Katrin Schmidt

Dr. Katrin Schmidt is a Research Fellow at the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth. She currently works as a Research Assistant in the NERC-Project: 'Quantifying the contribution of sympagic versus pelagic diatoms to Arctic food webs and biogeochemical fluxes: application of source-specific highly branched isoprenoid biomarkers' (PI: A. Atkinson, Co-PI: S. Belt). This project forms part of the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC), led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany.

• Professional membership: Challenger Society
• Contributor to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to marine sustainability

Research Interests: Dr. Schmidt specializes in marine ecology and biochemistry, focusing on Arctic ecosystems, diatom dynamics, phytoplankton-zooplankton interactions, and biogeochemical fluxes. Her work analyzes fatty acid composition, trophic marker dynamics, and climate change impacts on polar marine food webs.

Article Trends: Her recent publications examine omega-3 fatty acid depletion in Arctic algae, ice algae contributions to zooplankton diets, polar cod feeding behavior, and sampling method impacts on Antarctic krill observations. Key themes include biomarker analysis, ecosystem health indicators, and climate change adaptation in polar regions.

Supervised Research:

• 2001: Nicola Plathner (University of Rostock) on stable isotope fractionation in Meganyctiphanes norvegica
• 2002: Christina Augustin (University of Rostock) on salinity tolerance of Pseudocalanus spp.