International Research Training Group ArcTrain

The graduate course I attended mostly dealt with the ecology and use of dinoflagelletes and dinoflagellate cysts as a proxy for paleoclimate, particularly in cold marine environments. As well as lectures, practical microscope sessions were also provided. This is of vital importance to my project as I will be working with dinoflagelletes on sediment cores from the Baffin Bay, which is a branch of marine palynology I have not studied previously. It also was a good opportunity to meet my co-supervisors and the group I will be working with during my research stay at UQAM. The Baffin Bay seminar day was also very useful. I learnt about the research area from experts from around the world from different branches of climate science and made some good contacts for the future. It also highlighted a few of the issues I might encounter with the methods I intend to use.

Rebecca Jackson