Carina Bunse focuses on the microbes and their role in the marine ecosystem
Carina Bunse is new Associate Senior Lecturer at the Department. Her research area is marine microbial ecology, with special interest on how the diversity of microbes impacts ecosystem services in the present and changing ocean.
What are you going to do here?
I am a marine microbial ecologist, and work in the research fields of microbiology, marine ecology, microbial oceanography, and omics data (metabarcoding, metagenomics and metatranscriptomics). I focus on pelagic bacteria, but have broadened my knowledge in marine ecology with interest for global challenges for the world’s ocean and local initiatives in coastal seas.
I am especially interested to investigate and quantify how microbial functional biodiversity impacts ecosystem services in the present and changing ocean. Thus far, my model systems range from aquatic viruses, over bacteria to phytoplankton, from the Baltic Sea to the Atlantic, from microcosms to mesocosms and decadal time series.
My plan here at GU is to mentor students to work on interdisciplinary questions regarding marine microbes, and lead projects investigating microbially-mediated substrate and DOM (dissolved organic matter) cycling in the changing ocean.
What did you do before?
My background is in chemical engineering and biotechnology (decades ago…) and aquatic ecology. Previously during my PhD at the Linnaeus University, I studied how marine microbes are influenced by environmental drivers, such as light or ocean acidification, and how they change seasonally. Especially, I contributed to the Linnaeus Microbial Observatory.
Afterwards, my postdoctoral research at the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) and at the University of Oldenburg in Germany, aimed to link plankton diversity to molecular substrate diversity.
What do you do when you are not working?
In my free time I enjoy nature via hiking, birdwatching or visiting the coastline with friends.
Interview: Susanne Liljenström