. In my personal life, I try to be in agreement with my commitments in biology. I consume the least packaging and the more organic food as I can, and I practice aromatherapy! I am crazy about any outdoors activities. I think that the sky is the most wonderful roof we can ever get. I am a fearsome swimmer who hardly runs out of steam after a 100m butterfly.

Xavier Dallaire - PhD student (also MSc 2017-2020)

During my bachelor’s degree at Université de Sherbrooke, I worked on the impacts of genetic introgression on parasitism in Brook Char (Salvelinus fontinalis) in the Garant Lab. This first contact with population genetics led me to pursue graduate studies in this field. My MSc project will focus on documenting genetic structure of Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus) in Nunavik, Québec. This species is of great cultural and subsistence importance for local communities. My study is the first of its kind in the region, which raises the interest and promote participation of residents and regional government, without whom the sampling campaign would be impossible. A secondary objective of the project will be to investigate local adaptations in Nunavik Arctic char, due to contrasting oceanographic features. These analyses will rely on data collected during missions of the icebreaker Amundsen, as part of the BriGHT project (Bridging Global change, Inuit Health and the Transforming Arctic Ocean).

Marie-Hélène Picard - MSc student
co-supervised with Philippe Archambault (ULaval)

I always had a strong interest in biology, mostly in aquatic and marine life. That’s how I ended up in bioecology at Cegep Saint-Laurent in Montréal. There, I started hearing about the possibility of studying Arctic ecosystems. That interest led me to start my bachelor’s in biology at Laval University where I started to work as a research assistant in a benthic ecology lab. During my undergrad, my research project mainly focused on marine biodiversity off the shore of Baffin Island. For this project, I had the chance to collect my samples on the icebreaker CCGS Amundsen. Then, I took a ‘’leap year“ to help with COVID where I was brought to work on Baffin Island again for an NGO founded by Gary Kobinger to help protect northern communities from the virus. There, I was in charge of a COVID-19 diagnostic lab when I heard about the project I am currently working on. The subject of my research aims to understand how climate change will influence the diet of a northern anadromous fish; the Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus) by comparing two methods for the analysis of stomach contents. Those methods are the morphological (which requires skills in taxonomy) and genetic identification (metabarcoding) of stomach content. The comparison of these methods will help us deepen our knowledge of this species and, hopefully, help with food security in the north. This study takes part in a bigger project: Marine Arctic Resilience, Adaptations, and transformations at Belmont Forum that aims to get a better understanding of climate change impact in Arctic.

Yoan Awashish Soucy - MSc student
co-supervised with Maxime Geoffroy (MUN)

My interests for aquatic ecology and ichthyology have always been a part of my life. I remember the summers spent underwater exploring the river and fishing just behind my home. Over time, this interest turned into passion, which led me to pursue my studies in biological and ecological sciences at the University of Québec in Trois-Rivières. Their internship in lake and river ecology at the Gault nature reserve helped me to orient myself in my university choice. I then continued my graduate study here at Laval University, which offered me the opportunity to explore the Arctic on the scientific icebreaker, the CCGS Amundsen. My research project consists in determining, in a context where climatic changes is very present, how certain oceanographic parameters influence the relative abundance of the various ichthyological assemblages in the Canadian Northeast. In Hudson Bay, Baffin Sea and Beaufort Sea, species such as sand eel (Ammodytes spp), capelin (Mallotus villossus) and glacier lantern fish (Benthosema glaciale) have joined Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida) which, until recently, was the dominant forage species of Arctic seas. This transition to new forage species is likely to alter the trophic fluxes of lipids into the marine food web. The Arctic cod is a specialist of polar seas that support the entire foodweb, consequently, to understand changes that operate in this environment sensitive to global warming is essential.

Louis-Philippe Collin - MSc Student
co-supervised with Michael Power

I decided to study biology after participating in a summer school in oceanography (UQAR), during which I got back in touch with a longstanding passion I had for fish and everything that lives underwater. I obviously followed (almost) all the available classes that covered aquatic ecosystems and the lifeforms that inhabit them. It was in one of those classes that I first met with Jean-Sébastien, and that I decided that I wanted to join his team! My project is on the Arctic char population of the Nepihjee river, near Kuujjuaq, Nunavik,  which was introduced by local Inuit to facilitate access to the ressource for the community. They then supplemented the population by importing mature fish from Bérard River (Tasiujaq) and George River (Kangiqsuallujjuaq) to the Kuujjuaq hatchery, and later releasing the smolts in the main lakes of the watershed. Despite these efforts, an uncharacteristically low genetic diversity was observed in the Nepihjee population. My objectives will be 1) to characterize regional population structure to assess genetic connectivity between populations, and 2) to characterize genetic diversity in the Nepihjee population, to compare it with natural populations from the region and to evaluate how it was affected by supplementation, genetic drift and a small effective population size.

 Alexandre Paquette - Undergrad honours

I am currently completing my third year of my bachelor’s degree in biology at the Laval University before focusing my studies on molecular and cellular biology at the master’s degree. Since I am someone concerned about environmental and ecologic matters, I am truly happy to be able to work on a research project about populations genetic. My project is on arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) in the Nepihjee river, near Kuujjuaq, Nunavik. The Arctic Char has been introduced in this river in 1999 and has been supplied with individuals from other rivers. Despite the efforts of population management, a surprisingly low genetic diversity has been observed in chars from Nepihjee river. The objective of my project is to run precision sequencing on the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) to verify if this low is observable at these loci, which are strongly influenced by natural selection. This project aims to contribute to our evaluation of genetic diversity loss in a context of fauna management.

Camille Lévesque - Undergrad honours

I am a third-year student doing her bachelor's degree in biology at Laval University who is strongly interested in applied ecology and who has developed an interest in ichthyology following attendance of the university course of the same name at the fall semester of 2020. This year, I have the chance to join Jean-Sébastien Moore's laboratory as part of the Initiation to research course. My project consists of determining the trophic levels of preys consumed by Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) according to the latitude at two locations (Hudson Bay in Nunavik and Pond Inlet on Baffin Island) by the stable isotope analysis.

Alumni:

Sara Bolduc - MSc student 
co-supervised with Mélanie Lemire
Current position: Research professional Laval University

Maude Sévigny - MSc student 2017-2021
Current position: biologist with DFO
Laurie Dufour - Undergrad student & NSERC USRA 2020-2021
Current position: MSc student McGill University

Nathan Benoît - Undergrad student 2020-2021

Isabeau Caza-Allard​ - Undergrad student - 2018-2019
Current position: MSc student in Louis Bernatchez's lab

Emile Gaumond - Undergrad student - 2018-2019