Project description
We are looking for an excellent student to pursue a PhD in Environmental Biogeochemistry at the Eau Terre Environnement Research Centre of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) and the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) in Québec City.
Emerging metal(loid)s (including rare earth elements) are increasingly being observed in aquatic ecosystems, with potential cumulative effects to local wildlife. A collaborative research program is being built at our institutions to develop and test innovative methods that can address various uncertainties surrounding the environmental sources, temporal trends, spatial distribution and cumulative effects of these chemicals of emerging concern in the environment. For this research, a geographical area of particular interest is the Rouyn-Noranda region in Abitibi (QC). Metal(loid)s in this region have been remobilized into the environment from a long heritage of mining and smelting operations and from recent intense forest fire activity. Delineating the origins, characterizing the deposition history and assessing the cumulative impacts of these substances in surrounding freshwater ecosystems is of great interest to government and industry and local populations. The PhD student will collect and analyze sediment cores from various lakes in this remote boreal region, using a variety of forensic paleolimnological approaches and geochemistry techniques (e.g. laser ablation ICP-MS and clumped isotope measurements), in order to reconstitute deposition history and identify sources of local metal(loid)s. For this research, the student will notably investigate the novel use of ostracods shell in lake sediment as an archive of metal(loid)s historical deposition.
The candidate will work in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment at the Delta-Lab and the Crémazy Lab, both hosted at INRS. They will also benefit from the expertise of the Environmental Metallomics Laboratory and of the Grosbois Lab. INRS is part of the University of Québec network and is located in downtown Québec City, a beautiful 414-year-old city with real Canadian winters!
Start date
September 2024
Research supervision
- Anne Crémazy, professor, INRS
- Josué Jautzy, researcher, GSC
- Maikel Rosabal, professor,UQAM
- Guillaume Grosbois, professor, UQAT
Study program
PhD in Earth Sciences (description in French only), INRS Eau Terre Environnement Research Centre
Funding
4-year scholarship of $28,000/year.
Required qualifications
By time of appointment, candidates should have obtained an MSc degree in geosciences, biogeochemistry, or related fields with expertise in analytical geochemistry.
How to apply
Please use the form below to send to the researchers Crémazy and Jautzy the following documents in PDF: (1) a letter of application with research interests, (2) a CV, (3) a copy of university transcripts, and (4) contact information of three referees. Application review starts on March 22, 2024.
We encourage applications from women, visible minorities, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, persons of any sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.