Helle Ploug

Helle Ploug
Alma materAarhus University
Scientific career
ThesisLight and photosynthesis in dense populations of microalgae (1996)

Helle Ploug is marine scientist known for her work on particles in seawater. She is a professor at the University of Gothenburg, and was named a fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography in 2017.

Education and career

Ploug grew up in Denmark.[1] She has an M.Sc. (1992)[2] and a Ph.D. (1996) from Aarhus University. Following her Ph.D. she did postdoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and the University of Copenhagen. Starting in 2006 she was a scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research,[3] and in 2008 she moved to Stockholm University where she had a Marie Curie fellowship.[1] In 2006 she became an associate professor at the University of Gothenburg where she was promoted to professor in 2013.[3]

Research

Ploug's early research used fiber optic sensors to measure light in marine sediments.[4][5] She went on to examine how particles assemble in marine systems.[6][7] Her work on particles includes developing methods to quantify bacterial use of particles,[8][9] and the implications for consumption of particles produced by copepods.[7][10] Ploug has developed methods to measure how fast particles sink through the ocean[11] and the rate sinking particles are converted into carbon dioxide.[12] Her recent research has focused on measurements of biogeochemical cycling at the single cell level using Nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry.[13][14]

graph of size ranges for particles commonly found in marine systems
Size and classification of marine particles from Simon, Grossart, Schweitzer, and Ploug (2002) Aquatic Microbial Ecology.

Selected publications

Awards and honors

In 2017 Ploug was named a fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b "Autobiographical sketches: Helle Ploug". Oceanography. 27 (4): 197. December 17, 2015.
  2. ^ Ploug, Helle. Lys og fotosyntese i danske kystsedimenter (Light and photosynthesis in danish coastal sediments). www.worldcat.org (Thesis) (in Danish). Retrieved 2022-12-31.
  3. ^ a b "Helle Ploug | University of Gothenburg". www.gu.se. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
  4. ^ Ploug, Helle; Lassen, Carsten; Jorgensen, Bo Barker (1993). "Action spectra of microalgal photosynthesis and depth distribution of spectral scalar irradiance in a coastal marine sediment of Limfjorden, Denmark". FEMS Microbiology Ecology. 12 (2): 69–78. doi:10.1111/j.1574-6941.1993.tb00018.x.
  5. ^ Lassen, Carsten; Ploug, Helle; Jorgensen, Bo Barker (1992). "A fibre-optic scalar irradiance microsensor: application for spectral light measurements in sediments". FEMS Microbiology Letters. 86 (3): 247–254. doi:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1992.tb04816.x.
  6. ^ Ploug, H; Kühl, M; Buchholz-Cleven, B; Jørgensen, Bb (1997). "Anoxic aggregates - an ephemeral phenomenon in the pelagic environment?". Aquatic Microbial Ecology. 13: 285–294. doi:10.3354/ame013285. ISSN 0948-3055.
  7. ^ a b Simon, M; Grossart, Hp; Schweitzer, B; Ploug, H (2002). "Microbial ecology of organic aggregates in aquatic ecosystems". Aquatic Microbial Ecology. 28: 175–211. doi:10.3354/ame028175. ISSN 0948-3055.
  8. ^ Ploug, H; Grossart, Hp (1999). "Bacterial production and respiration in suspended aggregates - a matter of the incubation method". Aquatic Microbial Ecology. 20: 21–29. doi:10.3354/ame020021. hdl:21.11116/0000-0005-482C-A. ISSN 0948-3055.
  9. ^ Ploug, Helle; Grossart, Hans-Peter (2000). "Bacterial growth and grazing on diatom aggregates: Respiratory carbon turnover as a function of aggregate size and sinking velocity". Limnology and Oceanography. 45 (7): 1467–1475. Bibcode:2000LimOc..45.1467P. doi:10.4319/lo.2000.45.7.1467. S2CID 86128321.
  10. ^ Ploug, Helle; Iversen, Morten Hvitfeldt; Koski, Marja; Buitenhuis, Erik Theodoor (2008). "Production, oxygen respiration rates, and sinking velocity of copepod fecal pellets: Direct measurements of ballasting by opal and calcite". Limnology and Oceanography. 53 (2): 469–476. Bibcode:2008LimOc..53..469P. doi:10.4319/lo.2008.53.2.0469. hdl:21.11116/0000-0001-CDA2-1. S2CID 17102955.
  11. ^ Ploug, Helle; Terbrüggen, Anja; Kaufmann, Anna; Wolf-Gladrow, Dieter; Passow, Uta (2010). "A novel method to measure particle sinking velocity in vitro, and its comparison to three other in vitro methods: Sinking velocity of marine snow". Limnology and Oceanography: Methods. 8 (8): 386–393. doi:10.4319/lom.2010.8.386. S2CID 53599542.
  12. ^ Iversen, M. H.; Ploug, H. (2010-09-07). "Ballast minerals and the sinking carbon flux in the ocean: carbon-specific respiration rates and sinking velocity of marine snow aggregates". Biogeosciences. 7 (9): 2613–2624. Bibcode:2010BGeo....7.2613I. doi:10.5194/bg-7-2613-2010. ISSN 1726-4189.
  13. ^ Klawonn, Isabell; Lavik, Gaute; Böning, Philipp; Marchant, Hannah K.; Dekaezemacker, Julien; Mohr, Wiebke; Ploug, Helle (2015-08-04). "Simple approach for the preparation of 15−15N2-enriched water for nitrogen fixation assessments: evaluation, application and recommendations". Frontiers in Microbiology. 6: 769. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2015.00769. ISSN 1664-302X. PMC 4523818. PMID 26300853.
  14. ^ Svedén, Jennie B.; Adam, Birgit; Walve, Jakob; Nahar, Nurun; Musat, Niculina; Lavik, Gaute; Whitehouse, Martin J.; Kuypers, Marcel M. M.; Ploug, Helle (2015). Olson, Julie (ed.). "High cell-specific rates of nitrogen and carbon fixation by the cyanobacterium Aphanizomenon sp. at low temperatures in the Baltic Sea". FEMS Microbiology Ecology. 91 (12): fiv131. doi:10.1093/femsec/fiv131. ISSN 1574-6941. PMID 26511856.
  15. ^ "ASLO Fellows". ASLO. Retrieved 2022-12-31.