Dr. Marlene Wall

2012 PhD in Marine Biology University of Bremen and Alfred-Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany
2008 MSc in Ecology University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

My current research focuses on the role of natural environmental variability and how it can provide refuge during extreme environmental stress events such as heat waves, protect organisms from severe damage and also make them more resilient to future climate change.

I am investigating coral reefs in the Andaman Sea where large amplitude internal waves protected corals during a severe bleaching event (e.g. Wall et al. 2015, ProcRoySocB, Schmidt, Wall, et al 2016, Coral Reefs) and made them more resilient to thermal stress (Buerger, Schmidt, Wall, et al. 2016, JEMBE). The aim is to better understand such aspects and locations and to incorporate this understanding of adapted coral populations into current reef restoration efforts.

Environmental variability also plays a role in the fitness of cold-water corals, and at the limits of their distribution this can cause additional stress and negatively affect their metabolism (Beck etal 2022, CommsBiol) and presumably their fitness. This also has the consequence that their fatty acid balance is impaired and lipid reserves are probably depleted to a greater extent than in habitats with less environmental variability (Wall etal 2024, FuncEcol).

The overarching goal is to better characterize natural environmental fluctuations and to understand how they influence and change the stress response of organisms. Can they “train” organisms for climate change or are they bringing them closer to their limits? For improved ecosystem management in times of climate change, it is crucial to understand the phenotypic plasticity of organisms and their adaptive potential, as well as to identify natural sites that provide refuges. All of this together will determine future biodiversity. We also need to adapt this knowledge to different local environmental conditions and incorporate it into ongoing ecosystem restoration efforts.

Wall M, Doering T, Pohl N, Putchim L, Ratanawongwan T, Roik A (pre-print, in review CommsBiol) Natural thermal stress- hardening of corals through cold temperature pulses in the Thai Andaman Sea. bioRxiv: doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.12.544549

Roik A*, Wall M*, Dobelmann M, Nietzer S, Brefeld D, Fiesinger A, Reverter M, Schupp PJ, Jackson M, Rutsch M, Strahl J (pre-print, in review STOTEN) Trade-offs in a reef-building coral after six years of thermal acclimation. bioRxiv: doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.20.549699

Wall M, Beck KK, Garcia-Herrera N, Schmidt-Grieb GM, Laudien J, Höfer J, Försterra G, Held C, Nehrke G, Woll M, Graeve M, Richter C (2024) Lipid biomarker reveal trophic relationships and energetic trade-offs in contrasting phenotypes of the cold-water coral Desmophyllum dianthus in Comau Fjord, Chile. Functional Ecology, 38 (1), 126-142.

Fiesinger A, Held C, Melzner F, Putchim L, Reusch TBH, Schmidt AL, Wall M (2023) Population genetic differentiation of the ubiquitous brooding coral Pocillopora acuta along Phuket Island reefs in the Andaman Sea, Thailand. BMC Ecology and Evolution, 23 (1), 42.

Beck KK, Schmidt-Grieb GM, Laudien J, Försterra G, Häussermann V, González HE, Espinoza JP, Richter C & Wall M (2022). Environmental stability and phenotypic plasticity benefit the cold-water coral Desmophyllum dianthus in an acidified fjord. Communications Biology, 5(1), 683.

Fietzke J, & Wall M (2022). Distinct fine-scale variations in calcification control revealed by high- resolution 2D boron laser images in the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa. Science Advances, 8, eabj4172.

Doering T, Wall M, Putchim L, Ratanawongwan T, Schroeder R, Hentschel U, Roik A (2021) Microbiome transplantation between corals mitigates the bleaching response of heat-sensitive individuals. Microbiome, 9, 102, doi: 10.1186/s40168-021-01053-6.

Franke A, Blenckner T, Duarte CM, Ott K, Fleming LE, Antia A, Reusch TBH, Bertram C, Hein J, Kronfeld-Goharani U, Dierking J, Kuhn A, Sato C, Van Doorn E, Wall M, Schartau M, Karez R, Crowder L, Keller D, Engel A, Hentschel U, Prigge E (2020) Operationalizing Ocean Health : Toward Integrated Research on Ocean Health and Recovery to Achieve Ocean Sustainability. OneEarth, doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.05.013.

Wall M, Crook ED, Fietzke J, Paytan A (2019) Using B isotopes and B/Ca in corals from low saturation springs to constrain calcification mechanisms. Nature Communication, doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11519-9.

Wall M, Putchim L, Schmidt GM, Jantzen C, Phongsuwan N, Khokiattiwong S, Richter C (2015) Large-amplitude internal waves benefit corals during heat stress. Proceedings of the Royal Society - Biological Sciences, 282: 20-28.

*shared first/last authorship

Experimental approaches