I have a strong interest in ecology, emphasizing aquatic systems. Particularly, I am interested in ecological processes at the base of aquatic food webs. From jellyfish and ctenophores to cyanobacteria I have worked with different planktonic organisms, but I am most fascinated by protist plankton. In my current project I focus on mixotrophic ‘algae’. Compared to photoautotrophic algae, our knowledge regarding their ecological traits is very limited. The aim of the project is to characterize elementary traits, especially regarding growth kinetics and resource requirements, for selected mixotrophic bacterivorous phytoflagellates. Expectations derived from trait data will be validated in additional experiments with natural and artificial communities along resource gradients.
Contact: robert.fischer(at)wcl.ac.at
aquascale lab 