Multistressors researchers

 

Cecilia Akselsson

cecilia [dot] akselsson [at] nateko [dot] lu [dot] se 
+46 46 222 86 89

My work deals with biogeochemical cycling in forest ecosystems in relation to eutrophication, C sequestration, acidification and nutrient shortage in forest soils. At present my focus is on nitrogen dynamics, with the aim to better understand soil nitrogen and carbon processes in order to be able to improve ecosystem models. Better ecosystem models will lead to more reliable future projections of carbon sequestration and nitrogen leaching to surface waters and oceans. I am part of the forest ecosystem modelling team in Multistressors. Our part in the program is to quantify the impact of a changing climate and an intensified forest management on the water entering the Baltic Sea.

 

Angela M. Caballero Alfonso, PhD

Angela [dot] Caballero-Alfonso [at] geol [dot] lu [dot] se
+46 46 222 78 05

I'm working with data from the last six decades gathered from the Baltic Environmental Database (BED) at the Baltic Nest Institute (BNI). I'm using information of dissolved oxygen and nutrients (compounds of nitrogen and phosphorus) in the water column to establish the trend of the oxygen in time in the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea. This will give an idea of the health of the system for further management decisions.

 

Martin Berggren

martin [dot] berggren [at] nateko [dot] lu [dot] se
+46 46 222 17 34

I am an aquatic biogeochemist and microbial ecologist with special interest in the cycling of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) at the interfaces between land, freshwater systems and marine systems. Terrestrial runoff provides the Baltic Sea with DOC that can potentially lead to the consumption of millions of tonnes of dissolved O2 annually, as the DOC is degraded by planktonic bacteria and by ultra violet sunlight. Within the ‘Managing multiple stressors in the Baltic Sea’ research environment, I study the processes that regulate the reactivity (‘degradability’) of the DOC, as it enters Baltic Sea. By investigating how land use, climate, water quality and the physical environment affects DOC cycling in the Baltic Sea sub-catchments, the aim is to create a deeper understanding of the input of reactive DOC into the Baltic Sea and its effects on the marine oxygen concentrations.

 

Svante Björck

svante [dot] bjorck [at] geol [dot] lu [dot] se 
+46 46 222 78 82

The understanding of the postglacial development of the Baltic Sea, and how it is related to changes in climate, salinity, sill depths and anthropogenic influence, is vital for establishing the natural amplitudes of change as well as realistic reference levels to which today’s conditions can be related. We are therefore working on continuously refining our knowledge on the environmental history of the Baltic Sea through analyzes of sediment cores from different parts of this basin, the largest brackish water body in the world. This is done by geochemical and biological analyzes of the sediment cores, in combination with different dating techniques. The latter has proven to be problematic in Baltic Sea sediments, but is of immense importance for obtaining a holistic picture of the Baltic Sea environment for well-defined time periods: without reliably dated cores, secure correlations between them are impossible.

 

Anna Broström

anna [dot] brostrom [at] raa [dot] se
+46 46 222 78 90

My research interest is reconstruction of past landscapes using fossil pollen records. I have used the modern pollen vegetation relationship in the cultural landscape of southern Sweden to develop a palynological tool for quantitative reconstruction of past plant cover. The aim is to be able to make more accurate reconstructions of how large the changes of vegetation has been over time in terms of land use management and plant diversity.

 

Daniel Conley

daniel [dot] conley [at] geol [dot] lu [dot] se
+46 46 222 04 49

I am deeply involved in the basic scientific reasons behind environmental problems in the Baltic Sea and providing a scientific basis of how we should understand the causes and consequences of the lack of oxygen in bottom waters. I have been active in evaluating how we can best tackle this big problem and solve it as quickly as possible. My basic research activities are focused on the biogeochemical cycles of nutrients, especially Si, and the linkages between land and aquatic ecosystems. I am interested in long-term trends driven by climate and nutrients and how ecosystems respond to changes in the drivers. I use paleoecological techniques and analysis of long-term monitoring data to help manage aquatic ecosystems.

 

Sara Ekström

sara [dot] ekstrom [at] biol [dot] lu [dot] se
+46 46 222 84 33

I’m a PhD student at the Unit of Aquatic Ecology, where I study causes and consequences of Brownification: the trend of increasing water colour due to increased concentrations of both dissolved organic matter (DOM) and iron. The aim of my project within Multistressor is to elucidate how water flow and temperature affects the transport of iron in three Swedish rivers; Ume älv, Emån and Lyckebyån. My two main questions are: why is the iron concentrations increasing in these rivers and how much of the increase in water colour can be explained by increased concentrations of iron?

 

Helena Filipsson

helena [dot] filipsson [at] geol [dot] lu [dot] se
+46 46 222 82 26
I'm a marine geologist/paleoceanographer. My interests lie in how past climate and past marine environments have varied, on a range of different time-scales from present day to 130 000 years back in time. My colleagues and I use the marine sediment record as an environmental archive and a range of different biological indictors preserved in the sediment, such as foraminifera, to study climatic and environmental changes. My geographical focus areas are the Skagerrak - Baltic Sea Region and coastal upwelling areas, foremost NW Africa. These are areas characterised by high productivity and potentially low oxygen content in the bottom waters, which make them particularly interesting to study.

 

Carolina Funkey

carolina [dot] funkey [at] geol [dot] lu [dot] se

I am a research technician in Daniel Conley’s lab. My interests are in marine chemistry, specifically using chemical biomarkers to obtain information about sources and cycling of organic matter. I obtained my masters in marine science at Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary. I am investigating the relationship between hypoxic events and cyanobacteria bloom in the Baltic Sea, by using pigment biomarkers and carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures. 

 

Anupam Ghosh

anupam [dot] ghosh [at] geol [dot] lu [dot] se 
+46 46 222 78 90

The marine sediment record and its microfossils are proxies of climate change and environmental shifts induced naturally or through anthropogenic impacts. The Baltic Sea is affected by eutrophication and therefore a potential site to investigate coastal anoxia, nutrient budgets and temperature variation. During my post doc at Lund University I will investigate these aspects of coastal environmental changes using benthic foraminifera as a tool. I also plan to use stable O and C isotope and Mg/Ca of foraminiferal shells to investigate past salinity and temperature variations. This project envisages integration of foraminiferal results with terrestrial records, land use changes and the known climate history of the region.

 

Emma Kritzberg

emma [dot] kritzberg [at] biol [dot] lu [dot] se
+46 46 222 40 79

I am an aquatic ecologist/biogeochemist. My research revolves around the cycling of organic matter in aquatic systems, in particular I am interested in the role and fate of terrestrially derived organic matter in aquatic ecosystems. Being an enclosed sea the Baltic Sea is a water body strongly affected by the inputs of organic matter from land. The presence of this material is fundamentally affecting the structure and function of the system through effects on light climate, nutrient cycling and heterotrophic production. I am studying what factors are regulating the processing of this organic matter. As a side track I am interested in the export of iron from the terrestrial catchment. Iron is affecting the biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. Strong increasing trends in iron export are therefore bound to have a strong impact on the system.

 

Anne Birgitte Nielsen

anne [dot] nielsen [at] geol [dot] lu [dot] se 
+46 46 222 78 90

I have a master in Biology and a Ph.D from the Ph.D school of Climate and Environment at Copenhagen University, both in the field of vegetation history studied by the use of pollen analysis. My main research interest is calibrating and applying models of the pollen/vegetation relationship to obtain quantitative reconstructions of vegetation and land cover composition in past natural and cultural landscapes, in order to answer questions about past human land use as well as long term ecological processes.

 

Wenxin Ning

wenxin [dot] ning [at] geol [dot] lu [dot] se 
+46 46 222 78 86

I am a PhD student in environmental science. The aim of my research is to examine the effects of both climatic and human impacts on the Baltic Sea for the last 2000 years, with emphasis on the nutrient level of the surface water. I am very enthusiastic about palynology studies. In my PhD project, I will use dinoflagellate cysts as a proxy for nutrient level reconstruction.

 

Anneli Poska

anneli [dot] poska [at] nateko [dot] lu [dot] se 
+46 46 222 40 19

Post-doctoral researcher, Centre for Geobiosphere Science, is a palaeoecologist and ecosystem modeller interested in long-term anthropogenic land use, vegetation dynamics and biochemical interactions. She is studying the vegetation dynamics of Northern Europe during the Holocene, the influence of human impact on land-cover composition and the effect of anthropogenic land use on terrestrial carbon fluxes.

 

Heather Reader

heather [dot] reader [at] biol [dot] lu [dot] se 
+46 46 222 38 96

I'm an biogeochemist who is focussed on carbon cycling in aquatic systems. Organic matter in aquatic systems represent a large reactive portion of the Earth's carbon. I'm interested in the reactivity of organic matter in aquatic environments and what that means for the global carbon cycle and the management of both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. 

 

Pia Romare

pia [dot] romare [at] geol [dot] lu [dot] se 
+46 46 222 78 05
I am an aquatic ecologist with a PhD in Limnology from Lund University. I am also a trained science journalist. I work within the project The South Baltic WebLab, financed within the South Baltic Programme EU. The goal of the project is to attract school students to marine sciences and to educate them about the Baltic Sea. I am, among other things, responsible for writing the texts to an eLearning module – a kind of virtual laboratory – on the geological History of the Baltic Sea.

 

Bala Selvam

bala [dot] selvam [at] nateko [dot] lu [dot] se
+46 46 222 17 31

I am doing my PhD on “Terrestrial export of labile DOC in a changing environment” using empirical (natural gradients) and experimental (field-scale manipulations) approaches. I have a background in agriculture and environmental science through my bachelor’s and master’s respectively. I am interested in greenhouse gas flux from different ecosystems like forests, wetlands and aquatic systems.

 

Ben Smith

ben [dot] smith [at] nateko [dot] lu [dot] se 
+46 46 222 43 54

Professor, Centre for Geobiosphere Science is an ecologist and ecosystem modeller interested in land cover dynamics and biogeochemical interactions. He is interested in understanding how climate and land use driven landscape change may have influenced carbon and nutrient fluxes in runoff to the Baltic Sea in the past, and on the implications of ongoing and future changes for the management of the Baltic Sea.

 

Johanna Stadmark

johanna [dot] stadmark [at] geol [dot] lu [dot] se 
+46 46 222 46 17

I am an aquatic ecologist and biogeochemist. My main research interests are in evaluating the effects of different measures that are implemented to reduce the eutrophication in the Baltic Sea. I have studied the positive and negative effects of constructed wetlands and mussel farming. In this strong research environment I am also a project assistant, which among other things means that I work with the science communication part of the project.

 

Raquel Vaquer Sunyer

raquel [dot] vaquer-sunyer [at] geol [dot] lu [dot] se

I'm a marine scientist from Mallorca currently holding a Marie Curie post-doctoral position at the department of Geology at Lund University. My research interests are mainly focused on global change consequences on marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. My recently started post-doctoral work will be focused on assessing the role of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) on the development and extent of eutrophication-driven hypoxia and responses to global warming. The project also aims to provide key advice on the impacts of climate change and development on the coastal zone directly to stakeholders and the public.

 

Giuliana Zanchi

Giuliana [dot] zanchi [at] nateko [dot] lu [dot] se 
+46 46 222 86 94
I am a PhD student working on the development of a forest model which runs at a catchment level. The model aims to better understand the impact of various factors (forest management, climate change, atmospheric deposition) on water resources. I studied forestry and have previously been working in research institutes across Europe, mainly in the area of assessment of carbon sequestration in forest and agricultural ecosystems.