My research interests lie broadly within plankton ecology with a particular emphasis on protist-bacteria interactions. During my research so far, I focused on the ecology and taxonomy of algal protists, and developed a special interest for the occurrence of mixotrophy among these organisms. In my PhD thesis I will focus on the importance of mixotrophic bacterivores in lake ecosystems with the overall goal to obtain a more accurate representation of microbial food webs in lakes. I aim to provide quantitative data on the relative contribution of mixotrophic vs. heterotrophic bacterivory under both experimental and field conditions, as well as qualitative data on the identities of mixotrophic taxa.
Contact: marina.ivankovic90(at)gmail.com
aquascale lab 