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Dr Giulia Ghedini, Group Leader
I am fascinated by ecological communities - how they form, function, and change. I trained as a marine ecologist and studied the processes that can break or maintain ecosystem stability during my PhD at the University of Adelaide (Australia, 2013-2016) with Prof. Sean Connell. My results showed that energy use was an important factor for stability so I joined the lab of Prof. Dustin Marshall at Monash University as a postdoc to study metabolism (2016-2018). I then won an Australian Research Council DECRA fellowship (2019-2021) to investigate energy fluxes in populations and communities. In December 2021 I moved to Lisbon (Portugal) to open my lab at the Gulbenkian Institute - I will join the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) as a group leader in September 2025. My lab uses marine phytoplankton to study the interplay between species interactions, metabolism, and community functioning, exploring both ecological and evolutionary processes. |
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Dr Charlotte Briddon, Postdoctoral researcher
I am an aquatic ecologist primarily working within the fields of molecular biology and ecosystem functioning. I completed my PhD at the University of Nottingham (UK; 2016-2021) researching the impact of aquaculture on Philippine crater lakes using palaeolimnology, before moving to the Institute of Biological Research in Cluj-Napoca, Romania to begin my first postdoc. There, I worked on the ADVANCE (Adaptive evolution in marine algae under climate change and consequences for ocean services) project. This project focused on how adapting different marine and freshwater species to the increased temperatures and CO2 concentrations can be used to accurately predict their response to future conditions. I was keen to understand more about the mechanics of why certain phytoplankton are better competitors and how competition influences different biological processes within them. I joined Giulia Ghedini´s Function Ecology Group in 2023, where I use marine algae to understand how competition influences metabolic processes. |
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Dr Anna Lena Heinrichs, Postdoctoral researcher
I am an aquatic ecologist focusing on phytoplankton and how environmental changes shape their responses. During my PhD in the Plankton Ecology Lab at the University of Oldenburg (Germany, 2020-2023) I studied how temperature and the resources light and nutrients interactively influence the performance and morphological traits of phytoplankton. This project gave powerful insights into how resource availability influences phytoplankton's temperature sensitivity. I joined Giulia Ghedini's Functional Ecology Group in 2024 to investigate how and whether the plasticity of phytoplankton metabolic rates can be linked to community stability. |
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Daniela Almeida, PhD Candidate
Daniela obtained her bachelor and masters degree in Marine Biology, at the University of Algarve. Her international master degree focused on marine scientific research, where she developed a specific interest for ecosystem conservation and climate change studies. She performed her master thesis in the UK, at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, assessing the level of resilience kelp organisms towards marine heatwaves and artificial light at night, a study done in collaboration with the Center of Marine Science of Algarve-CCMAR. She joined the Functional Ecology Laboratory group in 2023, first as a research technician and then as a PhD student. |
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Ricardo Estevens, Technician
Ricardo has a degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from Nova University (2017-2020) and a Master Degree in Biotechnology from the Instituto Superior Técnico of Lisbon (2020-2022), where he gained experience in microbiology. He joined the Functional Ecology lab in October 2023 as a technician where is learning about the ecology and evolution of phytoplankton before pursuing a PhD. |
