Hello, my name is Lotte. I am a teaching assistant at Ghent University. The courses I’m involved in relate to limnology, algae and protists and my PhD research is aimed at studying the effects of climate change on the diversity and functional attributes of High Arctic terrestrial microbiomes. To achieve this,  we study the functioning and biodiversity of microbes along environmental gradients in soils and lakes in Svalbard. The diversity is studied with high throughput amplicon sequencing and meta-omics approaches, with a particular focus on genes involved in C cycling (photosynthesis, respiration, CH4 production) and N and P cycling. The results will be used to better predict the potential role these ecosystems play as feedback mechanisms in the global climate system under future global change.

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APECS is for me a network of like-minded people from different backgrounds that help me to fulfill, in my opinion, a core value of science, outreach. I enjoy the creativity that comes along with organizing events and activities for all kinds of people of different age groups.