Rowena Stern is a molecular ecologist investigating long-term changes plankton diversity in marine environments, and is a co-investigator in the ARISE project.
Rowena has expertise in acquiring genetic information from archival formalin-fixed samples that can extend and augment records of biodiversity changes.
Dr Stern is working with PhD student Elliott Price, PI Dr Mahaffey, Dr Jeffreys and Dr Castellani on identifying food prey of zooplankton that are major contributors to the food web impacting sea mammals. Genetic methods will be used to identify prey from zooplankton caught from cruises and preserved zooplankton from the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey.
