Katherina Petrou

PhD Student, University of Technology, Australia

Katherina is a PhD student at the University of Technology, Sydney. Her PhD examines the photokinetic processes and responses of Antarctic microalgae to changes in environmental stresses with respect to global warming. Specifically, it is focused on determining the threats to primary productivity in the Antarctic marine ecosystem from a changing climate. The measured responses to changes in light, temperature, and CO2 concentrations are compared across Antarctic microalgal from the sea-ice, meltwater and open-ocean regions.

Given that sea ice extent and thickness are expected to decrease with climate warming, light conditions will invariably change for the microalgae living beneath and within the ice. Therefore, during SIPEX, Katherina will be conducting light manipulation experiments on microalgae from the sea ice and meltwater environments. Specifically, she will be measuring the photosynthetic response of microalgal populations to increasing irradiance. Additionally, she will also be looking at chlorophyll fluorescence with respect to the physical and chemical data collected and determine whether there are any correlations between photosynthetic plasticity and environmental condition.

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