Research (Français)

Ice algae in marine ecosystems, which represent the start of the food chain, have been studied and documented greatly. When the ice forms, the salt is excluded, which creates channels that are filled with high nutriment concentration water and where different microorganisms, including micro algae, live.

In freshwater however, it has always been thought that the ice would be too dense for life to thrive into it. This remains a hypothesis that isn’t verified and there is very little literature on the subject.

Recent studies and observations lead to believe that, in fact, algae in freshwater ice could be more common than what was previously thought.

During my master’s degree, my goal is to study lake ice as a habitat for algae and other microorganisms and also to evaluate how nutriments and carbon are stocked and transformed inside the ice, which has never been explored!

Our results could lead to reassess the complete dynamic of the lake ecosystems and literally open a new research domain.