The Access Program at the University of Manitoba provides holistic support to Indigenous, newcomer, and other UM students, empowering them on their path to success as they begin their academic journey in a variety of fields of study.

This month, Lavallée will publish a research paper in the prestigious scientific journal, Movement Ecology, documenting her important discovery- that purple martins continue their migrations at night.

“It’s the first concrete proof that this was happening,” says the Ecology and Environmental Biology program student in the Faculty of Science.

Also credited on the paper are graduate students, Saeedeh Bani Assadi and Alicia M. Korpach, as well as colleagues from Florida, Texas, and Pennsylvania who collaborated with her on the research.

“Just having this publication credit, as an undergraduate, it’s really huge,” says Lavallée. “I am just beginning a career as a scientist.”

Christie Lavallée, photographed by Kevin Fraser, holding a purple martin.

It all started in the summer of 2018, when she began working with Kevin Fraser in his Avian Behaviour and Conservation Lab thanks to a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) grant. Her project was to look for night flight of purple martins in collaboration with others in Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania. Over the past three summers, she and her colleagues tagged birds with GPS trackers that reported their location every 12 hours on Google Earth and followed their migration.

In reviewing the data with Fraser, they were surprised to see night flight in birds thought to migrate during the day. “They were using night flight to cross the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. Thirty percent of their water crossings were initiated at night. Finding this out was a big deal.”

Publishing a scientific paper involves quite a process, she says, from following format, submitting, following up on feedback from a rigorous peer review, and resubmitting. She is excited to have now reached the final steps of the publishing process.

A purple martin in flight, photographed by Ron Vasser.

Regarding her findings, she says, “I am absolutely amazed. These 45-gram birds can migrate so far. They have such huge obstacles to contend with. It blows my mind. They travel thousands of kilometers to come here for breeding. This really gives you a different perspective on life. Every little piece we can shed light on helps us to know the species better and that can help with conservation down the line.”

As a hunter of deer, grouse, prairie chickens and ducks, Lavallée says conservation has always been important to her so now she is thinking she should turn that passion into a career. “Our generation is more aware. We are damaging the planet and we need to do something about it. I want to help overall. It’s important to take care of the species we are hunting or they won’t be there in the future. It’s important to look after the ecosystem.”

A Métis student from St. Ambroise, Lavallée started her university studies with the Access Program. “Access has been a great support to me and to my academic career. Without them, it would have been a lot more challenging. They provide a home away from home for me.”

She also thanks Fraser. “I was very grateful to work with Kevin. He was an excellent teacher. He helped to shape me into a better researcher. He inspired me.”

Learn more about the Access Program.

Her paper
Read Lavallée’s paper, “The Use of Nocturnal Flights for Barrier Crossing in a Diurnally Migrating Songbird: Implications for Our Understanding of Fly-and-Forage Migration Strategies”.

CBC interview
Christie Lavallée was interviewed on CBC Radio Noon on April 27. Listen to her interview with Marjorie Dowhos. 

Attendees of the Arctic Frontiers Conference gather in Tromsø, Norway, honouring the Laureate of the 2020 International Mohn Prize for outstanding Arctic research. The winner of the Mohn Prize is Dr. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Canada Excellence Research Chair at the Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS), University of Manitoba, and Professor at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen.

The Mohn Prize is awarded in recognition of premiere Arctic research. The prize aims to put relevant issues for future Arctic development onto the national and international agenda. Nominations are put forth by members of the Arctic research community and are evaluated by an international scientific committee.

In the words of the selection committee: “Dr. Dahl-Jensen is a leading figure in one of the most important scholarly areas of particular relevance to our understanding of processes driving the ongoing dramatic transformation of the Arctic environment.

By ranking Dr. Dahl-Jensen first, the committee underscores the importance of her decades-long leadership in building, coordinating and maintaining international teams.”

Dr. Husebekk says Dr. Dahl-Jensen is a world leader in the field of cryosphere science.

“She studies the climate of the past through ice cores in order to make predictions about current and future climate change,” Dr. Husebekk succinctly summarizes the core work of Dr. Dahl-Jensen as she awards her the prize.

Dr. Dahl-Jensen thanks the selection and nomination committee before displaying why she is considered a leader in academic research, extolling the virtue of team effort.

“Drilling ice cores and getting climate results out of ice cores is certainly a teamwork, even a very interdisciplinary teamwork where we need to combine scientists with engineers with logistic people, and they have all had their part in the success of our team.

I also want to acknowledge that I’ve been welcomed into a new and fantastic research team at the University of Manitoba”, Dr. Dahl-Jensen adds. “This is a world-leading group in sea ice research which I would like to combine with freshwater and the importance for people. And I would also like to thank the research group at the University of Manitoba for being so welcoming.”

The award ceremony was followed by the 2020 Mohn Prize Seminar: Climate Change in the Arctic. View the full seminar, or by the time stamps below:

0:13-0:23 – Professor Steinar Thorvaldsen, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, “Henrik Mohn (1835-1916) – The founder of Norwegian research in meteorology and physical oceanography”

0:23-1:05 – Lecture by the laureate Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Canada Excellence Research Chair, CEOS, University of Manitoba; Villum Investigator of Physics of Ice, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, “Can abrupt climate changes happen again?”

1:05-1:30 – Professor Matthias Forwick, Department of Geosciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, “Long-term environmental changes in the Arctic – insights from geological drill cores”

1:30-2:00 – Professor Inger Greve Alsos, The Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, “Long-term effect of climate change on arctic vegetation: new knowledge based on ancient DNA”

2:35-3:05 – Professor Søren Rysgaard, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Arctic Geomicrobiology and Climate Change at CEOS, University of Manitoba; Department of Bioscience – Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University, “An updated view on water masses on the pan-West Greenland continental shelf and their link to proglacial fjords”

3:05-3:30 – Professor David Barber, Canada Research Chair in Arctic System Science, Professor and Associate Dean (research), CEOS, University of Manitoba, “What does Climate change have to do with Sea Ice, Glaciers, Bromine and Freshwater-Marine coupling in the Arctic”

3:30-End – Professor Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen, Barents Chair in Politics, Department of Social Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, “Science diplomacy and climate change”