
Conny SjöqvistÅbo Akademi University · Department of Biosciences
Conny Sjöqvist
www.connysjoqvist.com
About
56
Publications
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Introduction
Post-doc at Åbo Akademi University/Environmental and Marine Biology
Additional affiliations
September 2019 - present
December 2017 - September 2019
October 2017 - November 2017
HELCOM
Position
- Researcher
Publications
Publications (56)
Genetic diversity is considered an important factor, stabilizing ecological functions when organisms are faced with changing environmental conditions. Although well known from terrestrial systems, documentations of this relationship from marine organisms, and particularly planktonic microorganisms, are still limited. Here we experimentally tested t...
Drivers of population genetic structure are still poorly understood in marine microorganisms. We exploited the North Sea-Baltic Sea transition for investigating the seascape genetics of a marine diatom, Skeletonema marinoi. Eight polymorphic microsatellite loci were analyzed in 354 individuals from ten locations to analyze population structure of t...
In temperate systems, phytoplankton spring blooms deplete inorganic nutrients and are major sources of organic matter for the microbial loop. In response to phytoplankton exudates and environmental factors, heterotrophic microbial communities are highly dynamic and change their abundance and composition both on spatial and temporal scales. Yet, mos...
Aim
To test if a phytoplankton bloom is panmictic, or whether geographical and environmental factors cause spatial and temporal genetic structure.
Location
Baltic Sea.
Method
During four cruises, we isolated clonal strains of the diatom Skeletonema marinoi from 9 to 10 stations along a 1132 km transect and analysed the genetic structure using eig...
The interdependency of Dinophysis spp., Mesodinium rubrum and Teleaulax spp. has occupied scientists in molecular and ecological domains in recent years. Current knowledge about the predator-prey relationships is based on laboratory investigations. Records on interactions in nature are limited, even though it is known that Dinophysis acuminata and...
Until recently, the data on the diversity of the entire microbial community from the Baltic Sea were relatively rare and very scarce. However, modern molecular methods have provided new insights into this field with interesting results. They can be summarized as follows. (i) Although low salinity causes a reduction in the biodiversity of multicellu...
Studies in laboratory-based experimental evolution have demonstrated that phytoplankton species can rapidly adapt to higher temperatures. However, adaptation processes and their pace remain largely unknown under natural conditions. Here, by comparing resurrected Skeletonema marinoi strains from the Baltic Sea during the past 60 years, we show that...
Marine phytoplankton play essential roles in global primary production and biogeochemical cycles. Yet, the evolutionary genetic underpinnings of phytoplankton adaptation to complex marine and coastal environments, where many environmental variables fluctuate and interact, remain unclear. We combined population genomics data with experimental transc...
Phytoplankton parasites are largely understudied microbial components with a potentially significant ecological influence on phytoplankton bloom dynamics. To better understand the impact of phytoplankton parasites, improved detection methods are needed to integrate phytoplankton parasite interactions into monitoring of aquatic ecosystems. Automated...
Oomycete infections in farmed fish are one of the most significant disease issues in salmonid aquaculture worldwide. In the present study, Saprolegnia spp. in different farmed fish species in Finland were identified, and the molecular epidemiology of especially Saprolegnia parasitica was examined. We analysed tissue samples from suspected oomycete-...
Phytoplankton parasites are largely understudied microbial components with a potentially significant ecological impact on phytoplankton bloom dynamics. To better understand their impact, we need improved detection methods to integrate phytoplankton parasite interactions in monitoring aquatic ecosystems. Automated imaging devices usually produce hig...
The majority of microalgal species reproduce asexually, yet population genetic studies rarely find identical multi-locus genotypes (MLG) in microalgal blooms. Instead, population genetic studies identify large genotypic diversity in most microalgal species. This paradox of frequent asexual reproduction but low number of identical genotypes hampers...
The salinity gradient separating marine and freshwater environments represents a major ecological divide for microbiota, yet the mechanisms by which marine microbes have adapted to and ultimately diversified in freshwater environments are poorly understood. Here, we take advantage of a natural evolutionary experiment: the colonization of the bracki...
Phytoplankton are photosynthetic, single-celled organisms producing almost half of all oxygen on Earth and play a central role as prey for higher organisms, making them irreplaceable in the marine food web. As Global Change proceeds, imposing rapidly intensifying selection pressures, phytoplankton are forced to undergo evolution, local extinction,...
The salinity gradient separating marine and freshwater environments represents a major ecological divide for microbiota, yet the mechanisms by which marine microbes have adapted to and ultimately diversified in freshwater environments are poorly understood. Here, we take advantage of a natural evolutionary experiment: the colonization of the bracki...
This article expands the discussion of Baltic Sea environmental governance by examining the implications of climate change on governance. It scrutinizes the physical challenges posed by climate change and analyses how the existing governing system can meet these challenges. The findings indicate that the present governing system is limited and cann...
Genetic diversity is the basis for evolutionary adaptation and selection under changing environmental conditions. Phytoplankton populations are genotypically diverse, can become genetically differentiated within small spatiotemporal scales and many species form resting stages. Resting stage accumulations in sediments (seed banks) are expected to se...
Bacterioplankton are main drivers of biogeochemical cycles and important components of aquatic food webs. While sequencing-based studies have revealed how bacterioplankton communities are structured in time and space, relatively little is known about intraspecies diversity patterns and their ecological relevance. Here, we use the newly developed so...
Although the majority of microalgal species reproduce asexually for large parts of the growth season, most population genetic studies have rarely found clones in microalgal blooms. Instead, population genetic studies have identified large intraspecific diversity in most microalgal species. This paradox of frequent asexual reproduction but low numbe...
Background
Bacterioplankton are main drivers of biogeochemical cycles and important components of aquatic food webs. However, difficulties in culturing the majority of aquatic prokaryotic species have complicated the study of their microdiversity. Here, we present POGENOM, a software that quantifies population genomic indices from metagenome data,...
The rate of caesarean section delivery (CSD) is increasing worldwide. It remains unclear whether disruption of mother-to-neonate transmission of microbiota through CSD occurs and whether it affects human physiology. Here we perform metagenomic analysis of earliest gut microbial community structures and functions. We identify differences in encoded...
Fucus vesiculosus and F. radicans (Phaeophyceae) are important habitat-formers on rocky shores in the Bothnian Sea. While both species occur sympatrically along the entire western Bothnian Sea coast, F. radicans has been found only in the northern part of the eastern coast. According to previous studies, the two species can be distinguished based o...
Recurring toxic A. ostenfeldii blooms are tightly coupled to benthic resting cysts in shallow coastal waters of the Baltic Sea. This study investigates the role of seed banks in genotype dynamics during one bloom season. We hypothesize that the cyst populations are genetically more diverse than temporal vegetative subpopulations which might contrib...
Marine planktonic microalgae have potentially global dispersal, yet reduced gene flow has been confirmed repeatedly for several species. Over larger distances (>200 km) geographic isolation and restricted oceanographic connectivity have been recognized as instrumental in driving population divergence. Here we investigated whether similar patterns,...
Slime nets, Labyrinthula sp., were found associated with several seagrass species, e.g., Zannichellia palustris, Zostera marina and Myriophyllum sibiricum, and on the alga Vaucheria sp. in autumn and winter samples from western Åland (N Baltic Sea, salinity 4-6 PSU). Labyrinthula survived for many months and increased in dark and cool conditions am...
A fundamental aspect of nature is the immense quantity of variation that exists between organisms and the ecosystems they inhabit. This source of variation leads us to classify organisms into separate species based on morphologic differences or more recently by observing differences at the individual, genetic, level. The development of molecular te...
Fig. S2
structure plot for the Baltic Sea only (K = 3) suggesting southern populations (GK, YS) are genetically differentiated from northern populations.
Table S1 Summary of N (sample size), Na (number of alleles per population per loci), expected (He) and observed (Ho) heterozygosity and Brookfield null allele frequencies (a) in all populations across eight genotyped loci. Heterozygote deficiency after Bonferroni correction, P < 0.05*.
Table S2 Correlation between directional relative migration and oceanographic connectivity was also tested over multiple generations based on stepping stone dispersal.
Fig. S1 Oceanographic connectivity measured as the minimum connectivity over 16 generations and visualized as the connectivity between Lysekil (North Sea) and to all other stations.
Drivers of population genetic structure are still poorly understood in marine micro-organisms. We exploited the North Sea-Baltic Sea transition for investigating the seascape genetics of a marine diatom, Skeletonema marinoi. Eight polymorphic microsatellite loci were analysed in 354 individuals from ten locations to analyse population structure of...
Studies of predator-prey systems in both aquatic and terrestrial environments have shown that grazers structure the intraspecific diversity of prey species, given that the prey populations are phenotypically variable. Populations of phytoplankton have traditionally considered comprising only low intraspecific variation, hence selective grazing as a...
Table 1 (APPENDIX). The presence (X) of all 100 microalgal plankton species (or genera) encountered in the four flads, during the six sampling occasions, in both habitat types and at both times of day.
As the trophic state of the environment changes, communities develop into divergent states. These community states are conventionally reflected through primary producers, because they are directly affected by nutrient availability. Studies of submerged macrophytes often focus on community composition to decipher the vegetative (community) state of...
Questions
Questions (2)
I have microsatellite data of 10 populations along a gradient of several environmental variables. I want to look at potential correlation between my genetic data and the environmental variables by using an RDA-analysis. Does anyone have suggestions on how to convert the raw data before I feed it into R?
Many studies now show that marine protist species have structured populations and substantial levels of genetic diversity. Has anyone summarized the existing litterature in a review so far?