Hi! I'm Guillaume Grosbois, welcome on my website!
I am a young researcher studying freshwater ecosystems. I created this space to present who I am and what my work is about but not only... I also want to talk about why I believe scientific research in Ecology is key to understand our changing world and why this is essential for us!
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Background Where do I come from?
I am from France where I grew up in the countryside sharing my childhood between farm animals and crops. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to work with nature! It HAD to be an important share of my life. Love for Science came a bit later, when I understood that if you want to understand our natural world, Science is your best friend! After having studied biology in my home town, I started to study aquatic ecology in Brittany where I focused on interactions between native and invasive species in rivers. I then moved to the south of France to study Mediterranean ecosystems, subterranean animal communities and the links between terrestrial and aquatic macro-invertebrates communities in temporary rivers. Few years ago, I moved to Canada to study the use of terrestrial organic matter by zooplankton in boreal food webs with a special interest on under-ice processes. Now as a postdoctoral researcher, I am studying the growth of organisms and the transfer of essential molecules such as fatty acids to give baseline data on the health of Arctic ecosystems.
My research What do I do?
Lakes are essential components of the landscape in Northern Canada and they are so numerous and remote that many of them do not even have names. Those lakes stay largely unknown and much is still to discover about their biodiversity, their functioning and their role in the Arctic and boreal landscapes. But as Earth is warming, those ecosystems are changing at an unprecedented rate before we even have the chance to describe them!
Like a lake doctor, I am very interested in evaluating the health of northern lakes from human-impacted waters in boreal forest to pristine waters in the High-Arctic. Hence, my research follows two main axes:
1) Forests and Lakes : Interaction between Aquatic and Forest Ecosystems
Climate change induces the browning of lakes meaning that our lakes are becoming darker because of the increasing terrestrial inputs from the nearby forest ecosystems into freshwaters. This is a problem because it can affect the functioning of lake food webs by for example decreasing the penetration of light in water and prevent algae to grow normally. Algae are the basis of lake functioning and synthesize many important molecules such as essential fatty acids (omega-3) that are vital for the health of all lake organisms (insect, crustacean, fish). I am therefore studying what is the nature of these new terrestrial inputs in lakes and how they affect the growth and the nutritional quality of aquatic animals such as zooplankton (tiny crustacean) and fish.
Like a lake doctor, I am very interested in evaluating the health of northern lakes from human-impacted waters in boreal forest to pristine waters in the High-Arctic. Hence, my research follows two main axes:
1) Forests and Lakes : Interaction between Aquatic and Forest Ecosystems
Climate change induces the browning of lakes meaning that our lakes are becoming darker because of the increasing terrestrial inputs from the nearby forest ecosystems into freshwaters. This is a problem because it can affect the functioning of lake food webs by for example decreasing the penetration of light in water and prevent algae to grow normally. Algae are the basis of lake functioning and synthesize many important molecules such as essential fatty acids (omega-3) that are vital for the health of all lake organisms (insect, crustacean, fish). I am therefore studying what is the nature of these new terrestrial inputs in lakes and how they affect the growth and the nutritional quality of aquatic animals such as zooplankton (tiny crustacean) and fish.
2) Health of High-Arctic Lakes
Lakes represent a very important component of the Arctic as they often constitute more than half of the landscape. Further, they provide important ecosystem services such as drinkable water or fish production for Inuit communities. However, we know very little about them as those ecosystems were much less studied than other lakes in the past. My first aim is therefore to describe the health and the functioning of these ecosystems. My current project is about lakes near Cambridge Bay in Nunavut (Canada) where I aim to identify the main sources of essential fatty acids and to quantify their transfer along the food web up to fish and ultimately to human consumption. This will permit to provide baseline data to assess the future changes in the health of these ecosystems.
With collaborators from other Arctic countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, USA, Greenland), we also study the effect of terrestrial inputs on the fatty acid composition of Arctic food webs. Such international collaborations will provide new information about one of the main expected changes of climate change: the releasing of terrestrial organic matter with the foreseen thawing of permafrost. Estimating the current health of Arctic ecosystems and evaluating their potential evolution is essential to understand the impact of climate change in the North, the most rapidly changing region of our planet.
Lakes represent a very important component of the Arctic as they often constitute more than half of the landscape. Further, they provide important ecosystem services such as drinkable water or fish production for Inuit communities. However, we know very little about them as those ecosystems were much less studied than other lakes in the past. My first aim is therefore to describe the health and the functioning of these ecosystems. My current project is about lakes near Cambridge Bay in Nunavut (Canada) where I aim to identify the main sources of essential fatty acids and to quantify their transfer along the food web up to fish and ultimately to human consumption. This will permit to provide baseline data to assess the future changes in the health of these ecosystems.
With collaborators from other Arctic countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, USA, Greenland), we also study the effect of terrestrial inputs on the fatty acid composition of Arctic food webs. Such international collaborations will provide new information about one of the main expected changes of climate change: the releasing of terrestrial organic matter with the foreseen thawing of permafrost. Estimating the current health of Arctic ecosystems and evaluating their potential evolution is essential to understand the impact of climate change in the North, the most rapidly changing region of our planet.
Apart from these two main axes, I am also very interested in ecological topics implying ecosystem degradation such as the impact of the introduction of invasive species within native communities, the effect of pollution over organism growth and nutritional quality and the implication of shorter and warmer winters on the under-ice ecological processes.
Keywords:
#Foodweb #Arctic #Boreal #Health #Terrestrial #Forest #Stable isotope #Fatty acids #Traditional Ecological Knowledge #Carbon #Zooplankton #Phytoplankton #Bacteria #Fish #Growth #Production #Browning #Winter #Ice #Lipids
#Foodweb #Arctic #Boreal #Health #Terrestrial #Forest #Stable isotope #Fatty acids #Traditional Ecological Knowledge #Carbon #Zooplankton #Phytoplankton #Bacteria #Fish #Growth #Production #Browning #Winter #Ice #Lipids
Communication Why does it matter?
Communicating your results and interpretations is part of my research. Whether it is in a scientific congress, at school or on Twitter, we as scientist, need to make our research available. Scientists have an important role in society, which is to deliver objective statements based on facts. This knowledge can later be used by anyone to hopefully improve our society. This is why I believe Science should never be disconnected of local or global issues of the society we live in. As a scientist, I want to communicate the main results of my research and the most important implications. It is therefore essential for me to communicate my conclusions as often as possible during congresses for the scientist audience, in university and schools for the next generation and in traditional and social media for everyone.