he aim of this research is to study the effects of changing environmental conditions and extreme climatic events (such as marine heatwaves, oxygen depletion, ocean acidification, etc.) on the phyto- and zooplankton communities in the BPNS. Relying on available time series, novel in-situ imaging technologies and genetic approaches; high-throughput observations are produced to study passed and future events. The current research aims to tackle the following questions:
1) To understand changes in community composition, plankton dynamics, and individual responses such as changes in size and biovolume, as a result of changing environmental conditions and extreme climatic events.
2) To study heat stress induced changes in gene expression during marine heatwaves using a combined approach of fieldwork sampling and laboratory mesocosm experiments, as a collaborative work with other genetics PhD students.
3) Develop an in-depth analysis of marine heatwave events and potential water column stratification, and their effects on the plankton community, leveraging on continuous imaging technologies and adaptive sampling to observe heatwave events in high resolution as they develop, and particular changes in the plankton communities such as the proliferation of harmful algal blooms or gelatinous plankton during such events.
This project will optimize, integrate and apply advanced observation technology, and will pursue its valorisation in societal and policy context. This project will be performed in collaboration with one or more university research groups.
This project will be developed at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in Ostend (Belgium), under the supervision of Dr Carlota Muñiz, senior researcher at the VLIZ Marine Observation Center and Prof Dr Pascal Hablutzel, leader of the research group Nature Changes and Solutions, and in co-supervision with Prof Dr Colin Janssen and Dr Ilias Semmouri, at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University (Belgium).