Professor, PhD (Vice Dean for Marine Research)
Øyvind Fiksen

Ecological mechanics and evolution

I work on plankton and fish, in particular their behaviour, life history, foraging, and predator-prey interactions. Recently, I have become interested in how the bottom topography influence how much plankton fish find and eat, and how the landscape below water contribute to the productivity of the ocean. I like research that are mechanistic, quantitative and driven by theory.

Environmental gradients in space and time create trade-offs between growth and survival, and organisms are well adapted to move along these slopes. Behavioural decisions have far-reaching consequences to for example recruitment processes and ecosystem functioning. As an example, both feeding success and death rates of a larval fish depends on its activity level and where in the water column it prefer to be. I find it intriguing to apply evolutionary models to predict where animals should be found in these gradients.