Alexis Savard-Drouin
PhD
Supervisors: Karen Filbee-Dexter & Albert Pessarrodona
Global kelp forests are under unprecedented stress from climate change, leading to drastic changes in species community composition and ecosystem function. We currently lack information on how important ecosystem functions, such as carbon cycling, might change as species shift in a warming ocean.
My project investigates how the increasing abundance of warm-affinity benthic Sargassums and the concurrent decline of the cold-affinity kelp Ecklonia radiata will alter the carbon cycling capacity of macroalgal forests in Western Australia, and the feedback mechanisms facilitating or slowly down this community shift.
Qualifications
2025: MSc Oceanography, Dalhousie University (2024-2025)
2023: BSc Marine biology honours, Dalhousie University (2018-2023)
Achievements and awards
2025: ARC Future Fellow HDR Scholarship, University of Western Australia
2025: Scholarship for International Research Fees, University of Western Australia
2023: Canadian Graduate Research Scholarship Masters, National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada
2023: Harmonized Scholarship, Province of Nova Scotia
2022: Rob Stewart Award in Marine Conservation, National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada
2022: Top Science Co-op Student Award, Dalhousie University
2021: Undergraduate Summer Research Award, National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada
2020: Undergraduate Research Scholarship, Canadian Association at Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences
2018-2021: Scholarship of Dependent, University of Toronto
Publications
Lightbody KL, Metaxas A, Savard-Drouin A. Estimates of Kelp Abundance Can Be Biased by Sampling Scale and Resolution. Mar Ecol Prog Ser. In review
Eger A et al. (incl. Savard-Drouin A). 2026. Global Patterns and Regional Insights into Kelp Forest Protection, Restoration, and Stewardship. J Appl Phycol. In press
Savard-Drouin A, Ulrick A, Metaxas A. 2024. Wave exposure influences kelp morphological and biomechanical phenotypic plasticity. Mar Ecol Prog Ser. 748: 1 - 15.
Bouchard Marmen M, Odenthal B, Murillo FJ, Tompkins G, Baker E, Savard-Drouin A, Walkusz W, Siferd T, Kenchington E. 2021. Sponges from the 2010-2014 Paamiut Multispecies Trawl Surveys, Eastern Arctic and Subarctic: Class Demospongiae, Subclass Heteroscleromorpha, Order Poecilosclerida, Families Mycalidae and Isodictyidae. Can Tech Rep Fish Aquat Sci. 3452: 60.
Bouchard Marmen M, Tompkins G, Harrington N, Savard-Drouin A, Wells M, Baker E, Odenthal B, Walkusz W, Siferd T, Kenchington E. 2019. Sponges from the 2010-2014 Paamiut Multispecies Trawl Surveys, Eastern Arctic and Subarctic: Class Demospongiae, Subclass Heteroscleromorpha, Order Poecilosclerida, Families Microcionidae, Acarnidae and Esperiopsidae. Can Tech Rep Fish Aquat Sci. 3349: 76.