Temporal dynamics in large benthic foraminifera assemblages

Elsa Girard, French-Canadian from Montréal, is based at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands. Her journey in Europe started in 2013 when she landed in Switzerland to do her Bachelor in Geology at the University of Lausanne. After a year travelling, she settled in Munich, Germany, to obtain her Master in Geobiology and Paleobiology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

Her research within 4D-REEF focuses on the temporal biodiversity of large benthic foraminifera (LBF) assemblages in Indonesian turbid reefs. She will look into LBF community shifts over long-term (1000 years) and short-term (past 20 years) time scales as well as rapid seasonal changes in order to understand the respective effects of substrate and water quality changes on LBF assemblages. To do so, she will use an integrative approach that will combine the traditional morphological analysis with DNA metabarcoding. She also aims to test for ancient DNA analysis in order to fill the gap between Holocene and modern LBF communities from the Spermonde Archipelago.

Publications

• Girard EB, Estradivari, Ferse SCA, Ambo-Rappe R, Jompa J, Renema W (2021) Dynamics of large benthic foraminiferal assemblages: A tool to foreshadow reef degradation?. Science of The Total Environment. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151396
• Girard EB, Fuchs A, Kaliwoda M, Lasut M, Ploetz E, Schmahl WW, Wörheide G (2020) Sponges as bioindicators for microparticulate pollutants. Environmental Pollution 268 (Pt A): 115851. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115851
• Girard EB, Kaliwoda M, Schmahl WW, Wörheide G, Orsi WD (2020) Biodegradation of textile waste by marine bacterial communities enhanced by light. Environmental Microbiology Reports 12: 406-418. doi: 10.1111/1758‐2229.12856.