Stellenbosch Peracarid Workshop

Hello! My name is Amanda P. Horch, and I’m a PhD candidate at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, in south Brazil. The primary focus of my research is the taxonomy and systematics of epicaridean isopods, with a special emphasis on the bopyrids of the western Atlantic. The epicarideans have a very unique lifestyle as they are the only isopod group that parasitizes other crustaceans. This means they can be very modified from the traditional isopod body, and they have larval stages! But I’m deeply fascinated by all the different body forms that isopods, and peracarids as a whole, have evolved to live in a myriad of different environments. I’ve been involved in crustacean research since 2016 (then as an undergrad), and from my first opportunity to work with these isopods in 2018, I’ve been hooked! I can’t wait to widen my knowledge about these wonderful critters during the workshop, and meet other like-minded people who are passionate about these crustaceans!

My name is Anna-Chiara Barta, and I am a PhD student at the Natural History Museum of Vienna, Austria. My research focuses on the molecular phylogeny and evolution of Peracarida, with a particular emphasis on isopods. I first began working on isopods during my master’s thesis, where I conducted a DNA barcoding project on Austrian terrestrial isopods. This experience laid the foundation for my current areas of interest. As much as I love the lab and molecular research, I am very much looking forward to further expanding my knowledge in the field of Peracarida taxonomy.

Hello, my name is Augustina (August) Löwenstein, and I’m currently preparing my PhD project with Saskia Brix at the University of Hamburg and Senckenberg (DZMB), in close collaboration with Martin Schwentner (NHM Vienna) and Kareen Schnabel (Earth Sciences, New Zealand). My research focuses on the species diversity and genetic connectivity of isopods associated with cold-water corals in the deep sea. I combine morphological taxonomy with molecular approaches such as DNA barcoding and ddRAD sequencing to explore patterns of host specificity, biogeography, and population structure. I was introduced to crustaceans throughout my bachelor’s when working with Brachyura, got the chance to study Notostraca in my master’s and now have arrived at the Peracarida - the diversity of crustaceans is just amazing!! I’m really looking forward to learning more about a new Crustacea group and meeting the passionate Peracarida community!

Hi! I'm Babak Fadavi, an early-stage researcher at the Doctoral School of Natural Sciences, University of Łódź, focusing on Environmental drivers of Peracarida biodiversity in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ). My doctoral work assesses the diversity, connectivity, and functional roles of deep-sea peracarid crustaceans in both undisturbed and mining-impacted areas. The research integrates morphological taxonomy, genetic barcoding, multivariate ecological statistics, and spatial modelling to evaluate biodiversity patterns and predict environmental impacts of deep-sea mining.

Hello!! My name is Breydhi Segura, from Peru. I hold a Biology degree from UNMSM, where I am a member of the Research Group of Aquaculture and Environmental Remediation. My research has focused on macroinvertebrate communities in fouling structures and coastal environments, gaining experience in the identification of marine invertebrates such as polychaetes and crustaceans, with a particular interest in the enigmatic peracarid group. I currently collaborate on ecological surveys on natural and artificial substrates to improve species identification and contribute to biodiversity knowledge in my region. I see the Confusing Crustaceans workshop at the Senckenberg am Meer Institute as an excellent opportunity to strengthen my taxonomic skills, expand my understanding of crustacean biology, and share this learning experience with experts and colleagues.

Moin, I’m Caro, a PhD candidate at the University of Hamburg, supervised by Saskia Brix and Bodil Bluhm (University of Tromsø) and working at Senckenberg (DZMB) in Hamburg. As part of the ALONGate project, the backbone of my research is the question of how abyssal fauna is connected along a latitudinal transect from the North Atlantic to the Central Arctic Ocean. In particular, I’m generating baseline datasets with high taxonomic resolution for all our sampled peracarid cumaceans and, another ‘brood-caring’ taxon, pycnogonids. Having personally experienced the Arctic on multiple expeditions as a highly dynamic and vulnerable region, I am deeply connected to its unique ecosystem. My focus is to fill species knowledge gaps in highly undersampled regions by an integrative approach: create species catalogues and identification keys, generate DNA barcodes to uncover genetic diversity as a basis for future metabarcoding studies, investigate biogeographical patterns based on this dataset and, finally (hopefully), predict suitable habitats for cumaceans and pycnogonids in remote regions based on the current research status. I can’t wait to find some answers to nerdy questions about tricky taxa that give me a headache!

I am a marine biology lecturer at Intechmer, part of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) in France. I also collaborate on research projects with the French Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, specifically with the 3E team at ISYEB (Institute of Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity). I trained as a polychaete taxonomist during my PhD at the Natural History Museum in London, UK. My research focuses on taxonomy and the valorization of deep-sea material from scientific collections, with the aim of characterizing biodiversity status and providing insights into ecological issues. I currently work on deep-sea holothurians and microplastic pollution. This workshop is an amazing opportunity to enhance my taxonomic skills in crustacean identification, particularly peracarids, an area where I currently lack expertise. It will improve my ability to teach and train students (I give a lecture in Crustacea zoology and taxonomy!), strengthen my capacity as a mutli-taxa deep-sea taxonomist, and allow me to contribute more effectively to scientific cruises and field expeditions.

Hello everyone!! I am Associate Professor in Facultad de Ciencias del Mar y de Recursos Naturales, Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile and Director of COSTAR Research Centre at the same University. My research has traditionally focused on taxonomy, biodiversity and ecology of soft-bottom macrobenthic communities with emphasis on polychaetes, but Peracarida has always been a group of great interest for me. In fact, I participated in a Peracarida Workshop in Chile years ago with Les Watling, Richard Heard and Martin Thiel. In the last years I have participated on several oceanographic cruises and expeditions studying different deep-sea ecosystems in the Southeast Pacific such as Patagonian fjords, methane seeps, submarine canyons, seamounts and also the Antarctic continental shelf (Bellinghausen Sea). From all of them I have collected a lot of Cumacea, Cephalocarida, Caprellida, Tanaidacea, Asellota, Cirolanidae, Amphipoda, etc. that I would like to work on in detail and share with you in this exciting workshop.

Hello everyone, I am Itchika Sivaipram, an assistant professor at Department of Marine Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. I am a marine ecologist experienced in identifying phytoplankton, zooplankton, meiofauna, and macrofauna, but am limited by my access to other taxonomists and reference material. In the past few years, I have participated in several projects collecting zooplankton and benthic samples from the coast of the Gulf of Thailand and found many Peracarida, including Amphipoda, Cumacea, Tanaidacea, Isopoda and Mysida. I would like to identify these samples to species and hopefully  find a new species! I am grateful to be accepted to participate in the Peracarid Species Identification and Description Workshop and looking forward to learning from the experts and connecting to other scientists.

Hello, my name is Kai Okamoto, and I am a Ph.D. student at Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, the University of Tokyo, Japan. I am currently preparing to kick off a collaborative research project with Ms. Carolin. My academic focus is on the phylogeography of Cumacea species inhabiting deep-sea environments around Japan, with particular interest in their evolutionary relationships and biogeographic patterns.

Although I am still in the process of studying morphological taxonomy, I am eager to deepen my understanding through this workshop. I truly look forward to learning from experienced specialists in the field and engaging in meaningful experiences throughout the event.

I’m a marine taxonomist and field supervisor at Biologica Environmental Services, where I work in a lab specializing in the environmental monitoring of aquatic environments across Canada. My focus is on benthic marine invertebrates, and I have over 10 years of experience working with crustaceans through large-scale monitoring projects. I’m especially looking forward to this workshop as an opportunity to delve deeper into taxonomic methods, refine my approaches to identifying challenging groups, and develop strategies for handling undescribed or poorly resolved species. I’m also eager to connect with others who work closely with these organisms.

Hello everyone, I’m Katharina and I am doing my PhD at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremen, a city next to Hamburg in the North of Germany (Moin!). I am a taxonomist, specializing in isopods (the best group of all, obviously!). These little creatures have captured me since my Bachelor Thesis and since then I am studying their diversity, distribution and connectivity mostly in the North Pacific and Arctic Ocean using classical morphological taxonomy, DNA barcoding and biodiversity modelling. Since isopods are such an incredibly diverse and species-rich group, I’m looking forward to further deepening my expertise, both in the taxonomy of groups I’m less familiar with and in refining methods to maximize the scientific value of each precious, little specimen. Excited to meet you all soon!

Hi everyone, my name is Kerry (Hadfield) Malherbe, and I am an Associate Professor at North-West University, South Africa. My research centers on fish-parasitic isopods, a group I first encountered during my Master’s studies on gnathiid isopods. For my PhD, I shifted my focus to cymothoids, which deepened my expertise in parasitic crustaceans. More recently, my work has expanded to encompass a broader range of parasitic crustaceans, with a particular emphasis on isopods within the superfamily Cymothooidea. I’m really looking forward to meeting you all and discussing the confusing, yet absolutely fascinating, world of crustaceans together.

Hi all! My name is Loran Kleine Schaars born in the wooded eastern part of the Netherlands but moved to sea 17 years ago to become a research assistant at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). I have always worked here with macro-benthos in mostly large scale monitoring projects, doing the sampling as well as the morphological identifications. Every now and then I work on other projects which do extend from dredging cruise sample processing samples to helping out a postdoc or PhD in the field. As most of our shallow water research areas are not extremely species rich, compared to other areas, we use to process the whole sample in one go without people focussing on different groups. Therefore I am looking forward to working with the diversity of the experts during the course! Beside working for NIOZ, I am also part of multiple citizen sciences projects where this knowledge might become very useful. These projects vary from bi-weekly coastal survey program,  (part of a larger national program) on the island of Texel where I live, to being a validator for a photo recognition app that processes thousands and thousands of observations worldwide.           

Looking forward to meeting and working with all of you!

Hello everyone! I am Luiz Felipe de Andrade, an Assistant Professor at the University of Lodz, Poland. I am an amphipod taxonomist and passionate about tiny crustaceans. My interest in the area began at the end of my bachelor's while studying shallow water peracarids from the southeastern Brazilian coast, where I was born. Over the years, I worked mostly with amphipods from the Brazilian continental shelf and deep sea, focusing on describing new species. Recently, I have been working on the ultrastructure and functional morphology of certain amphipod families and have also expanded my research to freshwater gammarids in Europe, utilizing DNA barcoding to resolve well-known taxonomic puzzles within species complexes. I am looking forward to participating in this amazing workshop and hope to build a great collaboration with everyone.

Hello! I am a research assistant at the Benthic Resource Management Laboratory and at the IDEAL Center, both at the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia. My current work focuses on physiology and reproductive biology of decapod crustaceans of the Chilean coast. I also study the ecology, biodiversity, and taxonomy of benthic marine invertebrates, with a special interest in crustaceans. I have had the opportunity to work with several groups of crustaceans, including Antarctic peracarids. Reviewing and identifying these peracarids surprised and delighted me due to their incredible diversity of shapes, sizes, and colors! This experience has inspired and motivated me to deepen my knowledge and specialize in these organisms, particularly amphipods, a fascinating and complex group. I hope to expand my knowledge of amphipods and peracarids in general, and to learn about sampling, identification, and illustration techniques, as well as practical tips. I am very excited to share this workshop with everyone!

Hello everyone! I'm Sofía Calderón-López. I was born in Colombia but have lived in Argentina for 15 years. I became an Argentinian citizen in 2023. Since childhood, the ocean and its mysteries have fascinated me. I am currently a PhD student at Buenos Aires University and fellow of the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET). For my undergraduate thesis, I focused on the genus Moruloidea (Isopoda, Sphaeromatidae). For my PhD, I continue researching isopods, focusing on the phylogenetic analysis, biogeography, and taxonomy of deep-sea Asellota, especially those in the Southwest Atlantic. I expect this workshop to provide insight into identifying Asellota and other Peracarida groups that I have not been able to focus on. It would also be great to have the chance to practice some molecular techniques, computational biology or examine other characters in the specimens that can be useful to complement my PhD thesis. I look forward to interacting with other deep-sea Asellota specialists and meeting other researchers from different backgrounds who share my passion for this field.

I am currently a PhD student at the University of the Republic in Uruguay, where I also serve as an assistant professor in the Entomology Department. Originally from Brazil, I now live and work in Uruguay. My academic journey began at the Museum of Natural History in Rio de Janeiro, where I focused on the taxonomy of Peracarida from an island archipelago. Upon moving to Uruguay, I encountered a region where Peracarida had been scarcely studied. This led me to pursue a master’s degree centered on the ecology and taxonomy of the group along sandy beach habitats. For my doctoral research, I chose to specialize in caprellid amphipods, exploring both the systematics and ecological roles of this family along the rocky shores of the Uruguayan Atlantic coast. Through this work, I am uncovering a fascinating and enchanting world within this challenging yet beautiful group—the Caprellidea. Looking forward to connecting with you all soon.

Hi all, I'm Zhehao (it sounds like "dgerhao"), welcome to Northern Germany! I'm a master student in Saskia's group at the University of Hamburg and DZMB (Senckenberg). I began my relationship with isopods last year and since then they have apparently completely won my heart. I am now working on my master thesis comparing biogeography and species diversity / differentiation of North Atlantic munnopsid (swimming) and haploniscid (walking) isopods, while exploring my future and further expertise with other isopod groups. I find their community, evolutionary, and functional ecology very fascinating. Every time I find out that certain characters have effects in the isopod's life history and have shaped their evolution, I feel more that they are not just tiny little cute creatures but also bring lots of wisdom and stories to bear. This is my second workshop focusing on isopods on species discovery workshop earlier this summer. I am looking forward to learning more of this kind of knowledge that links different aspects of biology! Btw, I code a lot and am good at data analysis :)