Research interest

I am interested in the temporal and seasonal fluctuations of wood fall communities and their microenvironment in the Northern Adriatic Sea. Beside the microbial and macrofaunal succession, I focus on the thiotrophic symbioses between the giant ciliate Zoothamnium niveum and Cand. Thiobios zoothamnicoli. I want to assess when the symbiosis colonizes experimentally deployed wood, characterize their microenvironmental conditions under which the symbiosis thrives and want to understand how the symbiosis is maintained over annual cycles.

Education and research activities

02/2020; 07/08/2020; 03/2021; 07/08/2021; 02/2022; 07/08/2022     fieldwork in Piran, Slovenia

sampling and microelectrode measurements

03/2020     M.Sc., Ecology and Ecosystems, University of Vienna

Title: ‘The effect of glucose and glycine on endosymbiont escape from Riftia pachyptila’

07/2019     fieldwork in Piran, Slovenia

deployment of a long-term marine wood-degradation experiment

07/2016     development and realization of an own research project in Piran, Slovenia

(marine microbial symbiosis course)

Title: ‘Heat stress response in two phenotypes of the symbiotic anemone Anemonia viridis (Förskal, 1775)’

06/2014     field course in Rovinj, Croatia

(Fauna and Flora of marine environments)

05/2014     feeding experiments on marine wood-boring gribbles (Limnoriidae) in Piran, Slovenia

(Projektpraktikum Meeresbiologie - Bachelor)

02/2014     desiccation and recovery experiments (Fucus vesiculosus)

(Projektpraktikum Mikroalgen - Bachelor)

07-09/2013     instructor for marine biological courses in Pula, Croatia

(Meeresschule Pula)

Skills

labwork: FISH, TEM, Microscopy, Microsensors, PCR, DNA extraction

fieldwork: snorkeling, SCUBA-diving (SSI open water)

informatics: RStudio, Python, Geneious