Giulia Ghedini
Dr Giulia Ghedini
Community Ecology and Evolution research group
E: giulia.ghedini@monash.edu
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Research focus
Our research group is interested in how ecological communities form, function, and change. We work on marine phytoplankton because these microalgae are essential for ocean productivity and nutrient cycling, and they are a wonderful model system to study eco-evolutionary processes.
We use theory-informed experiments to untangle how interactions between organisms alter physiological processes related to energy use and growth. We work at different scales (cells, populations, communities) to identify general rules for how organismal physiology shapes communities, taking into account that physiology is plastic and evolves in response to the environment. Current themes include:
- How metabolic plasticity to species interactions affects species coexistence and community diversity
- Scaling patterns in communities and their links to individual level scaling
- Evolution in and of communities
Our goal is to improve predictions of how organisms perform in communities. Predicting performance in complex ecological systems is challenging due to the number of interactions. Human activities are adding to this uncertainty by rapidly altering the environment and the composition of communities, raising questions about the future of ecological systems. To address these challenges, we seek to always improve our interdisciplinary approaches and expand our collaborations. Feel free to contact Giulia to discuss any ideas, suggestions or collaborations.