Research unit "Evolutionary Ecology of Marine Fishes"
Projects
My Future Ocean project at GEOMAR will investigate the composition of oceanic pelagic communities and their temporal dynamics in abundance and distribution, in and around the oxygen minimum zone in the eastern tropical Atlantic. This research will also include the development and application of new optical systems to perform video transects with ROVs and autonomous camera systems in waters off the Cape Verde Islands. The studies will be coupled with oceanographic data (depth, oxygen concentration, temperature, salinity) resulting in a unique database of oceanic pelagic organisms and their physical and chemical environment. Such a database will allow the prediction of how future ocean oxygen scenarios will influence animal distribution, and will be applicable to fisheries management and marine conservation plans.
In situ ocean observations of cape verdean pelagic communities in a changing ocean
Here I propose to develop a time series program that will investigate the composition of oceanic pelagic communities and their temporal dynamics in abundance and distribution, in and around the oxygen minimum zone in the Eastern tropical Atlantic. The fauna recorded during video transects performed by a towed camera system in waters off the Cape Verde Islands will be coupled with oceanographic data (depth, oxygen concentration, temperature, salinity) resulting in a unique database of oceanic pelagic organisms and their physical and chemical environment. The objectives of my work are: A) to develop, together with German and Cape Verdean researchers, a strategy to easily observe large zooplankton and nekton, from krill to squids B) to characterize the epi- and mesopelagic macrofauna of the Cape Verde Islands, determine the dominant faunal and functional groups, and characterize temporal (seasonal and interannual) dynamics in abundance and composition C) to characterize the distribution of the dominant epi-and mesopelagic faunal and functional groups in relation to the oxygen minimum zone, and track these distributions in time to assess biological change as a result of an expanding OMZ The resulting data set will allow: D) determination of the impact of the macrozooplankton-community (in particular gelatinous zooplankton) on the biological pump through diurnal vertical migrations and fecal pellet generation (relevant to R5 and R11) E) detection of the responses of large zooplankton and nekton to an increase/strengthening of the OMZ (relevant to R11 and R8) F) an assessment of the status of commercial fishing resources and the generation of information that is directly relevant to designing conservation strategies (relevant to R10 and R3)
General Purpose Underwater Spectral Imaging
We will establish underwater spectral imaging as a new technology for the Kiel marine sciences. Spectral characteristics of samples will be measured in the lab, the technology for recording such data in-situ as well as the related image processing will be developed. Complementary spectral acquisition techniques will be combined for applying these methods to science topics from biology to geology.
