Maja Ilic
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Present position: |
PostDoc |
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Phone: |
+43 512 507-50266 |
Academic History
Oct 2023 – present: Postdoc, Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics, Research Department for Limnology, Mondsee, Universität Innsbruck, Austria
Oct 2021 – Sep 2023: Postdoc, Forest Entomology, Forest Health and biotic Interactions, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Switzerland
Mar 2019 – Jul 2021: Data Analyst / R Programmer, School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom
Oct 2017 – Mar 2018: Scientific Assistant, Institute for Cell Biology and Zoology, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
Oct 2014 – Feb 2019: PhD Thesis, Aquatic Chemical Ecology, Institute for Zoology, University of Cologne, Germany
Oct 2012 – Sep 2014: Master of Science in Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany
Oct 2009 – Aug 2012: Bachelor of Science in Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany
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Research interests
I am broadly interested in aquatic and terrestrial ecology, with the focus on biodiversity – ecosystem functioning relationship and food webs. Most of my research has focused on the effects of natural phytoplankton trait diversity (in terms of food quality based on biochemical composition, i.e., content of essential dietary fatty acids) on population dynamics and intraspecific competition in water fleas (genus Daphnia), and presently thermal tolerance in Daphnia longispina species complex. In my past projects, I investigated (i) ecosystem stability of grasslands as a response to extreme drought and (ii) food webs across aquatic-terrestrial environments, including the dietary preferences of riparian spiders. Finally, I have a strong interest and expertise in data visualization (specifically in R), with the emphasis on novel techniques to improve the transparency of data presentation.
Main interest:
Aquatic Ecology
Aquatic-Terrestrial Environments
Biodiversity – Ecosystem Functioning
Food webs
Food quality
Trait-based approached
Analytical Chemistry
Data Visualization
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Teaching
- Supervision of BSc and MSc students
- BSc and MSc curses (in German and English)
- Experimental Ecology
- Methods and Techniques in Chemical Ecology
- Data Analysis in R
- Foundations for Research in the Biosciences
- Seminars and Workshops
- Introduction to R and RStudio
- Data Manipulation using tidyverse
- Principles of Data Visualization
- Data Visualization – Plotting in R using ggplot2
- Do’s and Don’ts of Data Visualization
- GitHub & RMarkdown
Publications
2024
- Stuart A. D., Ilić M., Simmons B. I., Sutherland W. J. (2024). Sea stack plots: Replacing bar charts with histograms. Ecology and Evolution, 14(4), e11237, https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11237
(online first)
- Saborte G., Drost B.J.W., Kowarik C., Schubert C.J., Gossner M.M., Ilić M. (2024). Quantifying the utilisation of blue, green and brown resources by riparian predators: A combined use of amino acid isotopes and fatty acids, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.14371
2023
- Boenigk J., Beisser D., Franke L., Klar L., Ilić M., Fink P. (2023). Differences in pigment composition and concentration between phototrophic, mixotrophic and heterotrophic Chrysophyceae. Fottea 23(2): 223–234, DOI: 10.5507/fot.2023.001
- Ilić, M., Walden, S., Hammerstein, S. K., Stockenreiter, M., Stibor, H., & Fink., P. (2023). Pigment and fluorescence proxies to estimate functional diversity of phytoplankton communities. Fundamental and Applied Limnology 196(3-4): 229-249, https://doi.org/10.1127/fal/2023/1466
2021
- Schwarzenberger A., Ilić M., Von Elert E. (2021). Daphnia populations are similar but not identical in tolerance to different protease inhibitors. Harmful Algae 106, 102062, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2021.102062
- Ilić, M., Klintworth, S., & Jackson, M. C. (2021): Quality over quantity: Trophic cascades in a warming world (2021). Functional Ecology 35(4): 818-820, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13775
- Ilić, M., Cordellier, M., & Fink, P. (2021). Intrapopulation variability in a functional trait: susceptibility of Daphnia to limitation by dietary fatty acids. Freshwater Biology 66(1): 130-141, https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13623
2020
- Haug, J. T., Winder, V., Ilić, M., Haug, G. T., & Haug, C. (2020). The early stages of Miomantis binotata and their bearing on the question whether ant mimicry is a larval feature of first stage praying mantises (Mantodea: Mantidae). Fragmenta entomologica 52(1): 29-38, https://doi.org/10.4081/fe.2020.402
2019
- Ilić M., Werner C., Fink P. (2019). Equal relevance of omega‑3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids for the fitness of Daphnia spp.. Limnology and Oceanography 64(6): 2512-2525, https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.11201
- Burberg, C., Ilić, M., Petzoldt, T., & von Elert, E. (2019): Nitrate determines growth and protease inhibitor content of the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa. Journal of Applied Phycology 31(3): 1697-1707, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-018-1674-0
- Werner C., Ilić M., von Elert E. (2019). Differences in heat tolerance within a Daphnia magna population: the significance of body PUFA content. Hydrobiologia 846(1): 17-26, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-018-3769-7
2018
- Reinhardt T., Baldauf L., Ilić M., Fink P. (2018). Cast away: Drift as the main determinant for larval survival in western fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra) in headwater streams. Journal of Zoology 306(3): 171-179, https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12581
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