Masters by Research student in lichen responses to climate change
In my current project I am interested in whether Arctic lichens, and their individual symbionts, that were exposed to experimental warming conditions acclimatised or not. I am particularly interested how that translates into physiological, morphological, and chemical cues in the lichen body. I am using multiple different techniques to establish the status of symbiosis between the lichen photobiont and mycobiont. This is particularly important because if lichens deteriorate mechanistically with climate change, many of them could be in danger. In the past I have worked on thermophilisation and vegetation change in the Arctic ecosystems, ecophysiology of plants in African montane grasslands, or big databases of plant functional traits. I am passionate about fieldwork, teaching, data science, and coding. I have done field work in harsh conditions, the Canadian Arctic, Svalbard, and South African mountains. I am due to start a PhD position in the lab from September 2024, looking at generalising lichen mechanistic responses to climate warming and lichen bleaching across latitudinal gradient