Guest Editors
Raquel Marques
Senckenberg am Meer, DZMB Martin-Luther-King Platz 3 20146 Hamburg Germany
Dr. Raquel Marques is a postdoctoral researcher at the Senckenberg am Meer – DZMB (German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research), in the Zooplankton Research Group, in Germany. She is broadly interested in zooplankton ecology, from species-specific population dynamics to inter-specific ecological interactions. Understanding how climate change and anthropogenic activities impact meroplankton populations and communities is a central theme of her research. She did her PhD at the MARBEC laboratory in France, where she focused on the ecology of a jellyfish species, in order to understand what drives jellyfish blooms and what is the role of these organisms in the ecosystem. Currently, she is studying long-term changes in meroplankton biodiversity in the North Sea, using time series and trait-based analysis. She is investigating how the climate and anthropogenic changes affect the structure of these communities and the potential impact on marine food webs and ecosystem functioning.
Thomas Trombetta
IBED (Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics), University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Dr. Thomas Trombetta is a post-doctoral researcher in planktonic food webs at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (Freshwater and Marine Ecology, FAME) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He has specialized in the abiotic (natural or anthropic) factors of influence on plankton food web composition, dynamics, and interactions. Dr. Trombetta earned his PhD from the University of Montpellier in Marine Science, where he studied the biotic and abiotic drivers of phytoplankton bloom initiation in coastal waters. During his PhD, he developed a novel network method to identify the ‘dominant’ and ‘rare’ interactions in plankton correlation networks. He focuses his post-doctoral research on the ‘animal-like’ and ‘plant-like’ feeding behaviour of mixotrophs, their role in the planktonic food web, and the impact of global change on it.
Collection Overview
The key role of plankton in the functioning of the aquatic ecosystems calls for a deep understanding on the biology and ecology of these drifter organisms. Plankton communities are the supporting pillars of aquatic food webs and are very important in the ocean carbon cycle. Besides being responsible for atmospheric CO2 sequestration and the global oxygen production, they provide the energy supporting the whole ecosystem biodiversity. Moreover, plankton are particularly sensitive to environmental changes, and therefore, they are good indicators of climate and anthropogenic changes in marine ecosystems. Yet, we still lack a full understanding of many aspects of their biology, physiology, functioning, intra- and interspecific interactions, evolution, biogeography, among many others.
From virioplankton to large gelatinous zooplankton, including archeae, bacterioplankton, phytoplankton, protozooplankton and metazooplankton, this collection aims to bring together the wide range of techniques used to study these organisms. It might include in situ or laboratory methods, new or old sampling and identification techniques, physiological experiments, molecular analysis, or any other methodology that contributes to the understanding of the role of plankton communities in the ecosystem. The goal of this collection is not only to put forward standardized plankton research methodologies, but also to share and put under the spotlight a transparent, accurate and up-to-date plankton research.
Articles
Abstracts
Visualization and quantification of NifH in phycoerythrin containing unicellular Cyanobacterium Crocosphaera watsonii
Takako Masuda*1
1Fisheries Resources Institute, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency