Dr. Francisco Nascimento, Associate Professor, Stockholm University

The overall focus of my research is to understand how ecosystems respond to anthropogenic and environmental disturbances both structurally and functionally. Specifically, my research activities have been guided by three main topics:  1-Responses of benthic communities to eutrophication, 2-Species interaction effects on benthic ecosystem processes, 3- structuring factors of metazoan biodiversity in benthic habitats

Keywords: Biodiversity, Species interactions, Ecosystem function, Disturbance, food-webs, Baltic Sea management

Themes: 1 and 2

Elias Broman, Post Doc

I’ve done a PhD with a focus on microbial diversity and adaption in Baltic Sea hypoxic sediments (so called “dead zones”). In my current postdoc project I am using modern molecular tools and bioinformatics to investigate cross community interactions between benthic prokaryotes and meiofauna (benthic animals < 1 mm) and  how it affects sediment metabolic functions. The aim of the project is also to link prokaryotic-meiofauna interactions in the sediment to benthic-pelagic exchange of greenhouse gases, as well as adaptation to future climate change scenarios.

Keywords: Sediment, DNA, RNA, microbiology, meiofauna

Julie Garrison, PhD Candidate

In my project, I investigate how anthropogenic stresses are affecting the structure and function of benthic invertebrate food webs in the Baltic Sea. I'm primarily interested in hypoxia and sediment contaminants, which are problems that particularly affect the Baltic Sea due to restricted water inflow and long residence times. I use DNA metabarcoding of gut content to construct food webs  and compare traditional matrices across environmental gradients and affected sites.

Keywords: trophic interactions, anthropogenic stress, DNA metabarcoding.

Sven Iburg (PhD candidate)

I did my BSc and MSc in the fields of Microbial Ecology and Molecular Biology in Utrecht and  Wageningen University. Currently, as a PhD candidate at Stockholm University, I’m trying to understand the driving forces behind benthic biodiversity in the Baltic Sea on an ecosystem-scale using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), with a strong focus on including meiofauna communities in management tools of the Baltic Sea.

Keywords: benthos, meiofauna, biodiversity, Baltic Sea, metabarcoding

Séréna Albert (PhD candidate)

I did my MSc in Oceanography and Marine Environments at Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), in France. My PhD project aims to understand what climate-change related variations in quality and quantity of settling organic matter means to benthic diversity and function using the Baltic Sea as a study ecosystem 

Keywords: benthic-pelagic coupling, phytoplankton, benthic eukaryotes, biogeochemistry and metabarcoding’