Master project opportunities in the Signals in the Sea group, Aquatic Ecology
Copepods dominate zooplankton in all oceans, in fact it is the most abundant animal on Earth. They have a unique body odour that contains a group of polar lipids, copepodamides. Phytoplankton prey sense copepodamides and respond by launching defensive traits to avoid predation. Some of them increase bioluminescence which we can see as sea sparkle in late summer nights. Others induce harmful algae phycotoxins, strengthen body armour or alter colony size. The compounds were recently identified, and there is a lot of things we do not know about them that make up well defined master or bachelor thesis projects:
1: Turnover and amounts of copepodamides in the NE Atlantic
Copepodamides are short lived, that is a prerequisite for a chemical alarm signal as it needs to disappear when the threat is gone to provide a true proxy for the level of threat. In this project you will measure in situ concentrations of copepodamides in different locations and depths on board R/V Svea. You will also perform degradation experiments where you measure the degradation rate at different temperatures. When you know the degradation rate and the in-situ concentration it is possible to mathematically calculate the production rate and assemble a complete budget of copepodamides in Swedish seas.
2: Effect of copepodamides on prey defensive traits
Many of the organisms we have tested do respond to copepodamides, but there are huge amounts of additional species with spectacular defence mechanisms to pursue. Bioluminescent dinoflagellates that produce sea sparkle (marled in Swedish) as well as harmful taxa that produce some of the most potent toxins known for example.
Interested?
Contact Erik Sealander: erik.selander@biol.lu.se