Samuel Gagnon

2022 Weston Family Awards in Northern Research recipient

Postdoctoral fellow
Université Laval

Samuel Gagnon is a postdoctoral researcher in geography at Université Laval. His research focuses on how climate change affects permafrost stability, and how thawing permafrost and subterranean ice impacts periglacial landscapes. He uses an integrative research approach which combines field work with laboratory analysis, modeling and digital mapping.

For his postdoctoral research, Samuel will study the impact of the proliferation of bushes on thermokarst lakes—bodies of freshwater formed by thawing ice-rich permafrost—and on the drainage bassins in Old Crow Flats, Yukon. While the spread of bushes in the Arctic is well documented, their impact on lake dynamics in the permafrost basins is still unknown.

The project also aims to produce scientific knowledge, offering support to the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation local knowledge systems and traditional practices. This diversification of knowledge will allow the community to increase its resilience through the adaptation of creative and proactive traditional practices supported by modern scientific knowledge.

Learn more about the Weston Family Awards in Northern Research.