Abigail Turnlund

Abigail Turnlund is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, since 2024. Her research focuses on marine biodiversity and ecosystem functions through the lens of coral reef microbial ecology, animal-microbe symbiosis, and ecological network analysis.

• Education
  • BSc in Biology with Marine Biology emphasis, San Diego State University (2015–2019)
  • PhD candidate at Australian Centre of Ecogenomics, University of Queensland (2020–2024)

Her work explores the complex interactions between marine organisms and their microbial communities, aiming to understand how these symbiotic relationships contribute to ecosystem resilience and biodiversity maintenance. She specializes in constructing and analyzing ecological networks to reveal patterns in marine systems.

Turnlund is affiliated with the Marine Conservation Status group and is part of the Research Area Biodiversity Change, Ecosystem Functions team at HIFMB. Her current projects bridge microbial ecology with conservation strategies for coral reef ecosystems.