In-prep peer-reviewed papers
(15) Troina, G.C., Feyrer, L.J., Remili, A., Desforges, J.P.D., Braid, H., Maldonado-Rodriguez, A., Edkins, T., Hooker, S., Budge, S.M., Watt, C., Tucker, S. Lefort, K., Storrie, L., Gaspard, D., Hussey, N., McKinney, M.A., Whitehead, H., Ferguson, S.H. Beyond Squid: Dietary Flexibility in Northern Bottlenose Whales Revealed by Stable Isotopes and Fatty Acids. (anticipated submission January 2026)
(14) Remili, A., Noren, D.P., Schultz, I., Hanson, B.M., Chittaro, P., Emmons, C., Ylitalo, G., O’Neil, S., Chappell, A., Brown, T.M., Gallilee, C. & McKinney, M.M. Diet composition of Endangered Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca ater) of the Northeast Pacific estimated by quantitative fatty acid signature analysis. (anticipated submission January 2026)
Submitted peer-reviewed papers
(13) Plint, T., Remili, A., Dietz, R., Sonne, C.S., Rikardsen, A.H., Rosing-Asvid, A., McKinney, M.A. Are amino acid δ15N and δ13C useful for tracing trophic ecology and contaminant accumulation in cetaceans? Insight from a case study on ecologically-distinct Greenland and Norway killer whales. Submitted to Marine Ecology Progress Series.
(12) Lee, K., Jourdain, E.M., Remili, A., McKinney, M.A., Andvik, C., Fagerlund, C., Karoliussen, R., Borgå, K., & Ruus, A. Understanding the diet of Norwegian killer whales using fatty acid-based approaches. Submitted to Marine Environment Progress Series.
Published peer-reviewed papers
(11) Harris, T.R., Morris, A.D., Lange, E., Blair, D.A.D., Remili, A., Letcher, R.J., & Rand; A.A. Lipid oxidation and metabolism in relation to contaminants in polar bears from the Canadian High Arctic and Hudson Bay. Environmental Pollution.
(10) Remili, A., Chandramouli, B., Fisk, A., Angnatok, J. & Brown, T.M. 2025. Climate variations and a local PCB hotspot have altered metabolomic profiles in ringed seals. Environmental Research.
(9) Remili, A., Morris, A.D., Muir, D.C.G., Houde, M., Brown, T.M., Ferguson, S.H., Blair, D.A.D., Letcher, R.J. 2025. Persistent pollutant exposure differentially impacts metabolomic profiles in polar bears and ringed seals from the High Arctic and Hudson Bay, Canada. Environmental Research.
(8) Remili, A., McKinney, M. A., Maldonado-Rodriguez, A., Ferguson, S. H., Caputo, M., & Kiszka, J. J. 2024. Legacy persistent organic pollutants among multiple cetacean species in the Northwest Atlantic. Science of The Total Environment.
(7) Lacombe, R.M., Atwood, C., Peacock, E., Remili, A., Dietz, R., Sonne, C., McKinney, .MA., 2023. Long-term storage at -20 °C compromises fatty acid composition of polar bear adipose biopsies. Marine Ecology Progress Series.
(6) Desforges, J. P., Ferguson, S.H., Remili, A., McKinney, M.A., Watt, C.A., Matthews, C.J.D. 2023. Killer whales (Orcinus orca) as a potential high exposure source of legacy and emerging contaminants to Inuit communities of the eastern Canadian Arctic. Environmental Research.
(5) Remili, A., Dietz, R., Sonne, C., Samarra, F. I.P., Rikardsen, A. H., Ferguson, S.H., Watt, C.A., Matthews, C.J.D., Kiszka, J.J., Rosing-Asvid, A., McKinney, M.A 2023. Varying Diet Composition Causes Striking Differences in Legacy and Emerging Contaminant Concentrations in Killer Whales across the North Atlantic. Environmental Science & Technology — ACS Editor’s choice.
(4) Remili, A., Dietz, R., Sonne, C., Samarra, F. I.P., Rikardsen, A. H., Kettemer, L. E., Ferguson, S.H., Watt, C.A., Matthews, C.J.D., Kiszka, J.J., Jourdain, E., Borgå, K., Ruus, A., Granquist, S.M., Rosing-Asvid, A., McKinney, M.A 2023. Quantitative fatty acid signature analysis reveals a high level of dietary specialization in killer whales across the North Atlantic. Journal of Animal Ecology.
(3) Remili, A., Dietz, R., Sonne, C., Iverson, S. J., Roy, D., Rosing-Asvid, A., Land-Miller, H., Pedersen, A. F. & Mckinney, M. A. 2022. Validation of quantitative fatty acid signature analysis for estimating the diet composition of free-ranging killer whales. Scientific Reports, 12, 7938.
(2) Remili, A., Letcher, R.J., Samarra, F.I., Dietz, R., Sonne, C., Desforges, J.P., Víkingsson, G., Blair, D. and McKinney, M.A., 2021. Individual Prey Specialization Drives PCBs in Icelandic Killer Whales. Environmental Science & Technology, 55(8), pp.4923-4931.
(1) Remili, A., Gallego, P., Pinzone, M., Castro, C., Jauniaux, T., Garigliany, M.M., Malarvannan, G., Covaci, A. and Das, K., 2020. Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) breeding off Mozambique and Ecuador show geographic variation of persistent organic pollutants and isotopic niches. Environmental Pollution, 267, p.115575.
First author conference presentations
Canadian Ecotoxicology Workshop, Victoria, Canada — October 2025: Session chair for Marine Mammals at Risk: Characterizing Contaminant-Related Threats to Enable Conservation Strategies and talk: Tissue-Specific Metabolomic Responses to climate variation and contaminants in Ringed Seals (Pusa hispida) from a PCB hotspot in the Canadian Arctic
Vth International Symposium on Orcas, Tarifa, Spain — February 2025: You are what you eat: feeding ecology and associated contamination in North Atlantic killer whales (Talk) and WHALE, THAT’S TOXIC! A global review of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in killer whales (Poster).
25th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, Perth, Australia — November 2024: Diet composition of Endangered Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) of the Northeast Pacific estimated by quantitative fatty acid signature analysis.
SETAC Europe 2024, Seville, Spain — May 2024: Session chair for “ Assessing and Predicting the Impact of Chemical Pollution on Marine Mammals: Challenges to Be Overcome, Future Prospects, and Conservation Strategies” and Poster: Legacy POPs contaminant variation among cetaceans inhabiting the historically contaminated Gulf of St Lawrence, Canada.
Canadian Ecotoxicology Workshop, Ottawa, Canada — October 2023: The toxic menus of North Atlantic killer whales.
SETAC Europe 2023, Dublin, Ireland — May 2023: First detailed assessment of organic contaminants in killer whales across the North Atlantic Ocean and the influence of diet composition.
NWFSC Monster Seminar Jam, NOAA, Online — December 2022 (Invited speaker): Newly validated quantitative fatty acid signature analysis reveals killer whale diet compositions across the North Atlantic. You can watch the recording here (password: pKbKUA5R)
The Wildlife Society’s Annual Conference 2022, Spokane (WA), USA — November 2022 (Invited speaker): Let’s talk about fat: using fatty acid signatures to assess diet composition and application to marine mammal research.
Society for Marine Mammalogy 2022, West Palm Beach, FL, USA — August 2022: Quantitative fatty acid signature analysis (QFASA) validated for killer whales and applied to estimate the diets of free-ranging killer whales across the North Atlantic.
European Cetacean Society Conference 2022, Ashdod, Israel (Online) — April 2022: Validation of quantitative fatty acid signature analysis for estimating the diet composition of free-ranging killer whales.
NRS Graduate Seminar McGill, Online – November 2021: Using dietary tracers to understand the feeding ecology and contaminant exposures of North Atlantic killer whales, A. Remili
SETAC Europe 2021, Online – May 2021: Individual Prey Specialization Drives PCBs in Icelandic Killer Whales, A. Remili et al.
NAMMCO Student Symposium 2021, Tromsø (Online), Norway – April 2021: “Individual Prey Specialization Drives PCBs in Icelandic Killer Whales”, A. Remili et al.
McGill North Day 2020, Montréal, Canada – January 2020: “Variation in blubber concentrations of persistent organic pollutants in Icelandic killer whales”, 2014-2016, A. Remili et al.
World Marine Mammal Conference, Barcelona, Spain – December 2019: “A review of the current evidence on the classification of North Atlantic killer whales as distinct ecotypes”, A. Remili et al. (Poster presentation)
SETAC North America 2019, Toronto, Canada – November 2019: “Blubber persistent organic pollutants levels in Icelandic killer whales (Orcinus orca), 2014-2016”, A. Remili et al.
Arctic Circle Assembly*, Reykjavik, Iceland – October 2019: “Dual Approach to Understanding Killer Whale Feeding Ecology in the North Atlantic Ocean”, A. Remili. Won the first prize in the international “My Nordic Project” competition
Dioxin 2019 & Dioxin Student Session 2019, Kyoto, Japan – August 2019: “Persistent organic pollutants in humpback whales from the Southern Hemisphere: influence of sex, stock, and trophic ecology”, A. Remili et al.
Mon Projet Nordique 2019*, Québec, Canada – May 2019: “Dual Approach to Understanding Killer Whale Feeding Ecology in the North Atlantic Ocean”, A. Remili. Won first prize
SETAC YES 2019, Ghent, Belgium – February 2019: “Persistent organic pollutants in humpback whales from the Southern Hemisphere: influence of stock and trophic ecology”, A. Remili et al. (Poster presentation)
VIVAs MER program 2018*, Plentzia Marine Station, Spain – September 2018: “Persistent organic pollutants in humpback whales from the Southern Hemisphere: influence of stock and trophic ecology”, A. Remili et al. Won first prize: Prof. MB Colins Best Master Thesis Presentation
CEW 2022, Ottawa, Canada — October 2023: A first detailed meta-assessment of PCBs, OCs, and brominated flame retardants in killer whales across the North Atlantic Ocean indicates that diet explains most variation