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.
The WP leaders
The students
Tia Anderlini
PhD Candidate "My project focuses on the distribution of trace metals (Fe, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb) in the marine waters of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Baffin Bay."
Léna Bodiguel
PhD Student "My project focuses on the phytoplankton community dynamics in the Arctic Ocean."
Élodie Bracquart
PhD Student "My project aims to combine high-resolution bathymetry and satellite imagery with sediment cores taken near Mittie and Cape Norton Shaw glaciers to provide a better understanding of the evolution of marine-terminating glaciers in the Canadian Arctic in the face of future climate change."
Kerstin Brembach
PhD Student "I work on the geomorphological and sedimentary signatures of tidewater glaciers to reconstruct glacier history and to identify drivers of glacier behaviour."
Thibaud Combaz
PhD Student "The goal of my research is to better understand how the new massive southward Arctic outflow of fresh meltwater that flows down within Baffin Bay impacts the benthic ecosystems functioning and more specifically their carbon absorption capacity."
Sébastien Kuchly
PhD Student "I am studying mechanical properties of sea ice floes as well as their interaction with swell in order to improve Arctic climate models."
Anna Bang Kvorning
PhD Student "The aim of my PhD project is to contribute to a better understanding of cryosphere and ecosystem changes in sensitive areas of the Arctic region during the Holocene epoch. "
Nathan Nault
PhD Student "My research work is focused on the relationship between organic matter coming from different sources and natural bacterial communities, to better understand how they both interact and influence each other, as well as its consequences for the global carbon cycle."
Sofie Ohrling
Msc Student "I am studying trace metals to understand their distributions throughout fjords along Ellesmere Island and Greenland."
Théo Segur
PhD Student "My project focuses on modelling the impact of different public policy scenarios on plastic and microplastic pollution."
