Nicolas Pelletier
I completed my BSc and MSc degrees in geography at Université de Montréal, where I started working in the field of paleoecology (i.e. the reconstruction of past environmental variables using natural archives such as lake sediments and peatlands).
I started my PhD at Carleton in 2016 with a focus on metal contaminant cycling in northern environments. Specifically, I am conducting research in the Northwest Territories and Yukon on the transport of heavy metals to aquatic ecosystems by human and natural processes, such as wildfires. My research combines paleoenvironmental and geospatial analysis and environmental monitoring. My research is funded by NSERC, FRQNT (Quebec) and OGS (Ontario). I am co-supervised by Dr. Jesse Vermaire (Carleton) and Dr. John Chetelat (Environment and Climate Change Canada) and work closely with the Northwest Territories government.
My ongoing projects include:
– The impact of local wildfires on the transport of heavy metals to northern lakes of North Slave Region (Northwest Territories)
– An evaluation of legacy lead pollution in the Yellowknife Bay (Northwest Territories) using stable lead isotopes
– The impact of regional fire activity on mercury loading to lakes around Whitehorse (Yukon)
– Comparing paleoenvironmental records of metal deposition fluxes to modern air monitoring data around Little Fox Lake (Yukon)