Profile

His main expertise is plankton ecology (both freshwater and marine), with a special focus on process research and the experimental quantification of population dynamics and feeding interactions from the individual level to complex natural ecosystems, in response to the environmental impacts of a changing world. To study this he has more than three decades of experience in leading international mesocosm projects, as well as developing novel molecular and imaging approaches. In 2009, he started the first European Research Infrastructure network on mesocosm-based science (the marine MESOAQUA), and has since then lead the AQUACOSM mesocosm-network across all European climate zones. He is the head of the Zooplankton Ecology Research Group at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries.