Fabian Wolf

Postdoc at GEOMAR, Kiel

I have recently finished my PhD at GEOMAR, Kiel, funded with a scholarship from the DBU in November 2018. I did my master’s thesis in Biological Oceanography examining the effect of fluctuating temperatures under a global warming scenario on a bladderwrack species community.
I am mainly interested in the impacts of global warming on benthic ecosystems of the Baltic Sea (seagrass meadows and hardbottom fouling communities). As extreme events, such as heatwaves and hypoxic upwelling events, are projected to occur more frequent in the future, with a higher intensity, I am particularly testing the effects of these events on benthic communities in mesocosm infrastructures.
Furthermore, I am modelling temperature, salinity, oxygen and weather data of the Kiel Fjord to identify extremes of the past and trends in their characteristics (frequency, duration, amplitude), and to finally develop a warning system for heatwaves and hypoxic upwelling events, so that for example Kiel Fjord aquacultures are warned and can take action for the well-being of their cultured organisms. Moreover, the outcome of these models and the warning system can be used by scientists to perform field experiments targeting extreme natural events.