Estelle Bruni
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research focuses on the diversity, the distribution and the ecology of protists. My current group of interest is the Euglyphida (Rhizaria, Cercozoa), an abundant and diverse group of testate (shelled) amoebae.
The main goal of my project is to test how far basic biogeographical rules developed for macroscopic organisms like plants or animals apply to Euglyphida. The aims of my thesis are to (1) increase the knowledge on the diversity, the taxonomy and the phylogeny of soil Euglyphida, (2) improve reference databases by describing new species, (3) characterize the niche partitioning of Euglyphida along elevation gradients, (4) assess the influence of seasonality on the community composition of Euglyphida, and (5) analyse the biogeographical patterns of Euglyphida species at a large scale.
I started my PhD thesis as a doctoral assistant in the Laboratory of Soil Biodiversity in February 2019.
My project is part of the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF “Biodiversity and biogeography of soil protists in continental and oceanic islands” (project n° 182531) and is supervised by Prof. Edward Mitchell (thesis director) and Dr. Guillaume Lentendu (thesis co-director).
EDUCATION
02.2019 – present
PhD thesis in Biology, University of Neuchâtel (CH)
“Biodiversity and biogeography of soil protists in continental and oceanic islands –Euglyphida under the spotlight” under the supervision of Prof. Edward Mitchell (thesis director) and Dr. Guillaume Lentendu (thesis co-director).
09.2015-06.2017
Master of Science UZH in Biology: Microbiology (90 ECTS), University of Zurich (CH)
Master Thesis “Lake warming and seasonal successions of ciliates. A case study from Lake Zurich” under the supervision of Prof. Thomas Posch
09.2011-09.2014
Bachelor of Science in Biology (180 ECTS), University of Neuchâtel (CH)
PUBLICATIONS
Šimek K., Grujčić V., Nedoma, J., Jezberová, Šorf, M., Matoušů, A., Pechar L, Posch, T., Bruni, E. P., Vrba, J. (2019). Microbial food webs in hypertrophic fishponds: omnivorous ciliate taxa are major protistan bacterivores. (Accepted - Limnol Oceanogr).
Pitsch, G., Bruni, E. P., Forster, D., Qu, Z., Sonntag, B., Stoeck, T., & Posch, T. (2019). Seasonality of Planktonic Freshwater Ciliates: Are Analyses Based on V9 Regions of the 18S rRNA Gene Correlated With Morphospecies Counts? Front Microbiol, 10(248), 248. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.00248
Otto, S., Bruni, E. P., Harms, H., & Wick, L. Y. (2017). Catch me if you can: dispersal and foraging of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus 109J along mycelia. ISME J, 11(2), 386-393. doi:10.1038/ismej.2016.135
CONFERENCES PARTICIPATION
2019
38th Meeting of the German Society for Protozoology, Vienna (A)
Biodiversity and biogeography of soil protists in continental and oceanic islands. Bruni, E., Lentendu, G. & Mitchell, E. (poster)
2018
37th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Protozoology, Cologne (D)
2017
15th International Congress of Protistology (ICOP15), Prague (CZ)
Lake warming and seasonal successions of ciliates. A case study from Lake Zurich. Bruni, E., Izurieta Villegas, B., Pitsch, G. & Posch, T. (poster)
36th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Protozoology, Meissen (D)
How does lake warming affect seasonal successions of ciliates? A case study from Lake Zurich. Bruni, E., Izurieta Villegas, B., Posch, T. & Pitsch, G. (poster)
2016
35th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Protozoology, Saignelégier (CH)
PROFESSIONNAL EXPERIENCE
08.2017-09.2018
Limnological Station, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zurich, Kilchberg (CH)
Group of Prof. Thomas Posch
Research assistant – projects i) ciliates in aquatic food webs (SNF D-A-CH project “Co-occurrence networks in aquatic food webs: ciliates as models”) and ii) the amoebae Nuclearia spp. and their bacterial symbionts (SNF project “Bacteria-protists interactions illustrated by the amoebae Nuclearia spp. and their bacterial symbionts”)
11.2014-05.2015
Bioavailability Group, Department of Environmental Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig (D)
Group of Dr. Lukas Y. Wick
Student assistant – research on the role of bacteria and bacterial predator-prey interactions in the biodegradation of organic contaminants (PACs) in soils