Menschen

Research Areas

• Regulation of diversity in ecological communities at different spatial scales

• Diversity-functioning relationships

• Plankton ecology

• Role of mixotrophic protists in microbial food webs

I am aquatic ecologist, interested in general ecological processes.

I have a particular interest in spatial diversity patterns in microscopic organisms such as phyto- and zooplankton, which started with the analysis of observational data. I now combine analysis of observational data with experiments to better understand the interplay of local and regional dynamics in driving diversity and functioning of plankton communities.
Another interest lies in applying advanced statistical methods for the analysis of ecological data, like spatial patterns in ecological communities.

Education

Diploma Biology (2000), University of Munich

PhD in Marine Ecology (2003), IFM, University of Kiel

Previous appointments

2004, Jan-Jul - Member of the research group Food-webs, Stoichiometry and Population Dynamics at the Centre for Advanced Studies, led by D.O. Hessen

2004-2009 Research Scientist at NIVA, Oslo

2009-2012 PostDoc in the lab of H. Hillebrand, ICBM, University of Oldenburg

Further Information

Profile from Robert Ptacnik on google scholar

Profile from Robert Ptacnik on ORCID

AQUASCALE Working group Website: www.aquascalelab.wordpress.com