Dandan Shen
Seestrasse 15
D-18119 Rostock
Germany
Microbes in marine-freshwater transitions
Research Overview
Microbial composition varies over space and time. Yet, the question remains whether or not such heterogeneity in microbial composition matters to the ecosystem functions and the magnitude of the effects. Broadly, my research interests focus on the links between microbial biodiversity and ecosystem functions across environmental gradients or under adaptation scenarios.
The Baltic Sea provides an ideal natural model system for examining how salinity governs both microbial community composition and microbially-mediated processes (ecosystem functions). Currently, my research concerns:
- whether the shifts in bacterioplankton community composition along salinity gradient imply the functional changes of the communities;
- whether microbial communities from selected salinity regimes of the Baltic Sea functionally adapt when placed under each other’s native conditions;
- how individual functional traits scale up to community-level processes; are those traits phylogenetically conserved?
These research questions are addressed in the context of marine-freshwater transitions.
Specific focus is partly related to carbon acquisition by Baltic Sea bacterioplankton (e.g. cellulose degradation). In the perspective of microbial adaptation, my aim is to investigate the compositional changes and metabolic traits of indigenous brackish microbes and its freshwater and marine counterparts. To provide mechanistic understanding of microbial diversity, distribution, and their key functional traits, I integrate eco-physiological techniques with contemporary molecular tools, such as stable isotope probing, MAR-FISH, next generation sequencing, and meta-transcriptomics.
Curriculum Vitae
2018 - Present Postdoctoral position under the working group of Prof. Klaus Jürgens, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW), Germany.
2014 - 2018 Doctoral research position (MicroFun project), Leibniz-Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Germany
2013 Research Assistant under supervision of Dr. Richard Svanbäck, Uppsala University, Sweden
2010-2012 MSc in Aquatic Ecology, Linnaeus University, Sweden
Master thesis “Temporal dynamics of urea uptake and ureolytic microbial communities in Swedish lakes” under supervision of Prof. Stefan Bertilsson, Uppsala University, Sweden
2005-2009 BSc in Marine Science, Hebei University and Peking University, China
Research Cruises
- Alkor 439 (June 2014)
- Sampling along salinity gradient of the Baltic Sea
- Maria S. Merian (MSM 46) (August, 2015)
- Sampling along salinity gradient of the St. Lawrence estuary
Posters and Talks
- Shen, D., Beier, S., Jürgens, K.: Experimental insights into composition, community assembly and functional traits, Oral presentation at IOW Scientific advisory board 2018, Warnemünde, Germany.
- Shen, D., Langenheder, S., Jürgens, K.: Effects of dispersal on diversity and composition of bacterioplankton following a salinity change, Poster presentation at 15th Symposium on Aquatic Microbial Ecology (SAME 15) 2017, Zagreb, Croatia; awarded by FEMS Young Scientist Meeting Grant.
- Shen, D., Beier, S., Jürgens, K.: Differential bacterial dynamics and transcriptional responses promote community robustness to changed salinity, Poster presentation at 16th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology (ISME 16) 2016, Montreal, Canada
- Shen, D., Beier, S., Jürgens, K.: Bacterial responses to different salinities in a transplant experiment, Poster presentation at IOW Scientific advisory board 2016, Warnemünde, Germany
- Shen, D., Beier, S., Jürgens, K.: Salinity adaptations of freshwater, brackish and marine bacterial communities of the Baltic Sea: results from a transplant experiment, Talk at Aquatic Science meeting (ASLO) 2015, Granada, Spain
- Shen, D., Beier, S., Jürgens, K.: Adaptations of freshwater, brackish and marine bacterial communities of the Baltic Sea to changed salinity, Poster presentation at IOW Internal seminar 2014, Warnemünde, Germany
- Shen, D., Beier, S., Jürgens, K.: Salinity adaptations of freshwater, brackish and marine bacterial communities of the Baltic Sea, Poster presentation at CEMEB workshop - Marine Evolution under Climate Change 2014, Gothenburg, Sweden
Publications and Manuscripts
- Beier, S., Shen, D., Schott, T., Jürgens, K. (2017) Metatranscriptome data reveal the effect of different community properties on multifunctional redundancy. Mol. Ecol. 26: 6813-6826.
- Shen, D., Jürgens, K., Beier, S. (2017) Experimental insights into the importance of ecologically dissimilar bacteria to community assembly along a salinity gradient. Environ. Microbiol. 20: 1170-1184.
- Shen, D., Langenheder, S., Jürgens, K. Effects of dispersal on the diversity and composition of bacterioplankton following a salinity change. (In revision)
- Shen, D., Beier, S., Jürgens, K. Metatranscriptomic analysis of aquatic bacterioplankton in response to marine-oligohaline transitions from transplant microcosms. (In preparation)
Teaching Experience
6/2018 Practical section in the course Microbial Ecology at the master level in Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW) and University of Rostock.
5/2018 - present Supervision on master thesis of Hendrik Langeloh, Thesis entitled “The direct impact of increasing salinity on freshwater bacterial communities”.
4/2016 – 10/2016 Supervision on master thesis of Anna-Lena Höger, Thesis “Examining the ecological coherence of particle-attached and free-living bacteria in the Gulf of St. Lawrence”
11/2015 Practical section in Marine Biology course at master level
11/2014 Practical section in Marine Biology course at master level