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EVANGELIA GONTIKAKI The University of Aberdeen School of Biological Sciences Research Fellow pref e.gontikaki@abdn.ac.uk pref University of Aberdeen, Oceanlab, Newburgh, Aberdeenshire. AB41 6AA

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Research Interests

Marine sediment biogeochemistry, carbon cycling, deep-sea benthic ecosystem processes, microbial diversity-ecosystem function, food-web modelling

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Current Research

During my PhD I studied the direct contribution of benthic fauna and sediment bacteria to the initial C diagenesis in deep-water sediments of the Faroe-Shetland Channel and the Eastern Mediterranean. The experiments were carried out using artificial ¹³C labelled food pulses (labelled diatoms) of known C content. The tracer was followed into various benthic components (macrofauna, meiofauna and bacteria), which allowed the quantification of C processing for each benthic group. The results were incorporated into a food-web model using the linear inverse methodology. 

I'm currently participating in a project that will use the same methodology (tracer experiments) to assess the effect of megafauna, and particularly holothuria, in C processing in deep-sea sediments. Megafauna have not been included previously in tracer experiments and thus their quantitative contribution to the initial processing of organic matter is unknown. This study will take place at the long-term observatory at the Porcupine Abyssal Plane in August 2011.

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Collaborations

Dr. Barry Thornton & Dr. Duncan White (Macaulay Land Use Research Institute)

Dr. Dick van Oevelen  & Dr. Karline Soetaert (NIOO)

Dr. Paraskevi Polymenakou (HCMR)

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Publications

Contributions to Journals

Articles

• Gontikaki, E., Polymenakou, PN., Thornton, B., Black, K., Narayanaswamy, BE., Tselepides, A. & Witte, UFM. (in press). 'Benthic community response to organic matter enrichment in the oligotrophic Levantine Basin (Eastern Mediterranean)'. Geomicrobiology Journal.
  [Online] DOI: 10.1080/01490451.2011.605822
• Gontikaki, E., Mayor, DJ., Thornton, B., Black, K. & Witte, UFM. (2011). 'Processing of 13C-labelled diatoms by a bathyal community at sub-zero temperatures'. Marine Ecology Progress Series, vol 421, pp. 39-50.
  [Online] DOI: 10.3354/meps08892
• Gontikaki, E., Mayor, DJ., Narayanaswamy, BE. & Witte, UFM. (2011). 'Feeding strategies of deep-sea sub-Arctic macrofauna of the Faroe-Shetland Channel: Combining natural stable isotopes and enrichment techniques'. Deep-Sea Research. Part I, Oceanographic Research Papers, vol 58, no. 2, pp. 160-172.
  [Online] DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr.2010.11.011
• Gontikaki, E., van Oevelen, D., Soetaert, K. & Witte, UFM. (2011). 'Food-web flows through a sub-arctic deep-sea benthic community'. Progress in Oceanography, vol 91, no. 3, pp. 245-259.
  [Online] DOI: 10.1016/j.pocean.2010.12.014
• Gontikaki, E., Antoniadou, C. & Chintiroglou, CC. (2003). 'Population Structure of Cerastoderma glaucum and Abra ovata in Vouliagmeni Lagoon (Attiki)'. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, vol 83, pp. 1095-1097.

Contributions to Conferences

Abstracts

• Gontikaki, E., van Oevelen, D., Soetaert, K. & Witte, UFM. (2010). 'Benthic food web interactions in the deep Faroe-Shetland Channel: combining stable isotope labelling with linear inverse modelling techniques'. Deep-Sea Research Symposium, Reykjavik, Iceland, 15/06/10,.
• Gontikaki, E., Polymenakou, PN., Tselepides, A., Narayanaswamy, BE. & Witte, UFM. (2009). 'Deep-sea benthic community response to a simulated sedimentation event in Eastern Mediterranean'. HERMES Annual Meeting, Faro, Portugal, 20/03/09,.

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