Prof. Couture

I am a geochemist studying the coupled cycles and the fate of elements such as carbon, iron, sulfur and trace elements in freshwater and terrestrial environments. My research focuses on lakes, soils, and sediments in boreal and northern settings, and I use a combination of field, experimental, and modeling approaches.

I am a full professor in the Department of Chemistry at Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada, where I hold a Sentinelle Nord research chair and lead the Aquatic Geochemistry Group. I teach courses on inorganic chemistry, environmental chemistry, and aquatic biogeochemical cycles at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Before joining Université Laval, I spent five years at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research in Oslo, Norway, where I was first a researcher and then the leader of the Section for Catchment Processes. I also spent two years as a researcher at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

My PhD research focused on the geochemistry of arsenic in lake sediments, under the supervision of Professors Charles Gobeil and André Tessier at the University of Quebec-INRS-ETE. After completing my PhD, I held a Marie-Curie Scholarship at the Center for Environmental Geosciences in France, where I worked under the supervision of Dr. Jérôme Rose. I also held a FRQNT postdoctoral fellowship at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, USA, where I worked with Professor Philippe Van Cappellen.

My current research projects focus on three main areas: 1) the environmental and aquatic geochemistry of major elements and nutrients, 2) the modeling of water quality using reactive transport, diagenetic, and lake modeling approaches, and 3) the fate and speciation of trace elements like rare earth elements, arsenic, selenium, and vanadium in northern aquatic environments.

In the field, I am particularly interested in studying the succession of redox processes that take place across reactive interfaces, such as the sediment-water interface and the oxic-anoxic interface in lakes and aquifers. I specialize in collecting field data on the distribution of elements in the water column, sediment, and pore water, and using numerical models to interpret these data and understand the underlying processes.

Overall, my research aims to improve our understanding of the biogeochemical processes that control water quality and the impacts of environmental changes on aquatic ecosystems. This work is motivated by its potential to help solve urgent water quality issues, such as contamination by trace elements, anoxia, increasing loads of organic matter, and eutrophication, in the context of ongoing environmental change. By providing insights into the key processes that control water quality and the impacts of environmental changes on aquatic ecosystems, we can help inform the development of effective management strategies and policies for protecting and restoring these important natural resources.