MSc. Martina Schuler
phone: +41 (0)44 63 49214
fax: +41 (0)44 63 41225 Research InterestsEducation Previous Positions and Research Experience List of Publications |  |
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Climate warming affects thermal budgets of temperate lakes all over the world. Increasing water temperatures lead to profound structural changes in lake physics, chemistry as well as food web dynamics. During the last years, we could observe significant changes in the spring phytoplankton bloom community. My research is focussed on microbial food web dynamics during spring, with a special focus on ciliates. Ciliates are tightly coupled to dynamics of their algal and bacterial food. Any lake warming induced shift will strongly affect the ciliate assemblage and all depending higher trophic levels. There is need of a high sampling frequency to follow the composition and dynamics of vernal microbial food webs. However, the evaluation of these samples is very time-consuming and the amount of processed samples is limited. By combining new techniques, for example recent developments in image analysis systems for the quantification of protistan cells, I want to investigate in detail microbial dynamics during spring bloom events based on a high temporal and spatial sampling resolution.
Epifluorescence microscopy; identification of ciliates, HNF and algae, quantitative and qualitative protargol staining (QPS); image analysis systems for the quantification of bacteria, ciliates and algae; general lake monitoring methods
Lake warming and microbial food web dynamics in spring: a focus on ciliates (SNF project 31003A_182489)
| DGP 2020, Poster |
39thMeeting of the German Society for Protozoology (Kaiserslautern, Germany, 2020) Poster presentation: "Artificially induced versus natural microbial spring bloom dynamics in Lake Zurich" |
| 2020- - present | University of Zurich, PhD in Microbiology, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Limnological Station, supervised by Prof. Thomas Posch. PhD Project Title: Lake warming and microbial food web dynamics in spring: a focus on ciliates |
| 2019 - 2020 | University of Zurich, Master of Science in Microbiology, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Limnological Station, supervised by Prof. Thomas Posch. Master Thesis Title: "In situ versus artificial water turnover during spring: A comparison of microbial food web structures" |
| 2014 - 2018 | University of Zurich, Bachelor of Science in Biology |
| 2018 | lab technician (7 months), IDEXX Laboratories, Laboratory for veterinary diagnostics and food hygiene; my main duties were: Preparation for bacteriological examinations, urine diagnostics, food hygiene (identification and evaluation of potential pathogens such as E. coli, listeria, etc in the food |
Schalch-Schuler, M., Bassin, B., Andrei, AS., Dirren-Pitsch, G., Waller, K., Hofer, C., Pernthaler, J., and Posch, T. (2025). The planktonic freshwater ciliate Balanion planctonicum (Ciliophora, Prostomatea): A cryptic species complex or a "complex species"? J Eukaryot Microbiol. 72(1):e13084. doi:10.1111/jeu.13084
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Schalch-Schuler, M., Wüest, A., Dirren-Pitsch, G., Niedermann, R., Bassin, B., Köster, O., Pernthaler, J. and Posch, T. (2024). Variability of winter cooling affects intensity of phytoplankton spring blooms – how resilient is the ciliate assemblage composition to changes in food availability? Frontiers in Protistology 2. doi: 10.3389/frpro.2024.1428985.
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Dirren-Pitsch, G., Bühler, D., Salcher, M.M., Bassin, B., Le Moigne, A., Schuler, M., Pernthaler, J., and Posch, T. (2022). FISHing for ciliates: Catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization for the detection of planktonic freshwater ciliates. Frontiers in Microbiology 13. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.1070232
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