In future climate conditions, scenarios for summer cyanobacterial blooms project an increase in frequency and prolonged growth season. However, these scenarios do not take into account microbial interactions and the interplay of primary production and remineralisation.
In this project, Christoffer Berner and his team study the effects changes in temperature and salinity have on growth performance and community composition of filamentous cyanobacteria and its associated heterotrophic bacteria.
The team also focuses on how contingent changes in cyanobacterial and bacterial communities may affect the nutrient cycles within the ecosystem, especially nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon cycling. To answer these questions, the team uses both natural communities as well as in-house cultures of filamentous cyanobacteria.
