School of Natural Sciences

Local Section Navigation

• Overview
• About
  • Consultative committees
• Study areas
• News and events
  • 2011
  • 2010
• Research activity
  • Centre for Ecosystem Management
  • Centre for Marine Ecosystem Research
  • Mine Water and Environment Research Centre
  • Projects
• Facilities
• Staff
  • Adjunct appointments
• Contact
• Faculty homepage
• Faculty staff intranet

Research Fellow

Telephone:	(61 8)  6304 5766
Email:	c.sawstrom@ecu.edu.au
Campus:	Joondalup
Room:	JO19.346

 

Background

• 2010-2012: Postdoctoral position at the UWA Oceans Institute, Western Australia. Project specifically looked at the western rock lobster larvae (phyllosoma) and how plankton and oceanographic variables affect phyllosoma abundance and distribution.
• 2008-2009: Postdoctoral position at the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. Project specifically looked at freshwater blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) and their viruses.
• 2006-2008: Postdoctoral position in aquatic viral ecology at the Climate Impacts Research Centre (CIRC) Abisko, Umeå University, Sweden.

Awards and Recognition

National and International Research Positions

• 2008 - 1-year post-doctoral scholarship from FORMAS (the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning) for research at the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University

Other

• 2007 - Research stipend from Lars Hiertas minne to fund research in subarctic Sweden
• 2004 - 1-year Marie Curie Scholarship from the University of Nottingham to fund research in the Antarctic

• Aquatic microbial ecology with a focus on energy and material cycling by microbes
• Whole-ecosystem processes and energy flow in aquatic ecosystems, i.e. measurements of bacteria and phytoplankton productivity rates, zooplankton grazing rates, and analysis of microbial communities with the use of epifluorescence microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.
• Quantification of carbon fluxes through the microbial loop in aquatic ecosystems
• Viral aquatic ecology
• Microbial influences on biogeochemical processes in coastal habitats
• Carbon cycling and bacterial carbon sources in coastal habitats
• Use of stable isotopes to determine important bacterial carbon sources in coastal habitats

Staff Qualifications

• PhD (Doctoral Degree), Sweden, 2006 .
• M (Master Degree), England, 2001 .
• B (Bachelor Degree), England, 2000 .

Recent Publications (within the last five years)

Journal Articles

• Saunders, MI., Thompson, PA., Jeffs, AG., Sawstrom, C., Sachlikidis, N., Beckley, LE., Waite, AM., (2012), Fussy feeders: Phyllosoma larvae of the Western Rocklobster (Panulirus cygnus) demonstrate prey preference. PLoS ONE, 7(5), N/A, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036580.
• Sawstrom, C., Pollard, P., (2012), Environmental influences on virus?host interactions in an Australian subtropical reservoir. Environmental Microbiology Reports, 4(1), 72-81, DOI: 10.1111/j.1758-2229.2011.00303.x.
• Sawstrom, C., Karlsson, J., Laybourn-Parry, J., Graneli, W., (2009), Zooplankton feeding on algae and bacteria under ice in Lake Druzhby, East Antarctica. Polar Biology, 32(8), 1195-1202, DOI: 10.1007/s00300-009-0619-0.
• Eiler, A., Beier, S., Sawstrom, C., Karlsson, J., Bertilsson, S., (2009), High ratio of bacteriochlorophyll biosynthesis genes to chlorophyll biosynthesis genes in bacteria of humic lakes. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 75(22), 7221-7228, DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00960-09.
• Karlsson, J., Sawstrom, C., (2009), Benthic algae support zooplankton growth during winter in a clear-water lake. OIKOS, 118(4), 539-544, DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2008.17239.x.
• Sawstrom, C., Lisle, J., Anesio, A., Priscu, JC., Laybourn-Parry, J., (2008), Bacteriophage in polar inland waters. Extremophiles, 12(2), 167-175, DOI: 10.1007/s00792-007-0134-6.
• Sawstrom, C., Pearce, I., Davidson, A., Rosen, P., Laybourn-Parry, J., (2008), Influence of environmental conditions, bacterial activity and viability on the viral component in 10 Antarctic lakes. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 63(1), 12-22, DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2007.00407.x.