Alexandre Pace:
My inspiration
An encounter with a female woodland caribou from a critically endangered subpopulation in Gaspésie. She is being tracked with a GPS collar to understand how habitat loss and climate change are affecting the movement patterns of the population. Credit: Alexandre Pace.
How do tree rings capture environmental change in ecologically sensitive areas over the past millennium in southern Quebec?
The first time I visited the mountains of Gaspésie for an internship in 2017, I was awe-struck by not only the incredible natural beauty but also by the evidence of a constantly changing environment. I witnessed the effects of so many disturbances that redefined the landscape: avalanches, landslides, forest fires, clearcut logging and insect epidemics ravaging whole sections of the boreal forest and the effect of climate change and habitat loss on animal populations. All of this fostered a deep curiosity to understand how all the changes occur and how they fit into a larger context of environmental change at all scales.