Community-Based Environmental Monitoring
The George River flows northerly for 505 km toward Ungava Bay, and its watershed spreads over 41 700 square km. The river and its banks are protected under Quebec’s Law since 2008, and part of the river is included in the Ulittaniujalik Park, created in 2016. To answer the concerns of Kangiqsualujjuamiut regarding the start of a rare earth elements (REEs) mining project in its upper watershed, the Imalirijiit Project aims to establish a sustainable community-based environmental monitoring of the George River. To do so, partnerships were developed between the community and researchers from different departments, universities (Quebec, France), federal and provincial government agencies, local research centers, and NGOs to form a multidisciplinary scientific team with expertise in human and physical geography, remote sensing, plant ecology, hydrology, and ecotoxicology, as well as science education with indigenous communities.
Research themes
Meet the Researchers
Marc Amyot, Professor, Université de Montréal
I have been a professor in biological sciences at Université de Montréal since 2002, and I hold a Canada Research Chair in Global Change Ecotoxicology. I am a member of strategic research groups working on lakes (GRIL), on northern issues (CEN), on ecotoxicology (ECOTOQ), on floods (RIISQ) and on public health (CReSP). I am interested in understanding how contaminants move in the environment, going from southern sources to polar regions, how climate change modify their fate, how they climb up the food webs up to humans, and how we can decrease our exposure to these chemicals. My team works at different latitudes, from the St. Lawrence River up to the High Arctic, and in different settings, from pristine systems to mine-impacted sites. My lab has been involved in the Imakirijiit project because of our expertise with metals, and particularly rare earth elements, a type of metal for which exploration activities have recently occurred in the George River Basin. We have helped with the analyses of metals in water and animals that were obtained in partnership with the community. Website: bio.umontreal.ca/repertoire-departement/professeurs/professeur/in/in14694/sg/Marc%20Amyot/ Email: [email protected]) |
Jean-Pierre Dedieu, Senior Researcher CNRS (France) and Associated Professor INRS-ETE (Québec)
My research is dedicated to climate, hydrology, ecology of Arctic environments, and I mainly work under GIS and Remote Sensing application. My interest for northern research is motivated by the fact that scientific understanding and effective management of subarctic river systems facesa lack of knowledge across the full range of spatial and temporal scales. Furthermore, current climate change impact on the Arctic results in temperatures increasing and decreasing of snow cover duration affecting vegetation dynamics, i.e. Arctic greening. Since 2016 my contribution to the George River project is based on Remote Sensing spectral indexes analysis, (i) to determine biogeochemical water quality parameters, and (ii) to quantify temporal/spatial evolution of vegetation species (Landsat and Sentinel databases). Then, collaborative research with local communities is essential and unwavering for the success of Imalirijiit project and joint benefits ; i.e. youth land camps (water chemistry sample collection) or elders knowledge of local resource (vegetation, climate change impact). Website: www.lthe.fr/PagePerso/dedieu/ Email: [email protected] |
Geneviève Dubois, Research Assistant, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
I am a biologist graduated from Université de Montréal with a MSc in Biology. I am passionated about collaborative research and community-based environmental monitoring. I joined the Imalirijiit team in 2017 as a youth coordinator and have been working on various aspects of Imalirijiit and Nunami Sukuijainiq projects since. |
José Gérin-Lajoie, Research coordinator, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
I am a biologist specialized in Plant Ecology (M.Sc.), actually a research coordinator at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, also affiliated with the Centre for Northern Studies. I am involved in projects up North for over 15 years. I am the head coordinator of Imalirijiit since its start in 2015, and co-manager of Nunami Sukuijainiq, after the Kangiqsualujjuaq Youth Committee won the 2018 Arctic Inspiration Prize. I am interested in collaborative research, the complementarity of Western Science and Indigenous knowledge, the indigenization of science and science education, and the use of community-based environmental monitoring as an empowering tool for Indigenous communities. I am also very much involved in Indigenous interactive mapping and the use of arts to communicate science, especially filmmaking. |
Esther Lévesque, Professor, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
My name is Esther Lévesque, I am a plant ecologist working at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and a member of the Centre d’Études Nordiques (CEN). Curious about life and how we are all interconnected, I enjoy sharing knowledge and ideas about our environment. I was introduced to the Arctic in 1989 as a field assistant and I have continued ever since to learn more about its ecosystems and the people who call it home. I was part of the researchers who helped starting Imalirijiit and I feel privileged to collaborate with the community and colleagues in this remarkable endeavour. My interest in how plants shape our environment led me to study the impact of environmental changes on shrub abundance as well as the interactions with wildlife, snow distribution and permafrost stability. A many of you, I love berry picking! My desire to learn more about berry plants and to work in collaboration with Inuit brought me to Kangiqsualujjuaq the first time in 2007. Today, I continue to study berry productivity and how current changes impact their abundance at the landscape scale. To do so, I contribute to the remote sensing and local knowledge projects within Imalirijiit. Website: http://www.cen.ulaval.ca/membre.php?id=1252510&cat=11&membre=elevesque |
Gwyneth Anne MacMillan, Postdoctoral Fellow, McGill
I completed my PhD in Biological Sciences at the Université de Montréal in 2019 and I am now pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE) at McGill University. I am interested in how ecology can influence the fate of contaminants and the quality of fish and wildlife resources important to northern Indigenous Peoples. During my thesis, entitled “Hunting for trace metals in a rapidly changing North: limnological, ecological, and collaborative approaches”, I carried out fieldwork in Nunavik, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories. Since 2017, I have been involved in four Land Camps with the Imalirijiit Project, where I acted as the Science Coordinator and the Wilderness First Aid Coordinator. While out on the land with the Imalirijiit team, I helped collect environmental data, train the youth in water quality monitoring and treat minor injuries, mainly bug bites! website: https://www.gwynethmacmillan.com/ email: [email protected] |
Holly Marginson, Master Student, Université de Montréal
I’m a Masters of Biological Science student at Université de Montréal. In 2017, I graduated from McGill University with a BSc in Geology before pursuing other academic interests within the Cell and Molecular Biology program at Concordia University. My research will look at the effects of climate change and a possible mine opening on the water quality of George River by studying the relationship between rare earth element and metal geochemistry and the basin’s hydrogeomorphology.” |
Jean-Sébastien Moore, Assistant Professor, Université Laval
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and the Institute of Integrative and Systems Biology at Université Laval in Québec City and am a member of the Institut nordique du Québec, the Centre d’études nordiques and Ressources aquatiques Québec. Our team’s work focuses on the applications of genomics and acoustic telemetry technologies to inform the conservation and management of native northern fishes, particularly anadromous (searun) salmonids. We collaborate extensively with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Inuit resource managers to study the ecology and evolution of Arctic Char, a species of great cultural and economic importance in Northern Canada in general and for the communities of Nunavik in particular. Our research team is committed to doing research that addresses local concerns and to be actively involved in outreach activities to ensure that our results reach local people that can best benefit from them. Several team members have participated in the Imalirijiit camp, adding our fishy expertise to the team and set of activities! |
Alexandre Roy, Professor, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
I joined the Department of Environmental Sciences at UQTR in the summer of 2018 where I work in remote sensing and modeling of northern environments. Specifically, I use satellite images and instruments on the ground to understand and quantify geophysical processes (snow, freeze / thaw cycles, carbon fluxes, vegetation changes) related to climate change in these sensitive environments. I am also interested in multiscale (in situ, drone and satellite) remote sensing of northern vegetation dynamics. My research is motivated by the fact that northern environments are the most sensitive regions to climate change and there is an urgent need to understand how these changes will affect ecosystems and humans. I participate on a project that look at vegetation change over the Georges River and the Koroc watershed using remote sensing data. In the future, I will monitor snow, soil characteristic and carbon fluxes to improve our predictive understanding of climate change in the region. In 2020, I participated in the first Imalirijiit winter camp in Kangiqsualujuaq before it got cancelled. website: https://oraprdnt.uqtr.uquebec.ca/pls/public/genw050.afficher_fiche_perso?owa_cd_secteur=3000&owa_cd_fonction=1&owa_no_personne=730015&owa_contexte=$2655-18 Email: [email protected] |