Linn Hoffmann

Associate Professor Linn Hoffmann is a biological oceanographer affiliated with the Department of Botany at the University of Otago. She serves as the director of the Future Ocean Research Theme and contributes to the Coastal People: Southern Skies collaboration, focusing on rebuilding coastal ecosystems through cross-disciplinary research.

Her research explores marine phytoplankton eco-physiology under climate change stressors like ocean acidification, warming, and microplastics, with interdisciplinary ties to chemistry, ecology, and geochemistry. Key projects include impacts of the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption on marine ecosystems and trace metal effects on coccolithophore morphology. Her work bridges laboratory studies with fieldwork in Southern Ocean waters.

• Teaching Roles
  • BIOL 123: Plants: How They Shape the World
  • BTNY 203: Marine and Freshwater Botany (coordinator)
  • BTNY 301: Plant Ecology (co-coordinator)
  • ECOL 313: Ecology Field Course

Her supervised students investigate topics such as seaweed as future foods, mixotrophic plankton responses to warming, and microplastic adhesion to macroalgae. Publications address zooplankton dynamics, fucoxanthin production in diatoms, and Antarctic lake biogeochemistry. She advocates for PhD opportunities at the University of Otago, emphasizing excellence in marine botany research.