iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

One week away from the world on a remote trail. Here is a list of things I missed: drinks other than lukewarm water, a mattress thicker than 1 inch. That's it. That's the whole list.

Calm stream reflecting the end of day sky (blue with a few clouds, warm tones). Boreal vegetation surrounds the stream - shrubs to the left, spruce trees to the right.

A person walking with a black backpacking bag on a small foreat trail. The end of day sunrays are visible to the right, bright green vegetation to the lwft.

A lake in the rain, the background is blurry because of fog. Two dark green spruce are in the foreground.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Field season is a challenging but rewarding time of year (I have a very complex love/hate relationship with field work). But yesterday was a productive day spent collecting peat and tree cores in a suburban peatland where trees are taking over due to water stress🌲🌿🧪

A focused, baseball cap-wearing student coring a tree with a pressler corer.

A short peat core showing the top part of the peat (brown and fibrous) and living Sphagnum mosses

A peatland with small tamarack trees protruding under a mixed sky with fluffy clouds

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Salle plus que comble pour la protection du parc !

Petite salle avec beaucoup de gens pour la protection du parc Jarry

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Pour les montréalais.e.s qui souhaitent lutter contre la privatisation des espaces publics, il y aura mobilisation au parc Jarry demain ! (détails sur la page fb de la Coalition des amis du parc Jarry)

Invitation à une mobilisation citoyenne le 11 juillet à 10h30 au chalet près ze St-Laurent au parc Jarry

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Les terrains de baseball du parc Jarry sont entre autres utilisés par les Jackies de Jarry, qui permettent à 10 équipes de filles (incluant la mienne) de jouer au baseball. Et ceci dans le contexte où les filles abandonnent 3 fois plus le sport que les garçons, souvent par manque d'opportunités

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I'm looking for a post-doc to work on the interaction between past hydrological changes and vegetation in a disturbed peatland, using paleoecological and modelling approaches. The post-doc duration is 18 months and start date is any time before Jan 2027. DM if you are interested / have questions! 🌿🧪

These are cute drosera plants. They are carnivorous and live in peatlands. The picture shows these red plants that have a rounded shape and sticky tentacles. They are about 3 cm high.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Coming soon, a tiny book co-written with historian/philosopher @alexandreklein.bsky.social on the anthropocene world. We argue that the anthopocene as an informal concept (with all its flaws) is useful to think in an interdisciplinary way about what it means to live on a human-dominated planet.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

The feeling of marking a copy like this after trying to decipher a million unreadable exams. They even underlined the important parts of their answers. I'm crying tears of joy 😭

A sample of beautifully clear handwriting on an exam copy. That student should have their own font.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

New paper out today co-led by former students Philippe Major and Julien Arsenault. This is the result of a huge field campaign to painstakingly map the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus storage in (usually) quite small peatlands in a diverse landscape. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Two very dedicated students working in awful conditions to measure peat depth is a fen. It was a hot day and bugs were a pain. Blue sky with some clouds. One student is pulling a metal rod from the peat.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

A little bit of Saturday morning science - Former postdoc Anne Tamalavage led this study showing how organic matter and mercury gets retained along the land to ocean aquatic continuum. This was done in the La Romaine watershed in eastern Quebec 🌲💧 agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Coastal landscape of the North Coast region in eastern Quebec. End of day light, sedges in the foreground, St Lawrence gulf in the background with a few islands in the distance

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

CBC / Radio-Canada is broadcasting the hockey semi-finals in Atikamekw, Innu, Inuktitut and Cree - that's what public broadcasters are for!

Screenshot of Radio-Canada's website showing the diffusion of the hockey game in Inuktitut and Atikamekw

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

I wonder how many times I have had to correct authors when reviewing a paper about the notions of "stock" or "reservoir" vs "sink" of carbon. These words can't be used interchangeably, people! (En français : puits et réservoir de carbone sont deux concepts disctincts !)

Two people getting ready to core a peatland, an important RESERVOIR of carbon.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

This one is for the peatland nerds: We are organizing a session on 💧water in peatlands 🌿 at the ASLO conference in Montreal May 12-16 2026 - join us! Deadline for abstract submission Nov 25, more info here www.aslo.org/aslo-sil-202...

A nice deep blue pond in a peatland. Sparse spruce trees in the background

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

My department @geographieudem.bsky.social is looking for a professor in human geography specializing in the study of social-ecological transformations, political ecology, climate change, environmental justice and/or the geography of risks and infrastructures. Deadline November 10, share widely!

Glass buildings with a paved path in between (gray, with blue lines)

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

It's so nice to be able to teach outside on such a beautiful day! Here students are learning about the beauty of urban swamps, in the middle of Mont-Royal park (Montreal) 🌿

A group of students sitting and standing on a boardwalk in a middle of a swamp. Trees are in the background, they are stating to turn yellow and orange, most are still green. The sky is blue.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

As I'm preparing new lecture material, I'm reminded again of what a wonderful ressource the @biodivlibrary.bsky.social is! It's the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives and it is well worth a visit (the images and the thematic collections are amazing)💚

Drawings of an array of reptiles in black and white with a sepia background that screams "old scientific journal article".

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

La poussière naturelle peut être une source de nutriments dans les écosystèmes, mais trop de poussières peuvent aussi nuire à la productivité, comme dans le cas des tourbières de la Côte-Nord examinées dans cette étude 🌿

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Is dust helping peatlands accumulate carbon? It depends. Our new paper out in @jgrbiogeo.bsky.social compares the impacts of intense dust input from a road and smaller atmospheric dust episodes on a peatland - led by former Ph.D. student Xiaoyu Li agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

I spent the last 2 weeks offline, including several days without network hiking in the backcountry, and I swear I have not missed the world a bit

Hikers on a narrow trail right next to a cliff approaching a bigger cliff. They did not fall. Vegetation is low and green. Basalt cliffs are lightly covered in moss. No sign of Trump anywhere.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Back in the field with M.Sc. student @jhfh.bsky.social and @alexandreklein.bsky.social to study the impact of cormorant colonies on the soils of Mingan islands in northeastern Quebec. You can hear the colony quite well on the video, but fortunately you can't smell the guano!

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

I was very lucky to spend last week in the lab of the wonderful @tephrabird.bsky.social, learning so much about tephras and then enjoying a sample of Alberta's outdoors. My job, when I don't have to spend most of my working hours answering emails, is the best!

A student sitting in front of a very intimidating microprobe, a machine that can measure the elemental composition of small samples of minerals and glass from volcanic eruptions. The student is operating a joystick and other buttons, sitting in front of old school screens. The probe is in the background.

Beautiful Rocky mountains landscape, with coniferous trees in the foreground, slopes covered in different shapes of green, and high rocky peaks covered in snow in the background. The sky is cloudy, with aome clouds touching the mountains.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

A late start to the field season, but an important one - 10 years of biogeochemistry monitoring in this lovely peatland (Grande plée Bleue, near Quebec City)

A person sampling water in a peatland pond. There is a beautiful gray sky, a pond in the foreground, and the vegetation is green and brown-ish a d low-lying. We can see spruce trees in the background.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

I live in what is likely the most bike-friendly city in N America (Montreal). There is a clear modal shift towards cycling, and public transit has decent coverage. Yet so many people make a conscious decision to drive short distances daily, I don't get it

A row of bikes in am urban landscape, with a bit of greenery in the background.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Today is #worldpeatlandsday! May the sun continue to rise on beautiful peatlands such as this one, in northeastern Quebec. C'est la journée internationale des tourbières - elles doivent plus que jamais être protégées convenablement, de Havre St-Pierre, comme sur la photo, à Blainville ! 💚💧🌿

Bright yellow sun rising over an ombrotrophic peatland located just outside Havre-St-Pierre in northeastern Quebec. There are shrubs in the foreground, and low vegetation and ponds in the background, all flooded with yellow light.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Today my wondeful PhD student @sophiepouille.bsky.social successfully defended her thesis on dust impacts on boreal/alpine ecosystems in the Yukon. Sophie is a gem, she wrote an excellent thesis, defended it with flying colours, and is just an overall great human being! I was lucky to work with her.

Young scientist smiling (even though the rain is pouring), standing in front of the Kluane landscape in the Yukon
There are fireweeds in the foreground, mountains in the background, a big lake and white spruce as far as the eye can see. That scientist is now a PhD !

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

You recently obtained a Ph.D. or are currently a postdoc, do not live in Canada but are looking to move to Canada? You are interested in watershed-scale carbon storage and transport? There is an oportunity to apply for a 3-year PDF fellowship in my institution (Université de Montréal), get in touch!

Calm lake surrounded by hills. The sky is blue, with a few clouds, and is reflected on the lake surface. The soft light indicates that it is likely the end of a nice summer day. How much carbon is stored in such a landscape?

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Today I voted for Canada's federal election. I voted on campus using my driver's license as an ID and it took 2 minutes in total. This is the opposite of voter suppression and I'm all for it.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

While *all of this* is happening, somehow we are still doing science! My PhD student Thomas led this gigantic effort to develop a new chironomid-based transfer function for postglacial temperature reconstruction www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The famous dog in a house on fire having a coffee meme. The dog (me) smiles in the middle of the flames because they have a new paper out

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

I feel so lucky to live in a city where a few blocks from my home I can jump on my skis and enjoy the snow. Winters such as this will become increasingly rare, and it's truly breaking my heart. This is Parc Fréderic-Back in the middle of Montreal ❄️💙

A freshly groomed cross-country skiing trail. There is a small patch of trees in the distance and a building, giving a hint that we are in the middle of a city. Otherwise, no human in sight.

A small hill covered in snow. The wind patterns in the snow are clearly visible, making the snow look like sand dunes. The sky is deep blue, there are.park features in the distance (a bench with a sun cover, a sphere).

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

I'm updating a lecture on the biodiversity crisis and it hits me again how the underlying causes of the crisis as illustrated by the @ipbes.net are exactly the same than the deep causes of our fall into totalitarianism - domination of humans over nature, concentration of wealth, short-termism

Schematic showing the underlying causes of the biodiversity crisis, values and behaviour as indirect drivers and direct drivers (climate change, pollution, etc).

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Update: 24 heures plus tard le REV n'est toujours pas déneigé. Mais où est le lobby de big vélo ?

Vue d'une rue montréalaise. Des voitures qui se reposent. Une piste cyclable toujours ensevelie. Un trottoir aux allures de parcours extrême. Un sac de poubelle abandonné dans un banc de neige.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Le REM St-Denis après la tempête, documenté pour les 🤡 qui sont toujours prompts à dénoncer le supposé déneigement prioritaire des pistes cyclables

Soir post-tempête à Montréal. Piste cyclable entièrement recouverte de neige. Cadavres de voitures tristes abandonnés dans la neige.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Comme le disait poétiquement @jsbui.bsky.social jadis sur feu twitter, c'est une journée froide à se réfugier dans les entrailles d'un tauntaun.

Luke Skywalker riding a majestic tauntaun in the snow

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Thinking of my science colleagues in the US entering very dark times, but not fooling myself - it's coming to Canada very soon

Sunset over snowy fields. The sky is dramatic with hues of orange and yellows.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Early winter coring in an urban bog near Montreal. I actually prefer winter field work!

Bog in early winter. There are shrubs in the foreground with a thin snow layer underneath. Trees are in the distance. A few students are walking towards the trees. The sky is cloudy.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Fear of getting invaded by a foreign country was not what I had planned for 2025

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

The media sanewashing Trump, again. "Expansion"? Try invasion. I'm terrified.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

The message from the latest work by @ipbes.bsky.social is clear: "Previous and current approaches have failed to halt or reverse nature's decline at a global scale". We can't tackle the underlying causes of nature's decline (wealth concentration, gain prioritization) without questioning capitalism

A figure from the Transformative change report summary by IPBES showing the underlying causes (capitalism, nature-people disconnection) of nature's decline

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

I could not make it to #agu this year but if you find yourself wandering in poster hall on Wednesday pm, please check out the poster of my student William Brais (PP33D-0573) - he presents for the first time his M.Sc. results on soil abd sediment carbon mapping in a boreal watershed in Quebec!

Map of carbon density in different compartments of a boreal watershed (forests, lakes, wetlands)

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

À quand une pétition contre les culottes meurtrières ?

Couverture d'un livre sur les fausses nouvelles de Élise Gravel, des culottes à l'allure sympa terrifient les futurs voteurs du parti conssrvateur du Canada.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

The best part of my job by far is seeing my students succeed. My wonderful Ph.D. student Xiaoyu successfully defended her thesis today (with an "exceptional" mention!!) on the impact of road dust on peatlands. I couldn't be more proud!

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

So many new followers, I'm a bit confused. I am a geographer at @umontreal.bsky.social and my research is mostly on wetland biogeochemistry, but I also love working on interdisciplinary projects with social scientists. I teach courses about environmental changes. I post in English and French.

A small wetland with sedges crossed by a partially flooded boardwalk, a mountain top in the background. The sky is blue with a few fluffy clouds.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 11/10/2024

The remaining wetlands that we have should be kept intact, but restoring damaged wetlands is also essential. In our new paper we assess how long it takes for created ponds in restored peatlands to become biogeochemically similar to natural ones 🌿 esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Researchers taking samples in a natural peatland pond with calm waters under a blue sky

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 28/02/2024

We have a preprint out and open for discussion on what drives decomposition in peatland ponds. We show that decomposition in ponds is mostly controlled by environmental conditions rather than litter quality - check it out 👇 egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...

A pond in a peatland in winter. There is a light snow cover on the ground and trees in the background.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 01/11/2023

Wintery coring today in a lovely peatland to try to understand the dynamics of an isolated pitch pine population at the northernmost edge of its range. I may have lost a toe or two.

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 04/09/2023

Today I visited a suburban peatland close to Montreal. Located between a highway, an industrial neighbourhood, a suburb and a gaz pipeline, it stands in opposition to neoliberalism, unassuming, not generating profit. We often forget about the symbolic value of these small nature islands.

Overview of wetland vegetation with shrubs in rhe foreground and sparse trees further

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Julie Talbot @julietalbot.bsky.social · 30/07/2023

I might as well start here with a picture of a wetland - that's what I mostly study but not only! This beautiful swamp can be found in a secret corner of Vermont.

Swamp with trees of different sizes, lots of green vegetation and water pooling on the ground.

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