Katrin Linse
- Please introduce yourself.
My name is Katrin Linse and I am a Senior Biodiversity Biologist at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge.
- Tell us about your professional and academic career before becoming part of the BIOPOLE Community.
I joined BAS in 2000 after a PhD at the University of Hamburg, Germany. My research focusses on marine benthic invertebrates in polar and deep-sea environments, their biodiversity, phylogeography, ecology and evolution. At BAS, I led the biodiversity projects MARB, BIOPEARL and EvolHist and was/am a key UK member in ANDEEP, ChEsSO, IceAGE, IceDivA, and HEXPLORES discovering unexpected high biodiversity in the Antarctic Deep Sea, the first black smokers in the Southern Ocean, as well as hydrothermal vents and methane seeps in the Arctic, South Georgia, North Atlantic and Red Sea. So far, I have formally described 28 species and am proud that 5 species carry my name.
- What have you enjoyed about BIOPOLE so far?
“Getting an old dog to learn new skills” – treating tissue samples for lipid analyses and looking for calanoid fatty acids is new to me. I enjoy that BIOPOLE’s marine carbon cycle research includes the carbon holders from the microbes and phytoplankton in surfaces waters via zooplankton and nekton in the water column to the benthic invertebrates on the seafloor.
- Tell us about a skill or trait unique to you that you would like to share?
Turning scientific drawings and photos of marine animals into sewn soft toys, like the deep-sea barnacle Bathylasma hirsutum or flabellinid nudibranchs, Christmas tree ornaments, and crochet creatures, like the Arctic seep and vent fauna.
