I am interested in the potential of physiological acclimatization and the role of genetic variance in the process of adaptation in marine ectotherms to changing environmental conditions (e.g. ocean warming and acidification) and human actions (e.g. eutrophication). My work includes extensive field-based studies (e.g. in corals reefs around Papua New Guinea and in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, but also in benthic communities in the Northern Atlantic Ocean), multi-factorial aquarium experiments, and laboratory analysis using novel technologies (e.g. oxygen optodes, microsensors, HPLC, UPLC, TLC, microplate reader, confocal microscopy, qPCR).

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Since January 2016, I am working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and the Helmholtz-Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity in Oldenburg. In order to estimate energetic costs of phenotypic plasticity, I am mainly studying morphological (growth, colony structure), physiological / biochemical (metabolic rate / cell protection and damage), and molecular traits (expression of heat shock genes) in juvenile hydroids from the North Sea which have been exposed to present and future food and temperature conditions. Between 2011-2015, I investigated in cooperation with Dr. Katharina Fabricius shifts and ecosystem functioning in tropical coral reef systems in relation to key physiological (rates of photosynthesis, respiration, and calcification) and biochemical parameters (e.g. energy storage capacities) in different coral species exposed to water quality and temperature gradients and to ocean acidification.

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I joined CORALASSIST in January 2019 to assess which physiological traits are correlated with increased individual heat tolerance in corals.