news & outreach
ArcticNet ASM 2025
Dec. 2025. Gabriel presented the results of his MSc thesis at the ArcticNet Annual Scientific Meeting in Calgary. He linked CH4 and CO2 emissions in the field and CH4 and CO2 production rates from seawater permafrost soil incubations to organic matter quality. Well done!
RV Coriolis II cruise Saguenay
Nov. 2025. Another CFREF Transforming Climate Action expedition to the Saguenay fjord happened in late November. This joint cruise with Laval and Memorial University collaborators was dedicated to sediment coring – with all our tools on board: van Veen, boxcorer, multicorer, and giant gravity corer. This last mission of the year was led by Steph as chief scientist and Laury-Ann and Marie complemented the IBG team. We got so much mud!
RV Coriolis II pockmark cruise
Nov. 2025. André led a cruise in the St. Lawrence Estuary to map and sample pockmarks for the CFREF Transforming Climate Action program. The team included Gabriel and Eloïse and with the help of Amundsen Science’s ROV Astrid, gas and sediments were also sampled. Looking forward to some exciting geochemical analyses!
Experimental Oceanography
Sept. 2025. It was time again for ISMER’s experimental oceanography class onboard RV Coriolis II, our annual initiation of the incoming master’s class. Steph and Laury-Ann taught all things chemical oceanography and welcomed IBG members Eloïse and Brithany onboard!
CCGS Amundsen 2025 leg 3
Aug. 2025. Laury-Ann is on CCGS Amundsen in the Auyuittuq national park fjords to sample sediment complementing the land-based work Steph, Lydia, and Joana just finished around Qik. Various gravity cores have already been successfully sampled as well as many multicores and box cores. A nice conclusion of this summer’s field campaigns!
Qikiqtarjuaq expedition II
July 2025. While Gabriel and André are in Tuktoyaktuk, Steph, Lydia, and Joana are in Qikiqtarjuaq to sample permafrost soils and sediments. The bay is full of icebergs and bowhead whales while we are hiking the island to take samples. During week 2, we will organize a permafrost guardian rally for the kids of Qik – experiments and games alike!
Tuktoyakuk campaign 2025
June 2025. Gabriel flew out to Tuktoyaktuk for a 2-month field trip, André will follow in July. This year’s sampling campaign is dedicated to greenhouse gases. Incubation chamber in hand, we are on the hunt for in-situ CO2 and CH4 flux measurements to complement our long-term incubation experiments!
Lab outing III
June 2025. It’s the time of year again, the IBG lab went on its annual hiking trip. This year took us to Canyon des Portes de l’Enfer. After a very sunny and warm hike, we continued with drinks and food (of course including snobrød) over the campfire and a diversity of ball games as well as hide & seek.
Chapitre Saint-Laurent colloquium
June 2025. Laury-Ann went to Quebec City and presented some of her PhD results at the Chapitre Saint-Laurent & EcotoQ colloquium 2025.
Research seminar
April 2025. Marie and Tommy-Loup presented the results of their MSc projects at ISMER’s annual spring MSc research seminar. The last step before handing in their theses later this year!
GEOTOP student meeting 2025
Mar. 2025. The whole gang (except the PIs) went to Montreal for the GEOTOP student congress. Marie and Daniel gave oral presentations and Joana, Daphnée, Gabriel, Laury-Ann, and Tommy-Loup presented posters. Steph and André are pretty sure that they were not missed.
Quebec Ocean 2025 ASM
Feb. 2025. Most of the IBG lab went to the 2025 Quebec Ocean annual science meeting. Daphnée, Gabriel, Laury-Ann, and Tommy-Loup presented their latest results as posters. Marie was in the spotlight with an oral presentation showing her very nice sediment record data. Steph and André stayed in the background to let the students shine. And they did – Laury-Ann won the BEST POSTER presentation award for PhD students! Congratulations!!
Qikiqtarjuaq expedition I
Jan. 2025. Joana and Steph started the new year with an expedition to Qikiqtarjuaq, Baffin Island, to consult with the hamlet and HTO, explore the island for the upcoming summer field work, and to do some activities with the Inuksuit School students. At around -30°C, we spent some beautiful sunny days on the ice with colleagues and otherwise enjoyed the warmth of the brand new research station.
Untersee expedition III
Dec. 2024. Daniel is back from Antarctica, his second expedition to Lake Untersee. Once again, he characterized the chemical composition of the water column and performed incubation experiments. This time, sampling also included water filtration for biomarker work. Yeah!
Fieldwork inspiration
Oct. 2024. ‘Tis the season. Storm season has started and Tommy-Loup is out in the field to incubate stranded seagrass samples to determine greenhouse gas emissions, take samples for 16S metagenomics, and perform degradation experiments. Let them wash ashore!
New labs – part three
Oct. 2024. We are in the final stretch! The lab renovations are scheduled to be finished within the next week or two. The new fume hoods are in and we are all eager to have room to spread out into for all that great organic geochemistry work!
Experimental Oceanography
Sept. 2024. Another fall, another ‘mission stage’ – ISMER’s experimental oceanography class onboard RV Coriolis II. Steph and Laury-Ann welcomed the new students to chemical oceanography in the St. Lawrence system. This year, Gabriel was part of the class – it was his time to shine!
CCGS Amundsen 2024 leg 2B
Sept. 2024. Laury-Ann went North to sample sediments for her PhD project and TCA! Coring aboard CCGS Amundsen was focused on the Maktak, Coronation, and North Pangnirtung fjords of Auyuittuq National Park as well as offshore into Baffin Bay. Samples will arrive back in Quebec at the end of October!
New labs – part two
August 2024. The lab renovations are progressing nicely. After tearing everything down to the studs, we have entered the ‘putting it back together’ phase. Framing, electrical, plumbing – all done. New floors are in, walls are freshly painted (including feature accent walls), and the first cabinets have just been put in. We should have working labs in a month!
GRC Organic Geochemistry
July 2024. Marie, Tommy-Loup and Steph went to Holderness, New Hampshire to participate in the Gordon Research Conference (and seminar) Organic Geochemistry, aka summer science camp. It was so nice to meet up with this incredible community again and seeing all the cool projects at the frontiers of organic geochemistry!
New coring equipment
July 2024. The IBG lab spent two days on Coriolis II to test the new coring equipment. New box corer, new multicorer – all deployed successfully! Eloïse, Joana, and Laura got to enjoy their first time on a research vessel and André and Steph were simply happy to get their hands dirty and spend time in the field.
Lab outing II
May 2024. We went to Parc du Bic again for our annual lab hike. After a rather rainy hike, the weather cleared up just in time for drinks with snobrød over the campfire and some volleyball.
New labs – part one
May 2024. Lab renovations have officially begun! One week into the renovations, the labs are cleared out and we are down to the studs. Progress has been really fast so far and we can’t wait to start working in the new labs this fall!
Tuktoyaktuk campaign 2024
April 2024. Alexie went to Tuktoyaktuk, Inuvik again to sample some nearshore sediments. This joint expedition with colleagues from around the world is part of the FLO CHAR project led by AWI (Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany).
International CSRA workshop
April 2024. Steph went to Delmenhorst, Germany for the international Compound Specific Radiocarbon Analysis workshop. Happy to see many familiar faces, meet new community members, present some of our recent work, participate in exciting discussions, and explore what’s next!
GEOTOP student meeting 2024
March 2024. Half of the IBG group went to Stoneham, QC for the GEOTOP 2024 student meeting. Alexie, Marie, and Daniel presented posters of their projects and received great feedback. Steph gave a keynote lecture and André enjoyed the meeting. Daniel won an award for BEST POSTER presentation!
Sampling party
March 2024. Paleogenomics sampling is in full swing this month. Laury-Ann and Marie have been sampling core section after core section in full ‘clean sampling’ gear. Anyone else eager to try?
Cruise of opportunity
Feb. 2024. Laury-Ann sails aboard Amundsen, trying to sample beneath the sea ice in the Saguenay fjord when not ice-breaking/escorting. A new experience for sure!
Quebec Ocean 2024 ASM
Feb. 2024. Tommy-Loup and Marie presented their projects at the Quebec Ocean annual scientific meeting. Great job that was celebrated with yet another night of karaoke following the ASM conference dinner….
Untersee expedition II
Dec. 2023. André and Daniel are back from Lake Untersee, Antarctica. Braving some serious weather and logistics issues, they persevered and returned with many samples and geochemical data! A win in the IBG books.
IBG movie club
Nov. 2023. Launching the IBG movie club! In this new monthly feature, we will dive into the cinematic universe of ‘oceanography’ movies. Real classics, blockbusters, and C movies alike. We started with one of the finest, Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic. Here is to hoping that our quota of shark movies stays within 50%.
Return to Antarctica
Oct. 2023. André and Daniel are on their way to Lake Untersee, Antarctica. This time, sampling with 4 hands and equipped with a portable spectrophotometer – let the chemistry begin! We will hear back from them in December!
Experimental Oceanography
Sept. 2023. Time for ‘mission stage’, ISMER’s experimental oceanography class onboard RV Coriolis II. This year, Steph was supported by Laury-Ann to teach all things chemical oceanography in the St. Lawrence system (well, water sampling, a lot of SPM filtrations, Winkler titrations, chlorophyll analyses). Marie and Tommy-Loup joined as participants of legs 1 and 2 and the entire mission was a full success! Lab work now continues onshore.
Tuktoyaktuk expedition
Aug 2023. Alexie, André, and Santiago went to Tuktoyaktuk (69°N, MacKenzie Delta) to sample permafrost for incubations. Can you tell sampling was successful?!
GRC Chemical Oceanography
Jul 2023. Road trip to New Hampshire! Steph went to Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester for this year’s Gordon Research Conference Chemical Oceanography. A week full of exciting talks and posters, meeting new colleagues, and a Pearson Lab reunion! A moving wire may have been involved.
Lab outing I
May 2023. We went to Parc du Bic for a day of hiking/climbing along the grande tour. Lunch at the beach, some kite flying, and other beach activities were also involved. There may have been some talk about geology as well.
Coriolis cruise COR2023_01
May 2023. Camille, Santiago, Gwenn, André, and Steph went on the first St. Lawrence cruise of the season. We had lots of fun sampling mud and came back with gravity cores, box cores, and many many surface samples (Van Veen for the win!). Now the lab work starts!
Soirée 180 secondes
Apr 2023. Gwenn participated in the “My project in 180 seconds” competition organized by the Regroupement étudiant de vulgarisation scientifique (RÉVUS) and UQAR. An epic tale of iron and sulfur. Bravo Gwenn!
GEOTOP seminar
Mar 2023. Stephanie was invited to Montreal to give a GEOTOP seminar (‘Tracing terrestrial organic matter export to the ocean: insights from compound-specific radiocarbon analysis in the Arctic and subtropics’). Thanks UQAM professor Nicole Sanderson for the invitation, the IBG lab is looking forward to many future collaborations!
Quebec Ocean conference
Feb 2023. After overcoming some technical hybrid-mode related hurdles, Stephanie gave a QO conference talk entitled ‘Fingerprinting and deconvolving organic matter fluxes in(to) the ocean using compound-specific radiocarbon analysis’.
Quebec Ocean 2023 ASM
Feb 2023. We all travelled to Rivière-du-Loup for the 2023ASM and enjoyed a meeting with many presentations, speed networking, and karaoke. Gwenn presented a poster about her work on hypoxia in the St. Lawrence.
Untersee expedition
Oct-Dec 2022. André went to Antarctica, sampling at remote Lake Untersee. This peculiar lake has extreme chemical gradients that we look forward to exploring in detail!
We are live!
Our new IBG webpage has launched. Hello world!
ISMER_Isotope Biogeochemistry 