Team > M.Sc. Marvin Kiene

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

PhD candidate

PhD project: Influence of food quality on inducible defences in Daphnia

Trophic interactions are a key element to understand food web processes and ecosystem functioning. Nutrients are transferred from primary producers to higher trophic levels, while at the same time predation is one of the main drivers for natural selection. In response to predation, many aquatic prey species have evolved defences that reduce the predation impact. However, defence against one predator could render the prey more vulnerable to other predators. Hence, phenotypic plasticity in defensive traits in prey is a widespread mechanism to cope with a frequently changing predator spectrum. This plasticity may imply changing demands in resources, e.g., for changes in morphology or life history (e.g., number and size of offspring). Therefore, the composition of the phytoplankton community, and thereby the nutrient availability for grazers, may lead to nutrient limitations that potentially also constrain the expression of defences. To get a more comprehensive understanding of how prey suffers from insufficient nutrient supply, we will study the impact of nutrient availability on the expression of defences in cladocerans of the genus Daphnia. Daphnia are unselective filter-feeders, which play a crucial role for the nutrient transfer from primary producers to higher trophic level in lentic freshwater ecosystems and provide a well-established model system in research on predator-prey interactions and nutritional ecology. This project, combining adaptive plasticity and trophic interactions under nutritional constraints, will advance our understanding of food web processes in freshwater ecosystems.

In this project, we will explore the impact of food quantity and quality on the expression of inducible defences using established predator-prey systems. It is in cooperation with the working group of D. Martin-Creuzburg from the Limnological research station Bad Saarow of the University of Technology, Cottbus-Senftenberg. We will evaluate how defence expression and resource allocation in Daphnia is influenced by the availability of carbon and essential lipids, and how the different defensive traits are affected by supplying single nutrients and different combinations of nutrients. Furthermore, we will assess the demand of Daphnia for total carbon as well as for essential lipids during simulated predator exposure. By exploring these changes and assessing nutritional costs for inducible defences, we will be able to gain an improved mechanistic understanding of how inducible defences in Daphnia are affected by the phytoplankton community and how nutrient limitations may constrain the expression of defences. This will contribute to our understanding of trophic interactions, population dynamics and food web processes.

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

Master in nutritional ecology and limnology
PhD Candidate Animal Ecology | Supervisor Prof. Dr. Christian Laforsch

PhD Project: Findings and solutions for complex and comprehensive studies of inducible changes in functional traits in a predator-prey model system

Research interests: Animal Ecology, Limnology, Biodiversity, Animal Behaviour, Statistics, Bioinformatics

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

Publications

2024

Andreas J. Wild, Franziska A. Steiner, Marvin Kiene, Nicolas Tyborski, Shu‐Yin Tung, Tina Köhler, Andrea Carminati, Barbara Eder, Jennifer Groth, Wouter K. Vahl, Sebastian Wolfrum, Tillmann Lüders, Christian Laforsch, Carsten W. Mueller, Alix Vidal, Johanna Pausch: Unraveling root and rhizosphere traits in temperate maize landraces and modern cultivars : Implications for soil resource acquisition and drought adaptation. In: Plant, Cell & Environment, (2024). - .
doi:10.1111/pce.14898

2023

Marvin Kiene, Alexander Wacker, Dominik Martin-Creuzburg: Omega-3 versus Omega-6 : Are We Underestimating the Ecological Significance of Arachidonic Acid in Aquatic Systems?. In: Biomolecules, 13 (2023). - .
doi:10.3390/biom13050791

2020

Patricia Diel, Marvin Kiene, Dominik Martin-Creuzburg, Christian Laforsch: Knowing the Enemy : Inducible Defences in Freshwater Zooplankton. In: Diversity, 12 (2020). - .
doi:10.3390/d12040147

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

M.Sc. Marvin Kiene
Doktorand

Chair Animal Ecology I
Building NWI, Room 5.0 01 39
University of Bayreuth
Universitätsstr. 30
95440 Bayreuth
Germany

Telefon: +49 (0) 921 55 2648
Fax: +49 (0) 921 55 2784

E-mail: marvin.kiene@uni-bayreuth.de
Google Scholar: Marvin Kiene
ORCID: 0000-0001-9981-5661
ResearchGate: Marvin Kiene