Dr. Monika Winder, Professor, Stockholm University

I am a professor in marine ecology at Stockholm University. My research explores aquatic food web interactions and how they respond to changes in the environment. We study the role of biotic interactions for the regulation of populations, trophic energy transfer and ecosystem functioning. My research addresses questions in freshwater and marine systems with a special emphasis on planktonic organisms. We combine descriptive field studies, long-term ecological and experimental research with novel tools, such as selective metabarcoding, to relate external forcing on species and ecosystem dynamics.

Keywords: Food webs, plankton, biotic interactions, environmental change, selective metabarcoding

Themes: (1) Microbial biogeography, (2) Functional diversity

Andreas Novotny

 I am a PhD student in marine ecology at Stockholm University in the lab of Monika Winder. My research interest focuses on biological interactions among marine microzooplankton, with a special interest in trophic interactions (food-webs). In current research projects I am using selective metabarcoding and other genetic tools to discover the microbiome of individually sorted microzooplankton. The aim of my research is to identify key mechanisms of the marine microbial loop and how it links to the traditional planktonic food-web. 

Key words: Microbial loop, Biological interactions, Marine plankton, selective metabarcoding

Karen Lykkebo Petersen

I am a PhD student in marine biology at Stockholm University. I am interested in the food web interaction between lower and higher trophic levels in the marine plankton ecosystem. Specifically, I study food web interactions between mesozooplankton and ichtyoplankton in the Baltic Sea investigating feeding behaviors using selective DNA barcoding. Further, I investigate the role of parasitism and symbiotic relations in zooplankton and its governance for the food web and ecosystem structure.  

Keywords: selective DNA metabarcoding, food web, zooplankton, ichtyoplankton