Meet Kerstin Kroeger

Meet Kerstin Kroeger

What is your job title?

Marine Benthic Ecologist.

What do you study and why is it important?

Benthic communities are animal or plant communities that live at and in the bottom of a body of water such as a lake, a river or the sea. I study faunal communities from relatively shallow water to the deep sea. In particular I am interested in how these communities get shaped by disturbances. For instance, how do toxic plankton blooms affect the benthic communities when such blooms die and sink to the seabed? Recently I have moved my interest into Antarctic waters where I look at the influence of grounded icebergs on communities in the Ross Sea area. These icebergs act as huge ploughs that cause immense disturbance to all life on the seabed.

Oh, and I am a bit of a polychaete or bristle worm fan. This group normally doesn’t get many points in the “I look cute’ department (well, I disagree on that one), but these worm occur in all benthic sediments in high numbers and in a great variety, and thus they are actually a very important component of benthic communities and also of the marine biodiversity.

What will you be doing on the Rumble III voyage?

My main job will be to make sure that the biological sampling will run smoothly and that all biological samples get processed, preserved and recorded properly. Analysing the photographic material from the seamounts on board as far as we can will be another one of my tasks.

Where were you educated?

I did my MSc at Kiel University (northern Germany) which has a long-standing association with marine sciences. University College Cork (Ireland) harboured me for a year and I did the fieldwork for my MSc in association with UCC. Following a year as a deep-sea benthic ecologist at Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratories on the beautiful west coast of Scotland, I moved to New Zealand to do my Ph.D at Victoria University Wellington.

How did you become interested in the ocean?

To a certain degree it runs in the family with my great-grandfather and my Dad having been in the merchant navy. Growing up only 30 km away from both the North and the Baltic Sea probably helps too.

The deciding moment was in my undergraduate years when I got very excited by everything marine: the part of the Zoological Morphology class that dealt with marine critters, the field trips to marine laboratories, and the trips on the research vessel. I was simply hooked on it!

Do you get seasick? And if so, any tips on how not to?

Oh yes, I do. And it is nothing to be ashamed of because it does happen to most of us at some stage. The best thing for me is to lie down on my back. My colleagues are used to seeing me at meetings on the ship just lying on the floor. My preparations: take seasickness tablets in time! Once you feel bad it is too late. Have a bottle of water and some crackers beside your bunk. Have all your gear stored away before you start sailing. There is nothing worse than feeling crooked and wondering whether the microscope in the lab had been lashed down properly before you went to your cabin.

What do you enjoy about your work?

Marine Science is a fascinating area, especially deep-sea science because the sea - especially the deep sea - is a really challenging environment to work in.

Part of my work is to constantly learn new things about the sea and its inhabitants – and they never fail to surprise me. It is amazing with what life comes up! Travelling and going on research voyages is another big bonus: voyages on research vessels (of three nations) have taken me from the Baltic Sea, the North Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific to the Ross Sea. And on all these voyages I am privileged to meet wonderful and interesting people.

What are some of the challenges you face?

• Getting seasick…
• Trying to get on top of an every increasing pile of scientific papers I really should read.
• And life is too short for all the work that could/should be done.

What have you learned/discovered? What do you hope to learn?

There are certain patterns as to how benthic communities react to disturbances, but there are only so many disturbances they can take before they get changed to such a degree that it will take them a long time to recover.

On this seamount voyage I hope to see that closing seamounts for fisheries does make a difference to the wonderful diverse seamount communities.

How do you spend your spare time?

Being outside as much as possible: tramping, cycling, snorkelling, exploring. And after all the outdoorsy stuff I love to potter around in the kitchen, to bake and make preserves. Reading a good book with a good glass of wine in my hand is another favourite pastime of mine or just enjoying time and food with friends.