Biography:
Anne-Martine grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, and attended the University of Ottawa for her undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences with a specialization in environmental geochemistry and ecotoxicology. Anne-Martine gained valuable experience in earth sciences through the CO-OP program, where she worked in the world-class radiocarbon laboratory at the A.E. Lalonde Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, and the environmental performance group at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada measuring water quality and greenhouse gas emissions. Her MSc. project at UBC incorporates her experience with environmental monitoring techniques used in agriculture and applying them to a novel geologic setting for passive carbon capture. Upon completing her M.Sc., Anne-Martine aspires to work environmental monitoring and remediation.
Project: In-field Measurements of Passive Carbon Dioxide Flux Rates in Mine Tailings and Natural Analogs
In the context of global climate, there is an urgent need to identify and quantify sinks of CO2 to inform mitigation strategies. Mine tailings and analog materials from ultramafic-host rock passively sequesters CO2 by weathering of the mineral grains and precipitating hydrated magnesium carbonate. The extent of CO2 uptake has yet to be studied in the field. The objectives of her thesis is to quantify the rates of surficial CO2 fluxes using two environmental monitoring techniques and to characterize the spatial and temporal variabilities. CO2 fluxes will be measured using dynamic closed chambers that apply a gradient approach to measure the change in concentration over time. They will also use the eddy covariance method to measure the time-averaged covariance between the fluctuations of vertical wind and CO2 concentrations in the atmospheric boundary layer. These two methods are paired to cross-validate results and will be compared to mineralogical flux estimates.
