Chantel Michelson

2021 Weston Family Awards in Northern Research recipient

Postdoctoral fellow
Acadia University

Chantel is a postdoctoral fellow at Acadia University researching how the Arctic marine food web is responding to changes in sea ice dynamics. She grew up in the Canadian Prairies and fell in love with the Arctic during her undergraduate degree at the University of Saskatchewan. She has pursued a career that allows her to learn and understand polar ecosystems and conduct research that may help maintain their environment.

The Arctic is undergoing unprecedented, rapid change, threatening the survival of many marine organisms and the health of the Arctic Ocean ecosystem. Chantel’s research uses biomarkers from seabirds – which track their diet and resource use over the last several decades – to identify food web alterations to climate change. Evaluating past and present food web modifications will improve our understanding of how ecosystems will respond to future climate change and potential contaminant exposure routes to vulnerable marine organisms.

Learn more about the Weston Family Awards in Northern Research.