Anne Vallée (26 July 1958,

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

, Quebec, Canada - 31 July 1982, Triangle Island,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, ) was one of the first biologists to observe the

impact of climate change The effects of climate change impact the physical environment, ecosystems and human societies. The environmental effects of climate change are broad and far-reaching. They affect the water cycle, oceans, sea and land ice (glaciers), sea level ...

on animal populations.

Biography

Born in

, Anne Vallée completed in 1979 a bachelor's degree in biology at

Laval University Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxemb ...

and took graduate studies at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

supported by a scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. She chose

tufted puffin The tufted puffin (''Fratercula cirrhata''), also known as crested puffin, is a relatively abundant medium-sized pelagic seabird in the auk family (Alcidae) found throughout the North Pacific Ocean. It is one of three species of puffin that make ...

s as a research subject and, starting in 1980, spent her summers on Triangle Island, an ecological reserve located in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

west of the north tip of

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...

. She died accidentally on Triangle Island during the summer of 1982. Her work was included in the paper of Gjerdrum et al. (2003). Following her death, her family and friends created the Anne Vallée Ecological Fund, with the objective to "Support field research highlighting the problems of animal ecology in relation to human settlements and activities such as agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism." From 1983 to 2011, 45 scholarships have been awarded to student researchers from

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

and

universities. In 1983, the

government renamed the Triangle Island Ecological reserve the ''Anne Vallée Triangle Island Ecological Reserve''. In 2002, Alison Watt published the book '' The Last Island, A Naturalist's Sojourn on Triangle Island'', where she recalled her experience in the summer of 1980 when she assisted Anne Vallée in her research on

s. In 2003, this book won the Edna Staebler Award for creative non-fiction. In 2006, in the process of street name harmonization following the fusion of suburbs with Quebec City, the Quebec City administration accepted the proposal of a group of citizens to rename rue Quatre-Saisons in the

Sainte-Foy–Sillery Sainte-Foy–Sillery is a former borough of Quebec City (Population (2006): 72,262). It comprised the former city of Sillery and most of Sainte-Foy, which were incorporated into the borough on January 1, 2002. On November 1, 2009, the new boro ...

borough to rue Anne-Vallée.

References

Tufted puffin reproduction reveals ocean climate variability, Carina Gjerdrum, Anne M. J. Vallée, Colleen Cassady St. Clair, Douglas F. Bertram, John L. Ryder, and Gwylim S. Blackburn, 2003: Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, v.100(16), 9377-9382

External links

* ttp://www.harbourpublishing.com/title/TheLastIsland Harbour Publishing, The Last Island
News Releases from Public Affairs Wilfrid Laurier University at the announcement of Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction for 2003

*
Ville de Québec, Toponymie Rue Anne-Vallée
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vallee, Anne Canadian ecologists Women ecologists French Quebecers 1958 births 1982 deaths Université Laval alumni 20th-century Canadian biologists 20th-century Canadian women scientists Canadian women biologists