PhD Student, MSc
Nadja Meister

Research interests

I am a marine ecologist with a fascination for coastal ecosystems. My office is the intertidal zone, where I spend many hours observing species behaviour and finding inspiration for new research questions.

I am particularly interested in how environmental factors shape species distributions and how interaction strengths between species change along both vertical and horizontal gradients in Norwegian fjords.

I completed my MSc here in TEG, studying the role of crawling predators, particularly the dogwhelk (Nucella lapillus), in the decline and distribution of blue mussels in Norwegian coastal waters.

Following this, I worked for a year as a researcher in the Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fish at NORCE, where I primarily contributed to acoustic telemetry studies in coastal ecosystems, examining the behaviour of salmonids, gadoids, and lobsters.

Now back in TEG, I aim to deepen my understanding of blue mussel-associated communities by focusing on predator-prey interactions.

PhD project

Blue mussels are disappearing from many sites along the Norwegian coast, and the overall aim of my PhD project is to identify when and why blue mussel-dominated ecosystems lose their resilience and transition to a degraded state without blue mussels present. To do so, I am expanding on my previous work on blue mussels to explore how environmental factors affect ecological interactions and population dynamics of blue mussels and their crawling predators. My research involves a combination of observational and experimental fieldwork, as well as mesocosm and laboratory experiments at the Marine Biological Station Espegrend.

My supervisors are Øystein Varpe, Christian Jørgensen, and Tom J. Langbehn.