Microplastics are emerging anthropogenic particulate pollutants that pose risks to both societal and environmental health. As such, there is a need to characterize the distribution of microplastics both within the environment and at potential points of release. Current analytical techniques – primarily thermogravimetric analysis, Raman spectroscopy, and infrared spectroscopy – used to characterize microplastics offer […]

The oceans today are under a variety of stressors including warming, acidification, eutrophication, and deoxygenation. Due to their increasing impacts on marine environments, there is a huge push for new monitoring and environmental assessment techniques to understand and mitigate change. Environmental DNA (eDNA) refers to the tiny pieces of DNA shed by all living things […]

Waste generation rates are rising, as the results of the increased world’s population. Increased global concern over environmental issues led to a strong interest in developing sustainable technologies that derive fuels and chemicals from renewable feedstock. Renewable biomass materials, as lignocellulosic waste, are attractive since they contain large amounts of renewable carbon and biochemicals with […]

The project will develop a highly efficient technology for producing plasma-activated water (PAW) with low energy consumption. Expected outcomes of the project will enable high throughput production of PAW to meet the urgent need for green and sustainable technology in agriculture and food. PAW generated in large quantities will be at low cost without using […]

The Blue Economy is the proposed sustainable version of the regular ocean economy, with tremendous amounts of funding being provided by provincial and federal government agencies to support the industry. Supported research shows that there are challenges with recruiting youth to the industry, especially underrepresented youth and geographically underrepresented youth. The lack of framework and […]

Dans une perspective de développement durable, une meilleure connaissance des milieux aquatiques du Nord du Canada est essentielle pour assurer la protection de l’environnement et la conservation de la biodiversité. Comme le territoire nordique est vaste et dépourvu de réseau de transport terrestre, l’imagerie satellitaire pourrait être un outil optimal pour décrire et inventorier la […]

Au Québec, il existe encore peu d’études évaluant les effets aigus et chroniques des herbicides sur les plantes aquatiques enracinées. Une meilleure compréhension des effets des activités agricoles sur les herbiers aquatiques, particulièrement ceux du Lac St-Pierre, est nécessaire à une gestion/conservation adéquate de ces écosystèmes de grande valeur. Ce stage portera en grande partie […]

Water management and treatment of mineral tailings and oil sands tailings are becoming critical challenges for the sustainable development of natural resources exploration. Reclamation of these tailings is challenging due to a solid phase composed mainly by very fine particles and many other chemicals. With these characteristics, the tailings form a very stable colloidal system […]

En se déplaçant, les animaux, et autres organismes vivants, laissent des traces de leur matériel génétique dans l’environnement. Cette précieuse information est l’ADN environnemental (ADNe) et son analyse permet de détecter indirectement la présence d’une espèce et d’estimer son abondance relative dans un milieu. Ce matériel génétique peut se retrouver sous forme de cellules mortes […]

Although evolution is considered a gradual process recent evidence suggests that adaptation can be rapid, particularly when there is genetic variation and selection is strong. Determining whether rapid evolution happens predictably in nature, both at the phenotypic and genomic levels, is crucial to understanding the origins and maintenance of biodiversity. Harmful algal blooms (HABs) pose […]

The project consists in counting species abundances data of microplankton fossils in approximately 100 samples of a sediment core that was recovered in the near the Del Cano Rise located in the Southern Indian Ocean. Complex statistical methods, transfer functions, will be applied to this data in order to estimate water temperatures at the core […]

Canada’s marine ecosystems are biologically rich and provide essential goods and services to about seven million people living along the longest coastline in the world. Facing significant challenges to conciliate economic development, human well-being, social equity and ecological stability, Canada developed an ambitious “Blue Economy” framework, in which this project falls. In the face of […]