Biology Education

MSc project in Evolutionary Biology

Food availability is a key aspect of the environment for arguably most species. It affects how organisms allocate their time and energy among different behaviours such as foraging, avoiding predators, mating, and reproducing. When food is scarce, organisms often face a trade-off between investing in reproduction or in growth and maintenance, or between reproducing now or later. Dietary restriction can thus influence reproductive strategies and the evolution of reproductive traits.

Fish in the family Poeciliidae show a staggering diversity of reproductive adaptations: some lay eggs, others don’t, some provide their unborn offspring with nutrients before fertilisation, others only after fertilisation. Curiously, some species have even evolved the ability to carry multiple broods at different developmental stages, a phenomenon called superfetation. Several of these reproductive adaptations are hypothesised to have evolved as a response to low or fluctuating food availability.

In this project, we will examine how high or low food levels influence reproduction in one poeciliid fish –  the Trinidadian guppy. Traits to look at include, e.g., reproductive timing, offspring number and size, gestation length, and the presence of superfetation. The project will be conducted in my newly built, state-of-the-art fish research laboratory.

Required knowledge: This project can include anything from life-history, behavioural, post-mortem and advanced statistical analyses. A strong interest in evolutionary biology, attention to detail, team spirit, and a caring attitude towards laboratory fish are paramount. Familiarity with R is helpful but not needed. You will receive education in animal experimentation ethics

Length of project: 45-60 credits MSc level (60 credits preferred)

Start date: flexible but in September 2025 at the latest

Part-time work: there is a possibility for 1-4 hours/day of paid work, performing animal husbandry and maintenance tasks in my guppy laboratory

Supervisor: Anja Felmy, Homepage: https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/anja-felmy

Contact details: Send an email to anja.felmy@biol.lu.se or just drop by my office (D115, Ecology Building ground floor, near seminar room Tanken)!

MSc project in Evolutionary Biology

Evolution happens constantly all around us. This fast, contemporary evolution can allow populations to adapt and persist or lead to their decline and extinction. Which one it will be is often unclear, because current methods to predict short-term evolution work poorly when applied to natural populations. In light of the global environmental crisis, this is particularly alarming. A key cause of the predictive inaccuracy is environmental variation.

Food availability is a crucial aspect of the environment in many species. In my group, we thus study how variation in individuals’ (food) environment impacts evolution and its predictability. One hypothesis we test is whether including information on individual food acquisition can improve predictions of evolution. To do so, we first must know which phenotypic traits capture an individual’s ability to identify, acquire, and utilise food.

In this project, we will therefore examine which traits  – e.g., feeding rate, excretion rate, eye size, mouth morphology, gut length, or percentage fat – explain variation between individuals in how good they are at acquiring food. The project will be conducted in my newly built, state-of-the-art fish research laboratory, using Trinidadian guppies.

Required knowledge: This project is versatile and can include anything from morphometric, behavioural, physiological, post-mortem and advanced statistical analyses. A strong interest in evolutionary biology, attention to detail, team spirit, and a caring attitude towards laboratory fish are paramount. Familiarity with R is helpful but not required. You will receive education in animal experimentation ethics.

Length of project: 45-60 credits MSc level (60 credits preferred)

Start date: flexible but in September 2025 at the latest

Part-time work: there is a possibility for 1-4 hours/day of paid work, performing animal husbandry and lab maintenance tasks in my guppy laboratory

Supervisor: Anja Felmy, Homepage: https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/anja-felmy

Contact details: Send an email to anja.felmy@biol.lu.se or just drop by my office (D115, Ecology Building ground floor, near seminar room Tanken)!

Are you interested in sustainable development and seafood of the future?
Souto Ocean Culture, Department of Process and Life Science Engineering at LTH, and Marint centrum are looking for an engaged student within the Tångkusten project.

About the project:
“Tångkusten” (Swedish for ’The seaweed coast’) is a regional development project dedicated to piloting seaweed cultivation in the Baltic Sea and assessing its market potential. A central element of the work in the project is the development of methods for reproduction and seeding of seaweed in a hatchery on land before they are deployed at sea. Hatchery methods have been developed in other countries for the seaweed species present in the southwestern Baltic Sea, but such methods require adapting and improving to better suit the specific conditions in the area we work in, which is the eastern coast of Skåne.
Currently no proven methods exist for cultivating seaweed in the Baltic Sea, which is precisely what the project is trying to address. We have been testing hatchery methods by adapting existing ones, which will constitute a valuable basis for the thesis work to build on. More recently, we have started developing methods for cultivation on land, based on the ‘germling clusters’ method developed for similar species in East Asia.

To improve the hatching, seeding and growth, we are interested in exploring the pulsed electric field (PEF) method. PEF involves the application of short, high-voltage electric pulses to cells, tissues, or other biological systems, leading to the increased permeability of cell membranes, a process known as electroporation. PEF has found widespread use in electrostimulation for various biological and industrial applications. A study on Nitzschia Closterium, a microalga, revealed that continuous and short-term direct current stimulation positively impacted growth and nutrient composition, suggesting promising applications for large-scale production.

Task description:
The aim of the master thesis (30-60 credits) work within the project is to explore the pulsed electric field method for reproduction, seeding and growth of two of our priority seaweed species, Ulva prolifera and U. intestinalis. The work will investigate whether PEF can affect any of the hatchery and/or land-based cultivation processes, including sporulation, settling and seeding of substrates, growth rates in free- and attached forms, among others.
The results of the work will be synthesized in a report, but the desired final product is one or several hatchery (draft) protocols that can be implemented in the company or at LU for subsequent commercial application.

What we offer:
The project has its base in Simrishamn, where we have a relatively simple indoors hatchery facility, which can be developed further if needed. We also have access to a small field lab at Marint centrum, with field equipment, scales, drying stove, freezers (-20º and -80º C), etc.
A smaller seaweed lab will be set up at Lund University.
But there will be office spaces, lunch-room, support and interaction with supervisors etc available at Marint centrum, which is located next door to the hatchery facility. It is therefore likely that the student working on this project will divide her/his time between Simrishamn and Lund.

Timeframe:
Starting in the spring of 2025.

Who are we looking for:
We are seeking a student with a strong interest in seaweed cultivation, the sustainable blue economy, and circular food systems. You are self-motivated, curious, and solution-oriented, with the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. Ideally, you have some experience in laboratory work and feel comfortable designing, assembling, and maintaining simple aquarium systems.

If you think you are the one we are looking for, please contact us for more information and for applying.

Contact
Federico Gómez Galindo, PhD
Professor of Food Engineering
Department of Process and Life Science Engineering
Division of food and Pharma
Lund University
federico.gomez@ple.lu.se
070 5805132

Josefine Larsson, PhD
Forskningskoordinator
Marint centrum Simrishamns kommun
Josefine.larsson@simrisham.se
Marintcentrum.se
0414-819190

Over the last century, climate and land-use changes have altered ecosystems, shifted species distributions toward higher latitudes and altitudes, and led to changes in species’ phenology and morphology. In this project we focus on bumblebees, crucial to the pollination of wild plants and crops, and investigate the underlying mechanisms for why some species seem to cope with global changes, while others do not.

Background
Insect pollinators are integral to ecosystem functioning through pollination of wild plants and crops. In colder climates, bumblebees are particularly important due to their large body and facultative endothermy, which enables foraging in low temperatures and adverse weather conditions [1]. A large body size also enables foraging and dispersal over greater distances, which has become increasingly important due to loss and fragmentation of nesting and foraging resources driven by agricultural land-use changes. However, a larger body size also makes bumblebees sensitive to heat waves, which are predicted to increase due to climate change. Bumblebees are hence affected by two simultaneous environmental changes which seemingly push them to adapt in opposing directions: adapt to warming by decreasing in size, and to fragmentation by increasing in size. Long-term trends in body size have only been described for a few bumblebee species [2,3]. Not surprisingly, studies have struggled to draw conclusions about the contribution of individual environmental drivers because climate change and habitat loss have occurred simultaneously in temperate regions over the past centuries [4,5]. By assessing more species, with different ecological traits and niches, our understanding of how body size contributes to adaptation and persistence of species under global change can improve.

Aims and data collection
We will (i) study how body size of bumblebee species has shifted over time (>100 years) and across latitudes in Sweden and whether it is associated with species’ capacity to persist in changing landscapes and climate, and (ii) test whether such morphological shifts are plastic or due to genetic adaptation to new conditions, by exploring genetic changes across latitudes and elevation.
We will foremost make use of existing bumblebee collections in Swedish Natural History Museums (Lund, Gothenburg and Stockholm), possibly complemented by field sampling at around 6-10 sites across the country, from lowland to mountain areas. The body size of bees will be measured as the distance between the wing plates (Inter-Tegular Distance) and samples (a mid-leg) will be taken for further genetic analyses.

It is possible to do a shorter project (30 credits) that only uses museum material and focusses on the morphological shifts, but also to do a longer project (45-60 credits) and include fieldwork to obtain contemporary samples as a comparison. Depending on your interests and skills, it is also possibility to include assessment of genetic adaptation.

Contact: Anna Persson, anna.persson@cec.lu.se, Bengt Hansson, bengt.hansson@biol.lu.se

References

1. Maebe, K., et al., Bumblebee resilience to climate change, through plastic and adaptive responses. Glob. Change Biol., 2021. 27(18): p. 4223-4237.
2. Nooten, S.S. and S.M. Rehan, Historical changes in bumble bee body size and range shift of declining species. Biodiv. Conserv., 2020. 29(2): p. 451-467.
3. Gérard, M., et al., Shift in size of bumblebee queens over the last century. Glob. Change Biol., 2020. 26(3): p. 1185-1195.
4. Kelemen, E.P. and S.M. Rehan, Opposing pressures of climate and land-use change on a native bee. Glob. Change Biol, 2021. 27: p. 1017–1026.
5. Gérard, M., et al., Impact of landscape fragmentation and climate change on body size variation of bumblebees during the last century. Ecography, 2021. 44(2): p. 255-264.