My research focuses on biodiversity and functioning in marine ecosystems, with particular emphasis on coastal food webs. I study how food web structure and functioning vary over time and space, how the changing environment influences the traits of species and the biodiversity of the food web and, in turn, what the consequences of changing interactions are for the functioning and staiblity of the communities. My work explores links between human society and coastal ecosystems.
Keywords: food web, functional diversity, resilience, biodiversity-ecosystem function, climate change
My main research interests are in the field of marine stress ecology and biodiversity. I study the role of phenotypic plasticity, the ecological effects of evolution, how anthropogenic changes shape communities and trophic interactions, and how biodiversity contributes to ecosystem functioning and resilience. As an experimental ecologist, I use shallow coastal habitats as my test system and conduct experiments both in the field and in the laboratory. My methods range from transcriptomics to community and ecosystem approaches. I am a scientific diver (AESD) and macroalgal enthusiast, and I find evolution fascinating.
Keywords: species interactions, functional diversity, traits, biodiversity, stress ecology
My research is grounded in resilience thinking, drawing on theories of Resilience and Complex Adaptive Systems with a focus on novelty, nonlinearity and stability. Using data-driven and holistic approaches, I study long-term changes in marine social-ecological systems and their drivers related to climate change and anthropogenic pressures.
A central focus of my work is the concept of Novelty, which describes unprecedented system characteristics within a given spatial and temporal scale. My current project applies this concept to the Gulf of Riga (Baltic Sea) food web to understand novelty in composition, structure and interactions as well as their underlying drivers.
In parallel, I contribute as an expert to the ICES Working Group for the Integrated assessment of the Baltic Sea (WGIAB) and as a fellow for the second global assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
Keywords: Novelty, resilience, social-ecological systems, marine ecosystems, climate change and anthropogenic pressures.
My research aims to unravel some of the complexity of species interaction networks, such as food webs, to understand how their structure influences ecosystem stability and resilience under environmental change and anthropogenic pressures. Using ecological modeling and comparative approaches, I explore how species interactions shape ecosystem functioning across marine systems.
Most of my work has focused on high-latitude ecosystems in both polar regions: the Antarctic and Subantarctic in the south, comparing food web structure and stability; and currently the Arctic, where I investigate large-scale variations in food web structure and stability along environmental gradients across the Northeast Greenland continental shelf, from fjord to slope habitats.
I am also expanding this research through the EU-MARBEFES project, which examines how food web structure underpins ecosystem functions and services across European marine regions, including the Archipelago Sea in Finland.
Keywords: species interactions, food web, high-latitude marine ecosystems, climate change, anthropogenic perturbations
PhD project: A Threshold-Based Approach towards a Fit-for-Purpose Ocean Management for the Conservation of Marine Biodiversity in ABNJ
Currently an Arctic Initiative Fellow 2025-2026 at the Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Project: Links between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in macrophyte meadows and associated ecosystem components