Don-Jean Leandri Breton

2021 Weston Family Awards in Northern Research recipient

PhD candidate
McGill University

Don-Jean can’t imagine spending summer anywhere else than above the Arctic Circle. The PhD candidate at McGill University is studying seasonal interactions and stress physiology on two of the most abundant Arctic-nesting seabirds, the thick-billed murre and the black-legged kittiwake.

Migratory species connect the Arctic regions with the rest of the world. Understanding changes in breeding populations in the North requires a profound knowl-edge of how conditions experienced by
the individuals further south can carry consequences over to the next stages of their annual life cycle.

Taking place in Nunavut and Svalbard, Norway, his research focuses on interactions between the different stages of the annual life cycle of seabirds and how these interactions are governed by endocrinological and behavioural mechanisms. He tracks the birds’ movement throughout the year using small biologgers attached to the birds and combines his findings with demographic and physiological data collected at the
seabird colonies.

Learn more about the Weston Family Awards in Northern Research.