UQAT home to new international cold forest research lab

The University of Quebec in Abitibi- Témiscamingue (UQAT) has launched an International Cold Forest Research Laboratory to facilitate the formation of an international research group to study the functioning of mountain and boreal ecosystems in the northern hemisphere. The new lab is located at the Research Station of the Duparquet Lake Teaching and Research Forest (FERLD) where 17 researchers from Canada, France, Sweden, Norway, China and Russia will collaborate on research focused on better management of the boreal forest and the effect of the current global changes. The lab will be headed by Dr Yves Bergeron, a UQAT professor and holder of the NSERC-UQAT-UQAM Industrial Chair in Sustainable Forest Management and the Chair in Forest Ecology and Sustainable Forest Management, and Dr Igor Drobyshev, a professor at UQAT-UQAM. They will establish research programs in dendrochronology, the study of tree rings, and paleoecology, the reconstruction of past ecosystems, and train graduate students in forest ecology and biodiversity management. Annual scholarships for laboratory researchers can be obtained through the Céline-Saucier Fund, created at UQAT in early 2017.