Stefanie Moorthi
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Stefanie Moorthi
Postdoctoral Investigator
Steffi has returned to her native Germany to
take a faculty position at the University of Cologne (Köln)
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| Research
Interests |
| Microbial diversity, ecology and food
web dynamics; harmful algal blooms (esp. red tide dinoflagellates);
molecular ecology:
using molecular techniques such as 1) cloning/sequencing and mol.
fingerprinting for estimating microbial diversity and 2) quantitative
PCR assays
for species-specific quantification of target species. |
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| Educational
Summary |
| 2004-2006 |
University of Southern California;
Postdoctoral fellowship |
2000 - 2003
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Leibniz Institute for Marine Science,
University of Kiel, Germany; Ph.D. in Marine
Biology. Thesis: Mixotrophic flagellates in coastal marine
sediments: quantitative role and ecological significance (Drs.
U.-G. Berninger
and U. Sommer, thesis advisors) |
1995 - 2000
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Christian-Albrechts-University of
Kiel, Germany; Diplom (M.S.) in Zoology. Thesis: The relationship
between diversity and stability
in benthic protist communities (Dr. M. Wahl and Dr. U.-G.
Berninger, thesis advisor) |
| 1993 - 1995 |
Georg-August-University of
Göttingen, Germany |
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| Special
Qualifications |
| 1998 |
Training and certification as a
scientific diver at the University of Kiel, Germany |
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| Employment
History & Grants |
2004 – present
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Postdoctoral Investigator, University
of Southern California (German Academic
Exchange Service (DAAD), Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS)) |
2001 - 2003
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Graduate Fellow, Alfred-Wegener
Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany
(German Science Foundation (DFG), Graduate Fellowship) |
2002
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Graduate Fellow, University of
Southern California (German Academic Exchange Service
(DAAD); 3 months scholarship for a research stay at USC) |
2000 - 2001
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Graduate Fellow, Leibniz Institute
for Marine Science, University of Kiel, Germany
(German Science Foundation (DFG), Graduate Fellowship) |
| 1999 - 2000 |
Work-Study, Experimental Ecology,
Leibniz Institute for Marine Science, University of Kiel,
Germany |
| 1996 - 1998 |
Work-Study, Department of Ecosystem
Research, University of Kiel, Germany |
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| Research
Cruises |
Oct - Dec 2005
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R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer, Ross Sea,
Antarctica. Investigation of microbial diversity and food
web dynamics in the Ross Sea. |
2004 - present
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Microbial Observatory at University
of Southern California. Monthly cruises investigating
biodiversity of protistan natural assemblages from the San Pedro
Channel. |
July 2002
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R/V Polarstern, Arctic Ocean.
Investigation of microbial food web dynamics in plankton and sea
ice communities in the Greenland Sea. |
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| Presentations |
Scientific conferences
Moorthi S, Hillebrand H, Wahl M and Berninger U-G: Does the
Diversity-Stability-Hypothesis apply to communities of benthic
ciliates? Oikos Annual
Meeting, Lund, Sweden, 2000.
Moorthi S, Hillebrand H, Wahl M und Berninger U-G: The relationship
between diversity and stability in benthic protist communities. German
Society
for Protozoology Annual Meeting, Göttingen, Germany, 2000.
Moorthi S, Dietrich D und Berninger U-G: Mixotrophy in benthic
protists: Occurrence and ecological significance. German Society for
Protozoology
Annual Meeting, Bonn, Germany, 2001.
Moorthi S, Dietrich D and Berninger U-G: Mixotrophy of benthic
protists: Occurrence and ecological impact. NABS Annual Meeting, La
Crosse,
Wisconsin, USA, 2001.
Moorthi S, Dietrich D and Berninger U-G: Feeding strategies and
ecological impact of mixotrophic protists in benthic marine ecosystems.
ASLO/AGU
Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, 2003.
Moorthi S, Countway PD, Stauffer BA and Caron DA: Use of molecular
approaches to investigate the dynamics of the red tide dinoflagellate Lingulodinium
polyedrum. ASLO Aquatic Sciences
Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, 2005.
Caron DA, Gast RJ, Countway PD, Schnetzer, A and Moorthi S: Protistan
DNA sequence information and the species concept: Defining taxa for
ecological studies. ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Salt Lake City,
Utah, USA, 2005.
Invited seminars
Moorthi S, Hillebrand H, Dietrich D, Wahl M and Berninger U-G: Benthic
protists in coastal marine sediments - diversity, ecosystem function
and
mixotrophy. University of Uppsala, Sweden, 2002.
Moorthi S: Anwendung molekularer Methoden in aquatischer mikrobieller
Okologie. Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Kiel,
Germany, 2006.
Workshops (with oral presentations)
Postgraduate course: “Diversity in time and space”, Erken Laboratory,
University of Uppsala, Sweden, 2000.
“Aquatic Food Webs“, Leibniz Institute for Marine Science, Kiel /
Max-Planck-Institute for Limnology, Plön, Germany, 2001. |
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| Publications |
Enderlein P, Moorthi SD,
Roehrscheidt H and Wahl M (2003): Optimal foraging versus shared doom
effects: interactive influence of mussel
size and epibiosis on predator preference. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 292:
231-242.
Moorthi SD, Countway PD, Stauffer BA and Caron
DA: Use of quantitative real-time PCR to investigate the dynamics of
the red tide dinoflagellate
Lingulodinium polyedrum. (accepted for publication in Microbial
Ecology)
Moorthi SD and Berninger U-G: Mixotrophic
nanoflagellates in coastal sediments in the Western Baltic Sea.
(revised version resubmitted to Aquatic Microbial Ecology)
Moorthi SD, Hillebrand H, Wahl M and Berninger
U-G: Consumer diversity enhances secondary production by
complementarity effects (submitted)
Moorthi SD, Dietrich D and Berninger U-G: The
influence of light and nutrient conditions on mixotrophic
nanoflagellates in coastal sediments in the Western Baltic Sea.
(submitted)
Caron DA, Gast RJ, Savai P, Countway PD, Schnetzer A and Moorthi SD.
Defining taxonomic units of protists for ecological studies using DNA
sequence data (submitted) |
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| Non
peer-reviewed publications |
| Dietrich D, Moorthi S and
Weitere M (2003): Marine Microbiology: The role of protists in the food
web of the Arctic Ocean. Investigations of the microbial communities of
the water column and sea ice. In: Lemke, P (ed.) Reports on Polar and
Marine Research 446: 69-73. |
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