Madeleine-Zoé Corbeil-Robitaille

2021 Weston Family Awards in Northern Research recipient

Master’s student
Université du Québec à Rimouski

“The tundra drew me in,” says Madeleine-Zoé.

Fascinated by the Northern light, the wind and the way of life, visual arts inspired the artist and master’s degree candidate at Université du Québec à Rimouski to pursue her path in Arctic ecology.

She’s looking at the importance of physical structures to bird biodiversity in the High Arctic, such as islets in lakes. Many of these islets serve as refuges from predation by Arctic foxes for several species of nesting birds.

The project is supported by inventory data collected in 2018 and 2019 and satellite imagery obtained in 2020 at Bylot Island, Nunavut. This data will identify geological processes that create islands, as well as key elements that influence the selection of these islands by nesting birds, such as distance to the shoreline and water depth. Ultimately, field experiments will finally determine the potential for fox predation on the islets.

Learn more about the Weston Family Awards in Northern Research.