Thorsten Werner was the second Ph.D.-student within the GENUS project who has finished his Ph.D. program. Thorsten successfully defended his thesis in Dec. 2012:
"Trophic positioning, diel vertical migration and physiological constraints in euphausiid species of the Namibian upwelling system".
Congratulations!
Thorsten now works as a postdoc in GENUS II.

Thesis title:

“Trophic positioning, diel vertical migration and physiological constraints in euphausiid species of the Namibian upwelling system”

Supervisor:

Prof. Dr. F. Buchholz (University of Hamburg)

University education:

2009 - 2012

PhD Student at the AWI

2008

Diploma in Biology at the University of Bremen in cooperation with the AWI
Diploma thesis: Bestimmung verschiedener physiologischer Zustandsgrößen als Konditionsindikatoren bei der Nordseegarnele Crangon crangon (L.) (Determination of physological states as condition factors in the brown shrimp, (Crangon crangon)
         

Research Interests:

Functional Ecology, Marine Invertebrates, Biology and Eco-Physiology of Marine Crustaceans

Main research interests within the GENUS Sub-project 7:

Euphausiids, or so called Krill, are a major component of the zooplankton and often dominate  regional zooplankton communities. They play an important role in the food web of the Northern Benguela Current and are truly omnivorous. They are known to channel primary production to fish.  Many species of euphausiids show pronounced diel vertical migration (DVM) and also ontogenetic vertical migration. Therefore they have to cope with great physical variations in their environment including temperature and oxygen availability.
The sub-project 7 investigates the abundance, distribution, and physiological rates of Euphausiacea in upwelling regions. The aim of my doctoral thesis is to investigate physiological adaptations to the OML in four different Krill species and their trophic relationships. In order to quantify these topics the following methods were choosen:

• Abundance and biomass of euphausiids in the Northern Benguela Current upwelling system by net catches
• Physiological and behavioural adaptations of krill to oxygen minimum layers (observation and experiments)
• Hypoxia-tolerance of dominant krill species in the Benguela current (respiration measurements with microsensors)
• Enzyme activities and metabolite determination related to energy metabolism including hypoxia-tolerance (PK, CS, LDH, MDH, Lactate and Succinate)
• Dietary adaptations of krill (fatty acids, stable isotopes)

Main target species: Euphausia hanseni, Euphausia lucens, Nematoscelis megalops and Nyctiphanes capensis.

The results will help to determine the position of the Krill within the food web of the northern Benguela ecosystem and to understand their capability to deal with the strong gradients in their environment.