Research Interests

My PhD thesis is titled “Life in planktonic greenhouses; a system dynamics approach” and is concerned with a functional group of mixoplankton called endosymbiotic Specialist Non-Constitutive Mixoplankton (eSNCM), which are heterotrophic protists containing living photosynthetic symbionts. The biological groups I am mainly focused on are Foraminifera, Radiolaria and green Noctiluca. I am approaching this subject by using system dynamics modelling; developing new models to increase the understanding of host-symbiont interactions, host feeding behaviour and to explore the impact of environmental stressors on eSNCM.

Supervisor: Nathalie Gypens