Coastal socio-ecological systems are complex adaptive systems with nonlinear changing properties and multi-scale dynamics. They are influenced by unpredictable coastal hazards accentuated by the effects of climate change, and they can quickly be altered if critical thresholds are crossed. Additional pressures come from coastal activities and development, both of which attracting stakeholders with different perspectives and int...

The decision-making process of the coastal defence measures (CDMs) is complex and filled with uncertainties due to site-specific interactions between hydrodynamic and geomorphological conditions, which have repercussions on the ecological and social aspects of coastal communities. Scientific knowledge of the effects of CDMs contributes to the reduction in inherent uncertainties and facilitates the decision-making and design pr...

This article focuses on the quantification of retreat rates, geomorphological processes, and hydroclimatic and environmental drivers responsible for the erosion of an unconsolidated fine-sediment cliff along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Quebec, Canada). Annual monitoring using field markers over a period of twenty years, coupled with photo interpretation and historical archive analysis, indicates an average ann...

Increasing evidence shows that structural variants represent an overlooked aspect of genetic variation with consequential evolutionary roles. Among those, copy number variants (CNVs), including duplicated genomic regions and transposable elements (TEs), may contribute to local adaptation and/or reproductive isolation among divergent populations. Those mechanisms suppose that CNVs could be used to infer neutral and/or adaptive...

Gene flow has tremendous importance for local adaptation, by influencing the fate of de novo mutations, maintaining standing genetic variation and driving adaptive introgression. Furthermore, structural variation as chromosomal rearrangements may facilitate adaptation despite high gene flow. However, our understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms impending or favouring local adaptation in the presence of gene flow is still l...

The effects of introgression on parasitism in brook charr Salvelinus fontinalis were investigated in 28 lakes with various levels of stocking in Québec, Canada. No effect of genetic background on parasitism was found at the individual level. Body length seemed to explain most of the variation observed at this level, with largest fish being more infected. However, lakes with the greater average domestic genetic background were...

Understanding genomic signatures of divergent selection underlying long‐term adaptation in populations located in heterogeneous environments is a key goal in evolutionary biology. In this study, we investigated neutral, adaptive and deleterious genetic variation using 7,192 SNP s in 31 Lake Trout ( Salvelinus namaycush ) populations ( n = 673) from Québec, Canada. Average genetic diversity was low, weakly shared among lakes, a...

Proxy records of late Holocene relative sea‐level changes are important for our understanding of mechanisms that drive contemporary sea‐level trends. In the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (eastern Canada), the Magdalen Islands currently experience higher than global average rates of relative sea‐level rise. This article presents original reconstruction data of sea‐level changes from the Magdalen Islands over the past few millennia col...

Understanding the emergence of species through the process of ecological speciation is a central question in evolutionary biology which also has implications for conservation and management. Lake trout ( Salvelinus namaycush ) is renowned for the occurrence of different ecotypes linked to resource and habitat use throughout North America. We aimed to unravel the fine genetic structure of the four lake trout ecotypes in Lake Su...

On 6 December 2010, an extra-tropical storm reached Atlantic Canada, causing coastal flooding due to high water levels being driven toward the north shore of Chaleur Bay. The extent of flooding was identified in the field along the coastline at Maria using DGPS. Using the assumption that the maximum elevation of flooded areas represents the combination of astronomical tide, storm surge and wave runup, which is the maximum elev...