Here, we investigate diet overlap between these three planktivorous fishes in the Baltic Sea, utilizing DNA metabarcoding on the 18S rRNA gene and the COI gene, targeted qPCR, and microscopy. Our results show niche differentiation between clupeids and stickleback, and highlight that rotifers play an important role in this pattern, as a resource that is not being used by … More New study using metabarcoding shows niche partitioning between planktivorous fish

Project meeting for ‘Larval Fish Production and Dispersal in Critical Habitats of Coastal East Africa’ in Tanga, Tanzania, March 2022.

We have a 4-yr PhD position available in our group focusing on protist parasites in plankon food webs. For details, please visit: Project descriptionThe Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences invites applications for a four-year PhD position part of the project ‘Drivers and functions of protist parasites in plankton food webs’. The goal of … More Open PhD position in Marine Biology

It is exciting that the Swedish Research Council has granted us funding for four years to continue our work on drivers and functions of plankton interactions. This specific project will investigate the role of parasitic symbionts in the functioning and equilibrium of carbon flow in marine food webs. We aim to resolve drivers and functions … More New research project from Vetenskapsrådet (VR)

Andreas Novotny and Per Hedberg successfully defended their PhDs – well done!

Alternative pathways of energy transfer guarantee the functionality and productivity in marine food webs that experience strong seasonality. Nevertheless, the complexity of zooplankton interactions is rarely considered in trophic studies because of the lack of detailed information about feeding interactions in nature. In this study, we used DNA metabarcoding to highlight the diversity of trophic … More DNA metabarcoding reveals trophic niche diversity of micro and mesozooplankton species

The Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences invites applications for a four-year PhD position part of the project ‘Plankton-fish interactions: An understudied link in Baltic Sea food webs and fisheries management’. The goal of this PhD project is to investigate prey preference of small pelagic fish including the entire prey spectrum using novel molecular … More We have an open PhD position in plankton ecology

Two master students finished their projects in Dec 2020: Calum Young: Examination of plankton communities, invaders and harmful algal species within mangrove areas of the Galápagos Islands using eDNA metabarcoding Phytoplankton are critical components of the marine environment but their understanding within the Galápagos Marine Reserve (GMR) remains largely underexplored with research focused within mangrove systems being further limited. Between November and December, the … More Congratulations to two successful master thesis presentations

Although parasitism is one of the most prevalent interactions in nature, studies of aquatic food webs rarely include parasites. Syndiniales (Dinophyceae, Alveolata) is a diverse parasitic group of dinoflagellates, common in all marine environments, and are described as dominant components of pelagic ecosystems. However, their temporal dynamics, prevalence, and host-specificity are poorly known. Using DNA … More New article on evidence of host-parasite interactions in zooplankton

This study is published in Molecular Ecology and shows for the first time the natural diet of zooplankton under temporal variation of food resources. Knowledge of zooplankton in situ diet is critical for accurate assessment of marine ecosystem function and structure, but due to methodological constraints, there is still a limited understanding of ecological networks … More Reconstructing plankton food web interactions with DNA metabarcoding