Who is taking over coral reefs?
This is a suggestion for a Degree Project for Bachelor's and Master's levels at the Department of Marine Sciences. Degree projects at the Department of Marine Sciences are done independently and must be written and assessed individually.
Subject: Marine Biology
Level: BSc and MSc students
Start date: Fflexible
Supervisor: Ana Tronholm
Project background
As ocean temperatures and acidification associated with global climate change and reef degradation increase, there is greater potential for macroalgae to cause significant stress to corals, particularly where important herbivores have been overfished and no longer control algal populations.
In this project, we address this fierce algal-coral competition by focusing on an extremely successful group of brown algae, the order Dictyotales. Due to their efficient chemical defense systems and ability to propagate effectively by fragmentation, Dictyotalean species are able to maintain a significant biomass and are becoming increasingly abundant competitors of corals worldwide.
The secondary metabolites they produce not only have important ecological implications, but also promising biomedical and biotechnological applications. The high morphological plasticity displayed by these macroalgae have considerably hampered species identification, urging for a current DNA-based estimation of biodiversity.
The aim of the project
The goal of this project is to assess the biodiversity of the order Dictyotales in the Atlantic Ocean, using recently developed species delimitation algorithms, phylogenetic methods and genomics. In addition, a chemical approach will be used to investigate differences in secondary metabolites among species and to determine the species specificity of these compounds.
This project covers wide areas of study with opportunities for several smaller scale projects, depending on the student’s skills and preference.
As a student in the Phycology Lab you can expect to be involved in field and lab work, and to get hands-on experience on a variety of methodologies including genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, chemical profiling, culturing and morphometrics.
If you are an enthusiastic student interested in developing a BSc or MSc project with us get in touch!
Contact
Ana Tronholm
Email: ana.tronholm@bioenv.gu.se