Sara Harðardóttir- PhD in Evolutionary Genomics, MSc Engineering, BSc Molecular Biology
- Researcher at Marine and Freshwater Research Institute Iceland
Sara Harðardóttir
- PhD in Evolutionary Genomics, MSc Engineering, BSc Molecular Biology
- Researcher at Marine and Freshwater Research Institute Iceland
About
25
Publications
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Introduction
My main research interest is the evolutionary adaptation of marine microplankton to particular environments.
Current institution
Marine and Freshwater Research Institute Iceland
Current position
- Researcher
Publications
Publications (25)
Pyramimonas Schmarda is a genus of unicellular green flagellates, recorded in marine water and sea ice samples. Pyramimonas is within the prey size range of the most important protozoan grazers in Disko Bay, West Greenland, where this study took place. Despite the potential ecological importance, little is known about the occurrence of the genus. T...
Diatoms of the genus Pseudo-nitzschia produce domoic acid (DA), a toxin that is vectored in the marine food web, thus causing serious problems for marine organisms and humans. In spite of this, knowledge of interactions between grazing zooplankton and diatoms is restricted. In this study, we examined the interactions between Calanus copepodites and...
In costal ecosystems, copepods coexist with toxin‐producing phytoplankton. The presence of copepods can amplify the phytoplankton toxin production and thereby increase the overall toxicity of a bloom. Copepods are not always affected by the toxins and can vector the toxins to higher trophic levels. To investigate the interactions between toxin prod...
A major cause of phytoplankton mortality is predation by zooplankton. Strategies to avoid grazers have probably played a major role in the evolution of phytoplankton and impacted bloom dynamics and trophic energy transport. Certain species of the genus Pseudo-nitzschia produce the neurotoxin, domoic acid (DA), as a response to the presence of copep...
Sea ice is a critical component of the Earth’s Climate System and a unique habitat. Sea-ice changes prior to the satellite era are poorly documented, and proxy methods are needed to constrain its past variability. Here, we demonstrate the potential of sedimentary DNA from Polarella glacialis, a sea-ice microalga, for tracing past sea-ice conditions...
Marine protists are globally distributed and sensitive to environmental conditions, which makes them a focal group when studying the effects of climate change on biodiversity and ocean health. However, they are a highly diverse group with varying evolutionary histories and morphologies and widely variable preservation potential in the fossil record...
Introduction
There is little information on evolutionarily ancient eukaryotes, which are often referred to as basal eukaryotes, in Arctic waters. Despite earlier studies being conducted in the Russian White Sea, only few have been reported.
Methods
Following a shotgun sequence survey of diatom cultures from Sugluk Inlet off the Hudson Strait in No...
Sea ice is a critical component of the Earth’s Climate System and a unique habitat. Sea-ice changes prior to the satellite era are poorly documented, and proxy methods are needed to constrain its past variability. Here, we demonstrate the potential of sedimentary ancient DNA from Polarella glacialis, a sea-ice microalga, for tracing past sea-ice co...
Since the seminal paper in 1998 (Coolen and Overmann), sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) has become a powerful tool in paleoecology to reconstruct past changes in terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity. Still, sedaDNA is an emerging tool and there is a need for calibrations and validations to ensure the reliability of sedaDNA as a proxy to reconstruc...
Fear of predation may influence food webs more than actual predation. However, the mechanisms and magnitude of nonconsumptive predator effects are largely unknown in unicellular-dominated food webs such as marine plankton. We report a general mechanism of chemically induced predator effects in marine plankton. Copepods, the most abundant zooplankto...
Marine zooplankton release chemical cues, which trigger defenses in unicellular phytoplankton, such as increased toxin production and changes of colony sizes. Here, we identify the structure of two novel alarm cues belonging to the group of copepodamides. Similar to the known copepodamides, one of the compounds described is shown to trigger both am...
Grazers can induce toxin (domoic acid, DA) production in diatoms. The toxic response has been observed in two species of Pseudo-nitzschia and was induced by Calanus copepods. In this study, interactions between diatoms and copepods were further explored using different species of diatoms and copepods. All herbivorous copepods induced toxin producti...
In spring 2016, two silos containing liquid nitrogen-containing fertilizer collapsed on a harbor in Fredericia,
Denmark. More than 2,750 tons of fertilizer spilled into inner Danish waters. A bloom of Pseudo-nitzschia occurred
approximately one month after the incident. The bloom caused a 5-week quarantine of numerous musselharvesting
areas along t...
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...
Questions
Question (1)
I am conducting RNA isolations from various marine planktonic species (I use a trizol, chloroform based isolation protocol) and I am getting good RNA amount when I measure on a qubit fluorometer but the problem is that when I check the quality using a tapestation it does not pick up any signal from the RNA. The measurement result as totally blank and there are no detections of any RNA. I have tested 32 isolation now and the problem is constant. RNA values range from 100-200ng/µL well in the range of the tape station kit. Has anyone experienced this or can give advice on how to proceed?
