Project leaders

Dr. Martta Viljanen is a scientist studying visual eco-physiology of aquatic animals, especially crustacean vision and adaptation/acclimation to environmental light conditions at different time scales. She has a wide experience in light based experimental procedures and key techniques of sensory physiology of vision with special expertise in microspectrophotometry, electronmicroscopy and behavioural experiments.

https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/martta.viljanen
 

Dr. Sanna Majaneva is an expert in zooplankton taxonomy and ecology. She has a strong background in pelagic plankton ecology and considerable expertise in morphological and molecular identification of different pelagic taxa, especially in the northern regions. She is highly involved in many initiatives relevant to the project as well as creating and curating a global DNA-barcode reference library for the most prominent groups of marine invertebrates in BOLD and developing methods and protocols for national and international plankton monitoring programs.

https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/sannama

Other team members

Prof. Geir Johnsen is a professor in marine biology and is one of the founding partners in a NTNU spin-off company Ecotone using new optical techniques for mapping and monitoring the marine environment. He is a key scientist in the Centre of excellence (CeO) "Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems (AMOS) using enabling technology for marine ecological studies.

https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/geir.johnsen

Dr Malin Daase is a research fellow at UiT specialized in Arctic zooplankton ecology, zooplankton life history and biophysical interactions. Daases’ research has in recent years focused on polar night ecology, specifically the effect of light on zooplankton behaviour and distribution patterns, and the impact of artificial light on pelagic communities.

https://uit.no/ansatte/person?p_document_id=230322

Assoc Prof. Nicole Aberle-Malzahn is an expert on pelagic ecology. Core question of her current work is how climate change affects plankton diversity and marine food webs. The responses of plankton communities to future ocean conditions at low and high latitude regions are important aspects of her past and present research activities.

https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/nicole.aberle-malzahn

Dr. Magnus Lindström is an expert on crustacean vision and aquatic eco-physiology. His laboratory at Tvärminne Zoological Station is designed for and has served successfully in electrophysiological measurements for arthropod eyes. Dr. Lindström's studies on the light conditions in the Baltic sea are classics in their field.

https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/fi/persons/magnus-lindstr%C3%B6m

Prof. Emer. Kristian Donner has a long career within the field of visual neurophysiology and an extensive collaboration network within wide range of scientific fields. His has worked both with vertebrate and invertebrate visual systems and built a laboratory with high quality equipment and tradition for studying visual sciences at the University of Helsinki.

https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/fi/persons/kristian-donner

Asst. Prof. Alexandra Lewadowska is an expert in plankton community ecology. Her research at the Tvärminne Zoological Station focuses on the impact of climate change on plankton interactions, including experiments on the effects of light intensity on plankton metabolism, competition and food-web dynamics.

https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/aleksandra-lewandowska

Dr Markus Majaneva is a researcher at NINA specialized in DNA-based species identification techniques and taxonomy and ecology of single-celled eukaryotes. He is one of central researchers at NINAGEN - NINA Centre for Biodiversity Genetics. His research has focused on ecological status and impact assessments in recent years, specifically the effects of hydropower and wind turbines on aquatic communities.

https://www.nina.no/english/Contact/Employees/Employee-info?AnsattID=16123

Gitte Krohn-Pettersen is a biologist who studied the temporal aspects of bioluminescence in her master project within LightLife. She defended her master thesis Blinks in the dark - Detecting and characterizing flash kinetics of bioluminescence for in situ taxa recognition of zooplankton in June 2023.

Thea Svendsen is a biologist who did her master project about using environmental DNA in zooplankton studies in LightLife. She defended her master thesis The usability of eDNA to identify and quantify zooplankton communities in June 2023.

Taran Five is a master student studying the behavioral responses of zooplankton to different light stimuli. In her master thesis she is using behavioral experiments to determine how bioluminescent and non-bioluminescent zooplankton species react to artificial bioluminescence signals.

Hedda Førde is a master student studying the spectral aspects of bioluminescence. In her master thesis she is characterizing bioluminescence emission spectra within and between various zooplankton species and studying the possibility to identify bioluminescent taxa based on the spectral properties of their bioluminescence.