Organized as a large consortium (21 French laboratories with strong Canadian, Danish and US partnerships), REFUGE-ARCTIC team is large and combines many expertises:
- The physics team (ISTERRE, LOCEAN, LOPS, Takuvik, Aarhus U., Manitoba U., UQAR) is a synergistic combination of experts covering physical oceanography, sea ice dynamics and optics, and glaciology.
- The geochemical team (GET, MIO, LSCE, LOCEAN, LEGOS, IGE, Takuvik, UVic) uses geochemical trace element and isotope tracers that provide unique information about the sources, exchange processes and fluxes of elements, nutrients and contaminants at the ocean interfaces.
- The marine productivity and biodiversity team (BIOM, LECOB, LEMAR, LOMIC, MNHN, Roscoff, Takuvik, DFO, MUN, Stanford U, U. of Oslo) will combine their expertise to assess the effects of all these processes on the activity and diversity of biological communities from almost all trophic levels, helping underpin their role on element cycling and providing the background knowledge to understand future changes in biodiversity.
- The paleoceanography team (EPOC, LOCEAN, LPG, LSCE, Aarhus U., GEUS, UNB, UQAR) will reconstruct the paleo-dynamics of sea ice, ice caps and associated marine terminating glaciers and their implications on the functioning of the local ecosystem of the northern sector of Nares Strait and Lincoln Sea.
- The modeling team (LIENSs, LOCEAN, LS2N, Takuvik, AWI, CSU, MIT, NASA-JPL) will interface with all other work packages. It brings along transdisciplinary modeling expertise necessary to disentangle the diverse mechanisms operating at various scales of complexity responsible for the plankton responses to glaciers-sea ice-ocean interactions.
REFUGE-ARCTIC will contribute to the international effort to sample an unexplored region of the AO and understand past, present and future changes in the Arctic, assess impacts, and inform Arctic and global communities by providing comprehensive information and a benchmark to protect the Arctic environment and its ecosystems.
A large international consortium
REFUGE-ARCTIC LEADERS
Mathieu Ardyna
PI & WP2 - Biogeochemical cycles and contaminantsMathieu Ardyna is a biological oceanographer interested in understanding phytoplankton dynamics in polar environments. His main research focuses are on how environmental drivers and changes are altering phytoplankton phenology, productivity and structure in polar waters.
Marcel Babin
Co-PI & WP1 - Atmosphere-ocean-ice dynamicsMarcel Babin is a senior biological oceanographer and an expert in marine optics and microalgal photophysiology. His research includes radiative transfer simulations, lab and field work on microalgal photosynthesis and growth, and experimental and theoretical studies on seawater optical properties.
