Divergent Temporal Trends of Mercury in Arctic Char from Paired Lakes Influenced by Climate-Related Drivers. 

I got the chance to spend a month this summer at Cape Bounty (www.capebountyresearch.com; www.facebook.com/CBAWO) ahead of starting my Master’s. My field research combines measurements of carbon fluxes in streams and from terrestrial environments in wet sedge watersheds. Ultimately, my goal is to understand how much carbon is leaving these watersheds, in what forms, and how much is released to the atmosphere as greenhouse gases.

On February 20, 2024, author Ed Struzik published the piece “Rain Comes to the Arctic, With a Cascade of Troubling Changes” in the online magazine Yale Environment 360. The article explores the impacts of “rain-on-ice events” for trigger flooding, ice loss, and avalanches, and the resultant adverse effects for wildlife and Indigenous peoples in the Arctic. The publication draws on research and interviews with Queen’s researchers Drs.

Landscape features as controls on water quality in High Arctic Wetlands, Resolute Bay, Nunavut

This research investigates how landscape morphology controls surface water chemistry across the McMaster River watershed located in Resolute Bay, Nunavut. The history of the processes that shape the land surface (geomorphology) and the nature of permafrost can promote spatial heterogeneity in catchment characteristics such as water source (e.g.

The Seasonal and Spatial Controls on Stream and Groundwater Geochemistry of the Niaqunguk River, Nunavut, Canada 

Climate-induced permafrost degradation is impacting carbon exports to Arctic catchments, with implications for northern communities and aquatic ecosystems. The spatial variability of landscape characteristics (e.g., surficial geology, topography) may produce heterogeneous hydrochemical signatures across the watershed with further permafrost degradation.

After two years of pandemic restrictions preventing work on the ground, our research team, including MSc student Veronique Landriault and undergraduate research student Sydney Campbell, are in Resolute, Nunavut conducting fieldwork towards their thesis projects. Here is an update from Veronique in the field:

Prof Lafreniere is seeking a part-time lab technician (0.6 FTE) for a two year contract (with possibility of extension for an additional 3 years).

Are you interested in studying how northern landscapes recover from intensive mining pollution?

Seeking a Post Doctoral Fellow with research interests and experience in permafrost watershed organic carbon dynamics and geochemistry.