I am a PhD student in Oceanography, specifically environmental biology at Laval University, Québec. I study the adaptive responses of Arctic microbial phytoplankton communities in the North Water and how environmental factors impact these communities. The most efficient way to understand how organisms are adapted is to have a sound knowledge of genetic capacity of the organism by sequencing and annotating genomes of representative species to investigate the molecular response under different stress.
My research interests range from marine biology to molecular biology with emerging high throughput sequencing technology to address pressing questions on the character and sustainability of marine ecosystems and species in the face of multiple stressors.
Previously I completed my Bachelor’s degree at the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley, UK, by learning molecular identification methods of species of fungus. I then finished my Master’s degree on parasite infecting oysters in the Gulf of Maine, USA at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.
I was always passionate about ocean and life in the oceans, started early on in south of France, near the Mediterranean Sea. During my PhD, I have been fortunate to be part of several ArcticNet missions in Northern Baffin Bay onboard the research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen. I look forward in my research carrier to continue participating to missions onboard different research vessels to contribute to the research by helping to understand and discover ways to protect the health of our oceans.
If you would like to learn more about me and my work, check out my:
Twitter/Instagram: @FreyriaNastasia
Email: nastasia.freyria.1@ulaval.ca
Webpages: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nastasia-Freyria
A sample of my publications about the Arctic Ocean include:
Freyria, N.J., Joli, N. & Lovejoy, C. (2021) “A decadal perspective on north water microbial eukaryotes as Arctic Ocean sentinels.” Scientific Reports, Volume 11, Article Number 8413. Open Access. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87906-4.
Joli, N., Lacour, T., Freyria, N. J., Royer, S. J., Babin, M., & Lovejoy, C. (2021) “Two versions of short-term phytoplankton ecophysiology and taxonomic assemblages in the Arctic Ocean’s North Water (Canada, Greenland).” Journal of Plankton Research 43(2): 126–141. https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbab009.
Women in the Arctic and Antarctic 