Ellen Oldenburg

Dr. Ellen Oldenburg is a Researcher at the Institute for Quantitative and Theoretical Biology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, where she investigates microbial community dynamics in polar marine ecosystems using computational methodologies. Her work integrates long-term Arctic Ocean time-series data with advanced analytical frameworks to understand biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem stability under environmental change.

Her research specializes in applying network analyses—including co-occurrence networks, convergent cross mapping (CCM), and energy landscape analysis (ELA)—to unravel seasonal microbial interactions. She examines how winter conditions function as ecological resets and tracks causal relationships across taxonomic clusters (e.g., Syndiniales, Dinophyceae, Bacillariophyta). Key focus areas include Marine Microbiology, Arctic Ecosystem Resilience, and Computational Ecology, with visualizations mapping ASV abundance peaks and community membership across seasonal transitions (high-light summer, low-light winter, spring/autumn transitions).

Dr. Oldenburg's methodological innovations in causal inference provide critical insights for predicting climate-driven ecosystem responses in vulnerable polar regions, emphasizing the role of microbial networks in global biogeochemical processes.