Team > Jessica Fischer

Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Chair Animal Ecology I

Jessica Fischer

PhD candidate

PhD project: Living in extreme Habitats – the potential Role of freshwater microcrustaceans in Bioregenerative Life Support Systems

My PhD thesis deals with the use of freshwater small crustaceans, more specifically the water flea Daphnia and so-called ostracods (ostracods), in bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS). Such systems are modelled on food webs in real ecosystems and enable organic waste products and carbon dioxide to be recycled and converted into food and oxygen. In this process, daphnia and ostracods are supposed to act as a link between primary producers, such as unicellular algae, and higher trophic levels, such as fish. The two taxa were selected for use in BLSS because they can complement each other. Daphnia produce a lot of biomass usable as fish food under favourable environmental conditions, but they are not very tolerant of fluctuating or harsh environmental conditions. Many ostracod species, on the other hand, have a much higher environmental tolerance, but produce less biomass compared to Daphnia. On the one hand, such life support systems should find application in extreme areas on Earth, but they are primarily being developed for future space missions, such as manned flights to Mars. The topic of my work is therefore (i) the behaviour and gravity perception of the organisms in weightlessness, but also (ii) the ecological parameters of such systems and the resulting performance of the small crustaceans.

Funding:

• PhD Stipend awarded by the Helmholtz Space Life Sciences Research School – SpaceLife
• Travel Grant awarded by University of Bayreuth Graduate School to conduct experiments at the ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) to analyse subcellular structures in Ostracoda, Grenoble (France)
• Travel Grant awarded by EES (Graduate Program for Evolution, Ecology and Systematics, Munich) to conduct microgravity experiments using parabolic flights within the research project “Swimming behaviour and graviperception of planktonic organisms”, Cologne (Germany)
• Travel Grant awarded by the GraduateCenter^LMU to attend the ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Lake Biwa (Japan)

Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Chair Animal Ecology I

• Ökologische Exposure Experimente
• Präparation und Färbetechniken für anschließende CLSM, TEM, REM
• Verhaltensexperimente in Mikrogravitation
• Simulierte Microgravity (TEXUS Forschungsrakete, Parabelflüge, Fallturm, Klinostat und Random Positioning Machine)
  

Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Chair Animal Ecology I

Publications

2018

Miriam Knie, Bernard Wolfschoon Ribeiro, Jessica Fischer, Burkhard Schmitz, Kay Van Damme, Ruth Hemmersbach, Donat-P. Häder, Christian Laforsch: Approaches to Assess the Suitability of Zooplankton for Bioregenerative Life Support Systems. In: Thais Russomano, Lucas Rehnberg (Hrsg.): Into Space : A Journey of How Humans Adapt and Live in Microgravity. - London : IntechOpen, 2018. - S. 171-207.
doi:10.5772/intechopen.74261

Jessica Fischer, Christian Laforsch: The influence of gravity and light on locomotion and orientation of Heterocypris incongruens and Notodromas onacha (Crustacea, Ostracoda). In: npj Microgravity, 4 (2018). - .
doi:10.1038/s41526-017-0037-5

2017

Jessica Fischer, Kathrin Schoppmann, Christian Laforsch: Life History Responses and Feeding Behavior of Microcrustacea in Altered Gravity : Applicability in Bioregenerative Life Support Systems (BLSS). In: Microgravity Science and Technology, 29 (2017). - S. 241-249.
doi:10.1007/s12217-017-9545-x

2015

Jessica Fischer, Kathrin Schoppmann, Miriam Knie, Christian Laforsch: Responses of microcrustaceans to simulated microgravity (2D-clinorotation) : preliminary assessments for the development of Bioregenerative Life Support Systems (BLSS). In: Microgravity Science and Technology, 28 (2015). - S. 337-344.
doi:10.1007/s12217-015-9470-9

2014

Christian Laforsch, Jessica Fischer, Bernard Wolfschoon Ribeiro, Kathrin Schoppmann, Benjamin Trotter: The forgotten cue : Daphnia bears a not yet described gravireceptive organ system. - (Vortrag), Veranstaltung: 40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly 2014, 2. - 10. August 2014, Moskau, Russland.

Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Chair Animal Ecology I

Jessica Fischer
Doktorandin

Homepage: DLR website - Jessica Fischer