Sonja Repetti is an interdisciplinary PhD researcher at the University of Helsinki. In her current research project she is studying how microalgae respond and adapt to changes in salinity by growing them at different salt levels over 6 months and measuring their physical and genetic changes. In addition to this, she is on a quest to make people see and understand algae better.
In her everyday life Sonja works with growing algae at Tvärminne Zoological Station in Hanko. Parallel to this structured work as a scientist she has planned and created an exhibition aimed to make people see and understand the microscopically small parts of our seas.
" More and more I have come to realise that understanding about algal biology is useless unless there is societal support for their research, monitoring and management. To survive climate change, human society needs to evolve in its thinking about nature just as much as algae will need to evolve to tolerate changes in ocean conditions", Sonja reasons.
Giant algae - exhibition at Suomenlinna in July
Sonja Repetti’s exhibition Levät – Algae- Alger will be opened to the public in Levyhalli at the Fortress Island Suomenlinna in Helsinki 2.7-4.8.2024 from Tuesdays to Sundays between at 12-18.
"I have designed an exhibition where visitors will come face-to-face with enlarged 3D models of marine microbes, modelled with computer-aided design from electron microscope images and printed in an algae-based plastic. "
"Augmented reality (AR) will allow participants to use their phones as tools to unlock videos and further knowledge of the microbes they are looking at," Sonja reveals.
Exhibition attendees also get the chance to participate in her doctoral research about human-algae relationships by completing a survey.
"I want to understand what people already know and what they already think about algae, as well as what methods will help them to better understand and care about them and the ecosystems that they are a part of," Sonja explains.
"I hope to use the results of this survey to create a ‘toolkit for communicating about algae’, which will inform researchers and educators how best to tell people about algae," Sonja concludes.
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ALGAE - 5 QUESTIONS TO SONJA REPETTI:
1. Why should we care about algae?
"Algae (even cyanobacteria) are a natural and important part of nature, but we humans tend to only notice them when they grow out of balance (often due to our activities, such as when fertilizer run-off from agricultural fields causes eutrophication)."
"If we can understand that algae refers to many different living organisms that are all part of a complex interconnected ecosystem, and are not just simply ‘bad’, ‘good’ or ‘useful’, maybe we can feel more connected to these organisms and their environments, and think more carefully about how human activities impact upon them and what we can do to protect them."
2. How would you describe your own relationship with algae?
"Algae (and other protists, the informal group of organisms including all living things that are not bacteria, plants, animals or fungi) have driven my academic interest and life from the moment I had an ‘academic epiphany’ in a lecture about them during first year biology."
"This caused me to switch my major to marine biology, get into research, and live in 4 countries on 3 continents in order to learn more about them. It has ultimately led me to this PhD project, which combines a number of quite different research questions under the shared theme of algae."
3. Why is your research on salinity and algae important?
"In order to predict what future ecosystems might be like, and adjust our management accordingly, we need to know how climate changes are going to affect algae, because they are food for many other organisms and thereby are the source of energy (captured from the sun via photosynthesis) in many marine food-webs. Algae also take up and release carbon dioxide and oxygen, so have an important influence on the atmosphere and climate."
4. What is the most interesting part about your research to you?
"When I start to see patterns in results, such as when algae at certain salt levels look a certain way and it’s reflected in their growth. It’s fun when the differences are really striking and visible, such as the amount of algae sticking to the bottles I was growing them in being different based on strain and amount of salt."
5. What is your favourite algae species?
"Chrysoparadoxa australica – it was the first algae species I did research on in 2017. It was found in a sandy pool in Australia and was a previously unknown new class of algae. It was called a ‘golden paradox’ because it had an unusual number of membranes around its chloroplast, and I spent several months analysing sequences of its proteins. It was not the most exciting work, but I learnt a lot and at the end we got to share this beautiful alga with the world."