Danny C. P. Lau
(Assistant professor)

Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Section for Ecology and Biodiversity
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Email: danny.lau@slu.se

SLU Profile

ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3246-7508

Research Summary

My research focuses on food webs, biodiversity and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. I am particularly interested in their responses to anthropogenic stressors (e.g. eutrophication, acidification, brownification, atmospheric nitrogen deposition, etc.) and climate change. My studies cover a broad range of ecosystems including coastal waters, rivers, ponds and lakes, and I frequently apply ecological tracers such as fatty-acid biomarkers and stable isotopes to investigate ecosystem processes and food-web dynamics in the changing environment.

Recent Paper Summary

Lowered nutritional quality of plankton caused by global environmental changes. Global environmental changes reduce the levels of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in plankton of northern lakes, thereby lowering their supply to wildlife and humans.

This video summarizes the main findings of the research article: Lau, D. C. P., Jonsson, A., Isles, P. D., Creed, I. F., & Bergström, A.-K. (2021). Lowered nutritional quality of plankton caused by global environmental changes. Global Change Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15887

Current Projects

Our Projects

Global change depletes pelagic food webs in northern lakes (Web4Food)

The project will assess the extent to which global change has affected the availability of key nutrients (N, phosphorus (P)) and Ca), and phytoplankton nutrient limitation regimes, in oligotrophic Fennoscandian and North American lakes, and assess the consequences of these changes on phytoplankton and zooplankton.

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LOREX (The Limnology and Oceanography Research Exchange)

The Limnology and Oceanography Research Exchange (LOREX) is a formal training and professional development program in international research collaboration in the aquatic sciences offered by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO).

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Global Nitrogen Enrichment Experiment (AGNEE)

We aim to establish how DIN:TP ratios influence biomass, composition and elemental stoichiometry of phyto- and zooplankton communities, and to determine nutrient limiting factors of phytoplankton and consumer-driven nutrient regeneration responses.

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