Foto: privat
Hi!
My name is Nadja Meister, and I have just started my four-year PhD in Marine Ecology. I come from Switzerland, but many of you might already know me since I completed my MSc in Marine Biology here at BIO. During my MSc thesis project within the Theoretical Ecology Group (TEG), I researched the role of crawling predators, particularly the dogwhelk Nucella lapillus, in the decline and distribution of blue mussels in Norwegian coastal waters. For the past year, I have been working as a researcher in the Laboratory for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (LFI) at NORCE. Despite its name, LFI also leads many marine projects, and I have been primarily involved in acoustic telemetry studies.
Now, I am ready to take the next step in my academic career and to continue studying blue mussels and their fascinating intertidal habitats with my previous supervisors, Øystein Varpe, Christian Jørgensen, and Tom Langbehn from TEG. My PhD project aims to disentangle how abiotic factors and human stressors affect ecological interaction strengths between blue mussels and their predators or other intertidal organisms, and how community structure affects blue mussels’ ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services such as their potential as a sustainable and nutritious food source for a growing human population. The project will include observational and experimental fieldwork, as well as laboratory and mesocosm experiments at the Marine Biological Station Espegrend.
I am very excited to be back at BIO, and I look forward to seeing you all around!