The Laboratoire de Paléoécologie Aquatique (LPA – Aquatic Paleoecology Laboratory) is a group of research scientists, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students and research professionals in the fields of paleolimnology and paleoceanography, in both the departments of geography and biology dedicated to using paleolimnological techniques to provide historical perspectives to environmental changes.
The paleolimnologic research in this laboratory focuses on the use of fossil freshwater algae (diatoms and dinflagellate cysts), insects (chironomid larvae) and microcrustaceans (ostracods) preserved in freshwater and marine sediment archives to reconstruct changes in climate and the environment during the Quaternary period and post-glacial times.
The studies take place in Labrador, northern Québec, Nunavut (Foxe Basin, Canadian mid- to high Arctic), Spitsbergen and Patagonia. The laboratory administers the Circumpolar Diatom Database (CDD) since 1997, containing information from more than 550 lakes until now.