Daniel Liesner

A golden blade of sugar kelp is floating against a background of clear blue water and sandy sediment. (C) Sarina Niedzwiedz

🚨We are hiring!🚨

The #ROVKA project focuses on the productivity and vulnerability of Baltic brown algae populations. Join us as a scientist (2 years, 100% salary) for population genomic analyses and mesocosm experiments @geomarkiel.bsky.social @bfn-de.bsky.social

See
www.geomar.de/en/karriere/...

Join us! postdoc in AI driven computational biology. images behind of red seaweeds and CT scans of those seaweeds

*Join us!*

2 year #postdoc in #AI driven #ComputationalBiology!

Use AI-driven image analysis to investigate decades of coralline algae growth, in collaboration with colleagues in S Korea

🔗 www.umu.se/en/work-with...
📆7 January 2026
📍 Umeå University, Sweden

@umeaunimarine.bsky.social
🦑🧪🌎

Looking forward to the KPC Mini-Symposium tomorrow — a great event for all plant scientists in the Kiel area! Speakers are: Hanin Alzubaidy, @lies-nerd.bsky.social and @molecularmax.bsky.social . Don’t miss these exciting talks and discussions!

Phylogenomics unveil a recent origin of morphological complexity in Coleochaetophyceae Bierenbroodspot et al. use phylogenomic analyses to study Coleochaetophyceae, phragmoplastophytic streptophyte algae that are well-known for their complex bodies. They trace that the famous discoidal ...

Sudden complexity just 65 million years ago discovered by team around @jandevries.bsky.social by analysis of the green alga Coleochaete, an ancestor and an intriguing group, which has evolved elaborate disc-shaped bodies. The team reports about it in Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Latent endogenous viral elements drive active infection and inheritance in a multicellular host Endogenous viral elements (EVEs) inserted in host genomes are often regarded as inert relics of past infections. Whether they can retain infective potential and contribute to active viral cycles has r...

Excited to share our new preprint on giant virus infection in brown algae: Latent endogenous viral elements drive active infection and inheritance in a multicellular host
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

So happy to see my first first-author paper published! 🎈
A short thread on how Ectocarpus and its TE secrets have kept me busy lately:

rdcu.be/eITQH

A fully automated heart frequency logger for shelled invertebrates and associated data processing R package Measuring cardiac frequency provides a non-invasive approach to quantifying sublethal stress responses of invertebrates to environmental stressors, such as heat stress. Existing cardiac monitorin...

We’ve built an open-source system to automatically record and analyse heartbeats in mollusks and crustaceans, helping us understand how marine life copes with environmental stress. 💙

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

@electricbluecrl.bsky.social @coastalwarming.bsky.social

Two days of deep dive into in the science of the Helmholtz POF Topic “Marine and Polar Life” during the Topic 6 Symposium in Oldenburg: fruitful scientific exchange and plenty of opportunities to get to know each other.
Thank you for coming and contributing, @awi.de & @geomarkiel.bsky.social.
1/4

So excited to be at #ESEB2025 presenting poster 221 today!☀️

Check out our chromosome-level genome of Bostrychia, a red alga from the complex Ceramiales order, revealing massive genome expansion by giant Plavaka DNA transposons, the evolution of expanded gene families and UV sex chromosomes!

Startschuss für das Programm zu The Ocean Race Europe 🌍 🌊

Die Kiellinie ist momentan nicht nur Segelmeile, sondern auch Schaufenster für Meeresschutz und Meeresforschung.

Kommt uns im Ocean Live Park besuchen!

Zu unserem Programm: www.geomar.de/service/vera...

📸 Lukas Schröder, GEOMAR

🌊🌿🧬 Looking for a PhD candidate 🧬🌿🌊

Exciting opportunity to work with us @geomarkiel.bsky.social on heat adaptation of Baltic Fucus, coupling genomics with experimental approaches! Experience in molecular biology and bioinformatics very welcome

Closing date 31 August

www.geomar.de/en/karriere/...

Aquarium with Baltic Sea invertebrates

Researchers in front of KOB facility in Kiel

Taxonomist Renate Schütt in front of tables with outreach materials

Tank with Baltic Sea invertebrates

Busy week Fucus sampling with our colleagues @gloriareithmaier.bsky.social @lies-nerd.bsky.social @karikaphegyi.bsky.social and lots of others for #Fubluc and getting ready for outreach with kids for #TheOceanRaceEurope @geomarkiel.bsky.social

Fucus algal meadow in the Baltic Sea

Doctoral position on genomic basis of Fucus (brown algal) local adaptation - join our exciting #Fubluc team! Fully funded for 3.5 years & we also consider candidates with strong molecular or bioinformatic skillls but no marine / algal experience, see www.geomar.de/en/karriere/...

Maybe I should legally change my name now 👀🐟

Even though sea stars were critically underrepresented, I had a blast at #ITRS2025 in Brest! 🌊🌡️⭐
First conference, first Bluesky post and somehow, I now have a soft spot for kelp.🌱 Shoutout to @lies-nerd.bsky.social , @frankmelzner.bsky.social , Mark Lenz, and all the lovely people I got to meet!

Welcome address with slide showing that 383 participants attended from 28 countries

Title slide of my talk on Molecular control and ecological relevance of asexual reproduction in the split-fan kelp Laminaria pallida

Display of maritime-themed pottery art with me looking in a mirror framed by octopus arms

Gala dinner tables in front of a large aquarium with seaweeds and fish

Had too much fun at #ITRS2025 to be active online, so Hi from the early train leaving Brest! It was an absolute pleasure to see so many colleagues, present novel results and represent team @geomarkiel.bsky.social with @frankmelzner.bsky.social @katjasee.bsky.social Looking forward to next time!

Anne Salomon taking us on a marvelous deep dive through time, recontextualising people’s relationship with coastal ecosystems #ITRS2025 #marineecology 🧪🦪🌱🎣 @ifremer.bsky.social @ofbiodiversite.bsky.social @sbroscoff.bsky.social @thembauk.bsky.social

Researcher in front of mesocosm facility at Geomar explaining experment on Fucus blue carbon to Kiel Week visitors.

Researcher showing marine hydrozoans to visitors of RV Alkor with a microscope.

Open Ship on RV Alkor in Kiel, image of the ship.

Still 5 hours left to meet us and various marine critters on board if RV Alkor & the Kiel Outdoor Benthocosms with an experiment on carbon storage potential of brown algae with @lies-nerd.bsky.social @geomarkiel.bsky.social #FUBLUC - and the sun is out now!

The Atlantic's chilling secret: A century of data reveals ocean current collapse A century-old mystery of a stubborn cold patch in the North Atlantic is finally being unraveled. A new study links this anomaly to a long-term weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulat...

A study confirms what we have long argued: the spectacular Atlantic 'cold blob' is the result of a slowing of the Atlantic overturning circulation #AMOC, which transports warm waters into that region. That's the only part of Earth that resisted #globalwarming. 🌊
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

Seaweed conservation ‘inadequate’ to fight alarming loss, report finds The balance of marine algae is at risk but barely mentioned in policy discussions, researchers say

From disappearing #seaweed beds, to invasive #sargassum blooms… fascinating article from @financialtimes.com, featuring our Dr Yanna Alexia Fidai, which examines how human activity is disrupting the balance of marine algae across the globe: www.ft.com/content/b815...

Turning the Tide: A 2°C Increase in Heat Tolerance Can Halve Climate Change‐Induced Losses in Four Cold‐Adapted Kelp Species Our model findings highlight the need for a two-pronged approach to conserve cold-adapted kelp forests: stringent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in line with the SSP1-1.9 scenario, and strate...

Boosting thermal tolerance could help cold-water kelps persist in areas that are getting warmer.
The challenge is how to reach a higher tolerance but it shows that it is worth the effort. Climate change mitigation is key
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Mesocosm tanks with cylinders containing pieces of macroalgae.

Students standing around a PAM instrument.

Cylinder clise-up with macroalgae in mesocosm tank.

Finally some practical #bioc-202 work for our MSc students in Biological Oceanography at #Geomar! Exposing bladderwrack populations to heat stress regimes to study photophysiology & local adaptation! Real science projects to support meadow conservation #ANK #FUBLUC with @lies-nerd.bsky.social

This statement about the transphobic Supreme Court ruling by the UK's Crab Museum (yes a museum about crabs) is better than 99% of the statements I've seen on the topic

www.crabmuseum.org/visit

🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀

#PhycologyFriday, from one of my favourite spots, from the wave exposed shores of northern Norway - with a mosaic of Laminaria digitata and Alaria esculenta, with some Fucus serratus, Palmaria palmata and other macroalga in between.

The Kelp Forest Cathedral at Monterey Bay Aquarium

Waves crashing onto the rocky shore outside of the aquarium

An otter rubs his paws and winks at the camera

A hand holding seaweed above an illustration of Rockweed (Fucus distichous)

Spent the day at the @montereybayaquarium.org and was blown away by the massive exhibits, especially the giant #kelp cathedral 😍 Inspiring to see marine sci-comm done expertly, and I loved the hands-on science for the little ones! My lesson of the day: Fucus distichus grows also in the Pacific?!

Giant clone of seaweed in the Baltic Sea

"An Evolutionary Mosaic Challenges Traditional Monitoring of a Foundation Species in a Coastal Environment—The Baltic Fucus vesiculosus"

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

taking sediment cores for blue carbon via SCUBA in the Baltic Sea

and another 5-yr (!) postdoctoral position at GEOMAR Kiel on advancing seagrass assisted evolution, see details and link to apply www.geomar.de/en/karriere/.... Omics and pop genetics knowledge required, seagrass and coastal ecology desirable. @geomarkiel.bsky.social DM me for inquiries

Seagrass Zostera marina in Baltic Sea showing blue carbon, photo credit Pekka Tuuri

The GEOMAR seagrass team is hiring. Time to make coastal restoration long-term sustainable. A fully funded 4-yr PhD position on eelgrass seascape genomics in the Baltic Sea, further details see here www.geomar.de/en/karriere/... @geomarkiel.bsky.social DM me for inquiries

The new Max Planck Postdoc Program adresses young scientists.

‼️Save the date‼️The new Max Planck #Postdoc Program kicks off its first call for applications from April 1, 2025; applications can be submitted until May 13, 2025. mpg.de/en/max-planc... #ScienceCareer