Silke Langenheder

Professor , Head of Program for Limnology at Department of Ecology and Genetics; Limnology

Telephone:: +46 18 471 27 10
Mobile phone:: +46 73 820 18 54
E-mail:: silke.langenheder@ebc.uu.se
Visiting address:: Evolutionsbiologiskt centrum (EBC)
Norbyvägen 18 D
752 36 Uppsala
Postal address:: Norbyvägen 18 D
752 36 Uppsala

Download contact information for Silke Langenheder at Department of Ecology and Genetics; Limnology

Short presentation

I am a professor in Limnology at Uppsala University and work on a range of projects in the field of community and ecosystem ecology. I am also the Coordinator of the SITES AquaNet mesocosm infrastructure.

Keywords

microbial ecology
aquatic ecosystem ecology
community ecology

Research

The overall aim with my research is to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms that regulate diversity and functioning of microbial communities in freshwater systems, in particular in response to environmental change and disturbances.

My group addresses the following fundamental ecological questions:

(1) What determines the relationship between diversity and ecosystem functioning?

(2) What are the mechanisms regulating diversity across space and time?

(3) How do environmental change and disturbances influence biodiversity and ecosystem functioning?

To address the above questions we use primarily experimental studies using both lab-scale microcosms as well as field-based mesocosms.

Current projects focus on how the relative importance of different assembly mechanisms that structure bacterial metacommunities (selection, drift, and dispersal) is influenced by different global environmental change drivers. We are also investigating how different feeding modes of flagellates (heterotrophic vs mixotrophic) respond to environmental change related to eutrophication and browning of lakes.

I also work with coordinated mesocosm experiments using the SITES AquaNet infrastructure. Recent experiments focused, for example, on effects of different run-off and salinity disturbance regimes on the functioning and composition of plankton communities.

Group members:

Berenike Bick (PhD student)

Marina Ivankovic (Post-doc)

Hareena Sidhu (MSc student)

Konstantinos Kleidonaris (MSc student)