Introduction of alien species of benthic foraminifera in the marina of Fiskebäckskil, Swedish West coast

Subject: Marine Geology

Level: master/internship

Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Laboratory: Department of Marine Science, Natrium
Dates (flexible): January/February – June/July 2026
Supervisor: Jean-Charles Pavard (EU postdoctoral fellow)

Project background

In the context of globalisation, marine traffic continues its ever-increasing growth. Consequently, the risk of introducing Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) through widely known vectors such as the release of ships’ ballast water or biofouling is significantly heightened, increasing the chances of these species settling in new environments and becoming invasive, often at the expense of native species. 

Such biological invasions can impact native biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and potentially endanger the viability of essential ecosystem goods and services for human well- being. 

Project description

The FORALIEN (FORaminifera ALIEN) project, granted by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), aims to identify benthic foraminiferal NIS (unicellular organisms from the meiofauna) through traditional method (i.e. morphological identification) and novel methods (i.e. dPCR and machine learning) and estimate their spatio-temporal distribution alongside the western coastline of Sweden. 

The following master thesis/internship will focus on species assemblages from a long core of sediment sampled in the marina of Fiskebäckskil. 
 
The student will have to determine the date of introduction of two NIS recently reported in Sweden and this marina, Ammonia confertitesta and Trochammina hadai, and analyse their  temporal distribution through the core. 
 
Two other cores have already been sampled and analysed for the study, respectively to date the sediment and analyse granulometry and organic pollutants over time in the marina, to better understand the environmental requirements of foraminiferal species. 

Project objective

• Analysing foraminiferal assemblages through the long core to estimate the arrival date of NIS and their temporal distribution within native assemblages
• Filling the lack of knowledge on the environmental drivers of native species and NIS
• Reconstructing past environmental conditions of the marina and establishment of Ecological Quality Status (EcoQS) through the time in the context of European legislations using foraminiferal assemblages

Tasks for the student

• Processing sediment samples and analysing foraminiferal assemblages based on shell morphology (through light microscopy)
• Statistical and multivariate analyses (mainly on R or Python) to analyse the temporal distribution of foraminiferal species along the core and determine their ecological drivers
• Calculation of biotic indices based on foraminiferal assemblages to assess EcoQS over time

Recommended skills

Recommended skills would be appreciated but NOT MANDATORY: experience in benthic foraminifera, taxonomy, recent paleology, biostatistics and multivariate analyses, biomonitoring.

Contact

Supervisor 

Jean-Charles Pavard 
EU postdoctoral fellow
Email: jean-charles.pavard@gu.se