Students on Ice Blog

SOI Alumnus Maéva Gauthier (Antarctic University ‘09) has joined the 2009 CCGS Amundsen expedition – Exploring and documenting marine benthic ecosystems in the Arctic (www.amundsen.ulaval.ca and www.amundsen.quebec-ocean.ulaval.ca).

Location of Expedition:
Maéva and the other researchers began their expedition from Paulatuk (North West Territories) and will finish in Quebec City (Quebec), crossing the North West Passage, Lancaster Sound, along Baffin Island and the Labrador fjords. A SPOT (Satellite transmission of locations through internet) will be available for people to follow the expedition in real time. Maps of the expedition (Leg 4) are available below.

Expedition Itinerary:

Dates of Expedition:
The research cruise will occur from October 8 to November 18, 2009. This is Maéva’s first trip to the Arctic. She assisted with some preliminary explorations last year to test a remotely operated vehicle.

Expedition Participants:
This is an extensive and multidisciplinary national research survey. Maéva will work closely with the Université du Québec à Rimouski.

Expedition Sponsors and Funding:
The research expedition is organized and funded mainly by ArcticNet and the Canadian Healthy Oceans network (CHONe project).

Purpose of Expedition:
On the expedition Maéva and the research team will document marine ecosystems found on the seabed and the impact of climate change. More specifically, the sea ice extent will be measured in order to understand how it affects the ocean ecosystems below. Because they don’t know precisely what’s there, it is difficult for the researchers to understand the ecosystemic impacts of climate change. This is why they intend to document what they observe.

This project is a collaboration between Dr. S. Kim Juniper’s lab at the University of Victoria (British Columbia) and Dr. Philippe Archambault’s laboratory at the Université du Québec à Rimouski (Quebec).

The site selection is related to the interest of ArcticNet and CHONe projects. These networks bring scientists together in Canada to understand marine ecosystems. The research team will participate in three dives with a remotely operated vehicle at three different sites. They hope to capture some video footage of living communities. They will also use box cores and trawls to get samples and identify the species.

Maéva will also film the expedition for various projects for three different populations: Inuit communities, the scientific community and the general public. Her images will be used for International Polar Year educational packages, as well as CHONe, ArcticNet and UVIC’s lab. Maéva hopes to document the interactions between Inuit communities and expedition scientists, and students from the Schools on Board program in relation to CCGS Amundsen scientists.

www.amundsen.ulaval.ca and www.amundsen.quebec-ocean.ulaval.ca