Hugo Asselin
Biographic Data
| ID | 109556 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Hugo Asselin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Hugo |
| FAMILY NAME | Asselin |
| SIGNATURE | ASSELIN H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9542-4994 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 78 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Return of Traditional Indigenous Midwifery Practices in Quebec
Indigenous mothers face unique challenges and violence when attempting to use the healthcare system for themselves and their unborn children. From the mid-20th century on, when Canada’s Indigenous communities were sedentarized, women were compelled to give birth in hospitals. As a result, by taking control of Indigenous women’s bodies, the hospital-based healthcare system altered the fundamental structure of Indigenous societies. Even when effort…
Wildfire-induced soil erosion in northern Finland watersheds
Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of wildfires in boreal forests, raising concerns about ecosystem resilience. We investigated the correspondence between fire events and soil erosion events in northern Finland during the Holocene (last 11,000 years). We analysed charcoal particles to reconstruct the local fire histories of two boreal lake catchments. Then, using magnetic susceptibility analysis, we identified sedim…
Innu and Atikamekw women’s connection to the land through pregnancy and birthing practices
In an effort to offset the marginalization of Indigenous women’s knowledge, we used a qualitative participatory approach to co-construct the meaning of the pregnancy and birthing knowledge of Innu (Indigenous people in Quebec, Canada) and Atikamekw (Indigenous people in Quebec, Canada) women in terms of connection to the land. Through thematic analysis of interviews, we show that the women have maintained a deep connection to the land, even thoug…
Fire-controlled variations in abundance of white pine and red pine in Quebec’s northern temperate forest during the Holocene
In North American temperate forests, white pine ( Pinus strobus L.) and red pine ( Pinus resinosa Ait.) establish on sites cleared by infrequent high-severity crown fires and persist in the long-term when low-severity surface fires clear the understory and expose mineral seedbeds, facilitating regeneration. Considerable reduction of white pine and red pine abundance over the last two centuries due to overharvesting and fire suppression prompted e…
Riskscapes
Risk assessment is a critical aspect of coping with environmental changes. The identification of values at risk — entities, attributes, and ideas that are important to a community — is a key component of a population's ability to resist or adapt to hazards. In colonial contexts, risk assessment must take into account the distinct relationality to the land of Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups and the historicized power relations. Most risk asse…
Early afforestation on islands of proglacial Lake Ojibway as evidence of post-glacial migration outposts
At the end of the last glacial period in the northern hemisphere, meltwater from receding ice sheets accumulated into large proglacial lakes, potentially limiting postglacial afforestation. We explored whether former islands of proglacial Lake Ojibway (Canada) (hilltops in the current landscape) could have acted as migration outposts and thus accelerated the postglacial migration. We extracted sediments from two small lakes located on “paleo-isla…
Integrating Indigenous and scientific perspectives on environmental changes
Major environmental changes affect the health and capacity of ecosystems to sustain Indigenous people's well‐being in boreal landscapes. Collaboration between Indigenous communities and researchers could help assessing and mitigating the consequences of environmental changes. We used Driver Pressure State Impact (DPSI) conceptual models to compare the perspectives of Indigenous and scientific communities on environmental changes in boreal landsca…
Association between intergenerational solidarity involving elders and mental health of Indigenous people living off reserve
Intergenerational solidarity is associated with better mental health outcomes of Indigenous people living off reserve. These results could guide policies and practices that aim to enhance mental health and wellness in Indigenous populations
Local citizen group dynamics in the implementation of community forest concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Local perception and attitude toward community forest concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Influences of climate fluctuations on northeastern North America’s burned areas largely outweigh those of European settlement since AD 1850
There is a pressing need for a better understanding of changing forest fire regimes worldwide, especially to separate the relative effects of potential drivers that control burned areas. Here we present a meta-analysis of the impacts of climate fluctuation and Euro-Canadian settlement on burned areas from 1850 to 1990 in a large zone (>100 000 km ^2 ) in northern temperate and boreal forests of eastern Canada. Using Cox regression models, we test…
From landscape practices to ecosystem services
Impacts of Environmental Changes on Well-Being in Indigenous Communities in Eastern Canada
Climate change and natural resource exploitation can affect Indigenous people's well-being by reducing access to ecosystem services, in turn impeding transmission of traditional knowledge and causing mental health problems. We used a questionnaire based on the Environmental Distress Scale (EDS) and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10) to examine the impacts of environmental changes on 251 members of four Indigenous communities in the…
Importance of Indigenous elders’ contributions to individual and community wellness
OBJECTIVE: Wellness is a challenge for Indigenous peoples, partly because Western services do not adopt a holistic approach. By devaluing traditional knowledge, Indigenous values and beliefs, these services lower Indigenous power and affect cultural identities. Indigenous elders participate in intergenerational solidarity by transmitting knowledge, values, and culture in a holistic approach. Despite widespread acceptance of the importance of Indi…
Evaluation of Indigenous employability programs in the Canadian mining industry
Coherent signature of warming-induced extreme sub-continental boreal wildfire activity 4800 and 1100 years BP
Climate changes are expected to progressively increase extreme wildfire frequency in forests. Finding past analogs for periods of extreme biomass burning would provide valuable insights regarding what the effects of warming might be for tree species distribution, ecosystem integrity, atmospheric greenhouse gas balance, and human safety. Here, we used a network of 42 lake-sediment charcoal records across a ∼2000 km transect in eastern boreal North…
Link to the Land and Mino-Pimatisiwin (Comprehensive Health) of Indigenous People Living in Urban Areas in Eastern Canada
Mino-pimatisiwin is a comprehensive health philosophy shared by several Indigenous peoples in North America. As the link to the land is a key element of mino-pimatisiwin , our aim was to determine if Indigenous people living in urban areas can reach mino-pimatisiwin . We show that Indigenous people living in urban areas develop particular ways to maintain their link to the land, notably by embracing broader views of "land" (including urban areas)…
Engaging youth in conversations about community and forests
Are Indigenous youth in a tug-of-war between community and city? Reflections from a visioning workshop in the Lac Simon Anishnaabeg community (Quebec, Canada)
Promoting perceived insider status of indigenous employees
Purpose While companies in developed countries are increasingly turning to indigenous employees, integration measures have met with mixed results. Low integration can lead to breach of the psychological contract, i.e. perceived mutual obligations between employee and employer. The purpose of this paper is to identify how leadership and organizational integration measures can be implemented to promote the perceived insider status (PIS) of indigeno…
Are marginal balsam fir and eastern white cedar stands relics from once more extensive populations in north-eastern North America
Marginal stands of balsam fir ( Abies balsamea [L.] Mill.) and eastern white cedar ( Thuja occidentalis L.) are found north of their limits of continuous distribution in eastern North America. Regional-scale paleoecological studies have suggested that fir and cedar populations could have had larger extents in the past. This study aimed at verifying this hypothesis at the local scale. Wood charcoal fragments were collected from the soils of two ma…
Local knowledge in ecological modeling
Local people and scientists both hold ecological knowledge, respectively stemming from prolonged day-to-day contact with the environment and from systematic inquiry based on the scientific method. As the complementarity between scientific ecological knowledge (SEK) and local ecological knowledge (LEK) is increasingly acknowledged, LEK is starting to be involved in all branches of ecology, including ecological modeling. However, the integration of…
Le territoire comme lieu privilégié de transmission des savoirs et des valeurs des femmes Atikamekw1, 2
L’analyse thématique de 32 entrevues réalisées avec des femmes Atikamekw révèle qu’elles connaissent le mode de vie de leurs ancêtres et le rôle que les femmes y jouaient, que ce rôle était prédominant et essentiel dans l’organisation spatiale des activités traditionnelles sur le territoire, que les accouchements sont des marqueurs spatiotemporels, que la désignation du lieu d’origine a changé à la suite des bouleversements sociaux et territoriau…
More fishers and fewer martens due to cumulative effects of forest management and climate change as evidenced from local knowledge
BACKGROUND: Monitoring of fur-bearing species populations is relatively rare due to their low densities. In addition to catch data, trappers' experience provides information on the ecology and status of the harvested species. Fisher (Pekania pennanti) and American marten (Martes americana) are mustelids that are sensitive to forest management and therefore considered to be ecological indicators of forest health. Fisher populations have increased …
Stakeholders’ perceptions of sustainable mining in Morocco
Diversity of use and local knowledge of wild edible plant resources in Nepal
Background Wild edible plants (WEP) provide staple and supplement foods, as well as cash income to local communities, thus favouring food security. However, WEP are largely ignored in land use planning and implementation, economic development, and biodiversity conservation. Moreover, WEP-related traditional knowledge is rapidly eroding. Therefore, we designed this study to fulfill a part of the knowledge gap by providing data on diversity, tradit…
Indigenous use and bio-efficacy of medicinal plants in the Rasuwa District, Central Nepal
The Tamang people possess rich ethnopharmacological knowledge. This study allowed to identify many high value and high priority medicinal plant species, indicating high potential for economic development through sustainable collection and trade
Changes in fire regime explain the Holocene rise and fall of Abies balsamea in the coniferous forests of western Québec, Canada
The coniferous boreal forest of northeastern North America is characterized by large and severe fire events and dominated by black spruce ( Picea mariana ), with scattered patches of balsam fir ( Abies balsamea), a species otherwise predominant in the more southern mixedwood boreal forests, characterized by smaller and less severe fire events. Because balsam fir is a late-successional species ill-adapted to fire, this study aimed at determining i…
Promoting perceived insider status of indigenous employees
Purpose While companies in developed countries are increasingly turning to indigenous employees, integration measures have met with mixed results. Low integration can lead to breach of the psychological contract, i.e. perceived mutual obligations between employee and employer. The purpose of this paper is to identify how leadership and organizational integration measures can be implemented to promote the perceived insider status (PIS) of indigeno…
Local perception and attitude toward community forest concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Stakeholders’ perceptions of sustainable mining in Morocco
Early afforestation on islands of proglacial Lake Ojibway as evidence of post-glacial migration outposts
At the end of the last glacial period in the northern hemisphere, meltwater from receding ice sheets accumulated into large proglacial lakes, potentially limiting postglacial afforestation. We explored whether former islands of proglacial Lake Ojibway (Canada) (hilltops in the current landscape) could have acted as migration outposts and thus accelerated the postglacial migration. We extracted sediments from two small lakes located on “paleo-isla…
Are marginal balsam fir and eastern white cedar stands relics from once more extensive populations in north-eastern North America
Marginal stands of balsam fir ( Abies balsamea [L.] Mill.) and eastern white cedar ( Thuja occidentalis L.) are found north of their limits of continuous distribution in eastern North America. Regional-scale paleoecological studies have suggested that fir and cedar populations could have had larger extents in the past. This study aimed at verifying this hypothesis at the local scale. Wood charcoal fragments were collected from the soils of two ma…
Local knowledge in ecological modeling
Local people and scientists both hold ecological knowledge, respectively stemming from prolonged day-to-day contact with the environment and from systematic inquiry based on the scientific method. As the complementarity between scientific ecological knowledge (SEK) and local ecological knowledge (LEK) is increasingly acknowledged, LEK is starting to be involved in all branches of ecology, including ecological modeling. However, the integration of…
Using tree-ring records to calibrate peak detection in fire reconstructions based on sedimentary charcoal records
We compared fire episodes over the past 150 years reconstructed using charcoal particles retrieved from well-dated sediment deposits from two small lakes in the eastern Canadian boreal forest, with dendrochronological reconstructions of fire events from the corresponding watersheds. Fire scars and age structure of living trees highlighted three fire events (ad 1890, 1941, and 1989). To explore the ability to detect these fire events based on sedi…
Changes in fire regime explain the Holocene rise and fall of Abies balsamea in the coniferous forests of western Québec, Canada
The coniferous boreal forest of northeastern North America is characterized by large and severe fire events and dominated by black spruce ( Picea mariana ), with scattered patches of balsam fir ( Abies balsamea), a species otherwise predominant in the more southern mixedwood boreal forests, characterized by smaller and less severe fire events. Because balsam fir is a late-successional species ill-adapted to fire, this study aimed at determining i…
Indigenous use and bio-efficacy of medicinal plants in the Rasuwa District, Central Nepal
The Tamang people possess rich ethnopharmacological knowledge. This study allowed to identify many high value and high priority medicinal plant species, indicating high potential for economic development through sustainable collection and trade
Soil charcoal stability over the Holocene across boreal northeastern North America
The analysis of macroscopic wood charcoal fragments extracted from soils is frequently used as a palaeoecological tool for reconstructing stand-scale forest composition and fire history. Here we explored the putative loss of palaeoecological information due to charcoal degradation through time and in different biogeographical settings. We compared the relationship between charcoal mass and abundance for soil samples from five biogeographical regi…
Plant biodiversity and ethnobotany inside the projected impact area of the Upper Seti Hydropower Project, Western Nepal
Soil charcoal stability over the Holocene—Response to comments by Mikael Ohlson
International audience
Traditional use of medicinal plants in the boreal forest of Canada
BACKGROUND: The boreal forest of Canada is home to several hundred thousands Aboriginal people who have been using medicinal plants in traditional health care systems for thousands of years. This knowledge, transmitted by oral tradition from generation to generation, has been eroding in recent decades due to rapid cultural change. Until now, published reviews about traditional uses of medicinal plants in boreal Canada have focused either on parti…
Plan Nord
En mai 2011, le Québec était l’une des dernières provinces canadiennes à se doter d’un plan stratégique de développement nordique. Le « Plan Nord », présenté comme un « modèle de développement durable », vise un territoire représentant 72 % de la superficie totale de la province et où plus du quart de la population est autochtone. Cet article propose un survol du Plan Nord et des impacts qu’il pourrait avoir sur les autochtones
Diversity of use and local knowledge of wild edible plant resources in Nepal
Background Wild edible plants (WEP) provide staple and supplement foods, as well as cash income to local communities, thus favouring food security. However, WEP are largely ignored in land use planning and implementation, economic development, and biodiversity conservation. Moreover, WEP-related traditional knowledge is rapidly eroding. Therefore, we designed this study to fulfill a part of the knowledge gap by providing data on diversity, tradit…
Traditional uses of medicinal plants in gastrointestinal disorders in Nepal
Using tree-ring records to calibrate peak detection in fire reconstructions based on sedimentary charcoal records
We compared fire episodes over the past 150 years reconstructed using charcoal particles retrieved from well-dated sediment deposits from two small lakes in the eastern Canadian boreal forest, with dendrochronological reconstructions of fire events from the corresponding watersheds. Fire scars and age structure of living trees highlighted three fire events (ad 1890, 1941, and 1989). To explore the ability to detect these fire events based on sedi…
Stakeholders’ perceptions of sustainable mining in Morocco
Le territoire comme lieu privilégié de transmission des savoirs et des valeurs des femmes Atikamekw1, 2
L’analyse thématique de 32 entrevues réalisées avec des femmes Atikamekw révèle qu’elles connaissent le mode de vie de leurs ancêtres et le rôle que les femmes y jouaient, que ce rôle était prédominant et essentiel dans l’organisation spatiale des activités traditionnelles sur le territoire, que les accouchements sont des marqueurs spatiotemporels, que la désignation du lieu d’origine a changé à la suite des bouleversements sociaux et territoriau…
More fishers and fewer martens due to cumulative effects of forest management and climate change as evidenced from local knowledge
BACKGROUND: Monitoring of fur-bearing species populations is relatively rare due to their low densities. In addition to catch data, trappers' experience provides information on the ecology and status of the harvested species. Fisher (Pekania pennanti) and American marten (Martes americana) are mustelids that are sensitive to forest management and therefore considered to be ecological indicators of forest health. Fisher populations have increased …
Are marginal balsam fir and eastern white cedar stands relics from once more extensive populations in north-eastern North America
Marginal stands of balsam fir ( Abies balsamea [L.] Mill.) and eastern white cedar ( Thuja occidentalis L.) are found north of their limits of continuous distribution in eastern North America. Regional-scale paleoecological studies have suggested that fir and cedar populations could have had larger extents in the past. This study aimed at verifying this hypothesis at the local scale. Wood charcoal fragments were collected from the soils of two ma…
Local knowledge in ecological modeling
Local people and scientists both hold ecological knowledge, respectively stemming from prolonged day-to-day contact with the environment and from systematic inquiry based on the scientific method. As the complementarity between scientific ecological knowledge (SEK) and local ecological knowledge (LEK) is increasingly acknowledged, LEK is starting to be involved in all branches of ecology, including ecological modeling. However, the integration of…
Coherent signature of warming-induced extreme sub-continental boreal wildfire activity 4800 and 1100 years BP
Climate changes are expected to progressively increase extreme wildfire frequency in forests. Finding past analogs for periods of extreme biomass burning would provide valuable insights regarding what the effects of warming might be for tree species distribution, ecosystem integrity, atmospheric greenhouse gas balance, and human safety. Here, we used a network of 42 lake-sediment charcoal records across a ∼2000 km transect in eastern boreal North…
Link to the Land and Mino-Pimatisiwin (Comprehensive Health) of Indigenous People Living in Urban Areas in Eastern Canada
Mino-pimatisiwin is a comprehensive health philosophy shared by several Indigenous peoples in North America. As the link to the land is a key element of mino-pimatisiwin , our aim was to determine if Indigenous people living in urban areas can reach mino-pimatisiwin . We show that Indigenous people living in urban areas develop particular ways to maintain their link to the land, notably by embracing broader views of "land" (including urban areas)…
Engaging youth in conversations about community and forests
Are Indigenous youth in a tug-of-war between community and city? Reflections from a visioning workshop in the Lac Simon Anishnaabeg community (Quebec, Canada)
Promoting perceived insider status of indigenous employees
Purpose While companies in developed countries are increasingly turning to indigenous employees, integration measures have met with mixed results. Low integration can lead to breach of the psychological contract, i.e. perceived mutual obligations between employee and employer. The purpose of this paper is to identify how leadership and organizational integration measures can be implemented to promote the perceived insider status (PIS) of indigeno…
Impacts of Environmental Changes on Well-Being in Indigenous Communities in Eastern Canada
Climate change and natural resource exploitation can affect Indigenous people's well-being by reducing access to ecosystem services, in turn impeding transmission of traditional knowledge and causing mental health problems. We used a questionnaire based on the Environmental Distress Scale (EDS) and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10) to examine the impacts of environmental changes on 251 members of four Indigenous communities in the…
Importance of Indigenous elders’ contributions to individual and community wellness
OBJECTIVE: Wellness is a challenge for Indigenous peoples, partly because Western services do not adopt a holistic approach. By devaluing traditional knowledge, Indigenous values and beliefs, these services lower Indigenous power and affect cultural identities. Indigenous elders participate in intergenerational solidarity by transmitting knowledge, values, and culture in a holistic approach. Despite widespread acceptance of the importance of Indi…
Evaluation of Indigenous employability programs in the Canadian mining industry
Influences of climate fluctuations on northeastern North America’s burned areas largely outweigh those of European settlement since AD 1850
There is a pressing need for a better understanding of changing forest fire regimes worldwide, especially to separate the relative effects of potential drivers that control burned areas. Here we present a meta-analysis of the impacts of climate fluctuation and Euro-Canadian settlement on burned areas from 1850 to 1990 in a large zone (>100 000 km ^2 ) in northern temperate and boreal forests of eastern Canada. Using Cox regression models, we test…
From landscape practices to ecosystem services
Geography (21 works) · Ecology (16 works) · Indigenous (13 works) · Political science (13 works) · Biology (10 works) · Environmental Science (10 works) · Business (8 works) · Fire effects on ecosystems (8 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (8 works) · Medicine (8 works)