Phytoplankton are microscopic algae suspended in the water column. These very small organisms constitute the base of all aquatic food chains and they are also extremely important for global biogeochemical cycling.
Our main research interest is phytoplankton ecology and evolution, specifically the role of the various life stages plays for a population’s survival, population ecology, and how genetic populations disperse geographically and over time. We have for several years been studying the dynamics between planktonic and benthic resting stages of phytoplankton. Within the scope of the research, we try to understand how algal blooms are initiated, the spatial and temporal extent of a population, how phytoplankton interact with lower and higher trophic levels in the marine food chain, and how phytoplankton adapt to different environmnetal conditions. Together with graduate students, post-docs, national and international colleagues, we perform laboratory, mesocosm and field studies. In our toolbox you’ll find conventional methods, refinements of these, and several applications of molecular techniques such as QPCR, microsatellites and DNA sequencing.
Anna GodheProfessor in Marine Ecology at Department of Marine Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.