Charlotte Carrier-Belleau, MSc Candidate

Université Laval

I first graduated in public communication before completing a Bachelor in Marine and Freshwater Biology at the Université Laval. My current research focusses on cumulated impacts of stressors and their effect on macro benthic communities. I’m also interested in marine conservation and the impact of global change in our oceans.

Supervisor : Philippe Archambault

Start to Finish : 09/2017 to 08/2019

CHONe Project : 2.1.2: To evaluate and model how natural and anthropogenic stressors interact to impact pelagic and benthic communities along a sub-arctic coastline and develop bay-scale condition indicators

Project title : Cumulative impacts of anthropogenic stressors on macro benthic communities in the bay of Sept-Île.

Project Description :

Several activities such as maritime transport, fishing and aquaculture are part of the anthropogenic exploitation of the Saint Lawrence River. These different activities create environmental stressors who affect the structure and the functioning of benthic communities. While these human disturbances can act individually, they can also act in synergy and lead to changes more difficult to predict. The bay of Sept-Îles hosts a harbour receiving the most important volume of waters of ballast in North America and represents one of the most eutrophic bays in the Saint Lawrence River. The project has for objective to identify the effect of the interaction of the anthropogenic stressors on the macro benthic species in the bay. Experiments of manipulation will be performed on the field to identify the action and the threshold effect of the disturbances. We want to determine their influence, when taken individually and when these stressors interact, as well as the response of benthic organisms. In that way, we would like to understand and improve our knowledge of cumulated impacts of anthropogenic stressors on the ecosystem which will allow eventually better planning of conservation and exploitation of the maritime resources of the river.

This project links to CHONe II objectives as we study the bay’s health. The study will help us understand how the different anthropological stressors affect the communities in subarctic coastal ecosystems.