My research is based on coral functioning, in particular in the context of
environmental change. This includes phenotypic plasticity and its molecular causes and consequences with a focus on the contribution of the coral microbiome. For my projects, I applied field and laboratory-based methods to align molecular data with coral physiology and ecosystem functioning. For instance, to monitor physico-chemical parameters of reef functioning I employed oceanographic equipment. I performed manipulative field experiments to assess calcification trends and coral functioning under salinity or nutrient stress. These large-scale experiments were complemented by controlled lab experiments addressing coral physiology and microbiome dynamics by combining classical tools with amplicon sequencing approaches.

I have received my M.Sc. from the University in Bremen in 2009 and conducted the thesis on coral ecotoxicology at the Australian Institute of Marine Science. During my Ph.D. at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia I worked on coral holobiont functioning, largely in the context of environmental change. In 2017 I started a postdoctoral fellowship on coral reef biodiversity at The University of Hong Kong. Between 2016 and 2017 I joined twice the prestigious Tara Pacific expedition, an international collaboration addressing global coral reef biodiversity in the face of climate change. In 2018 I joined Dr. Michael Sweet’s team at the University of Derby to work on the microbial contribution to coral resilience in the framework of CORALASSIST.