Position: Researcher
SZN Dept: Integrative Marine Ecology
Email: ulisse.cardini(at)szn.it
Skype: ulisse.cardini
Telephone: +39 081 5833 673
Twitter: @symbiostoic
Web: SZN webpage
Web: Google scholar
Personal keywords: #Symbiosis, #BenthicEcology, #MarineBiogeochemistry, #StableIsotopes, #NitrogenCycle
Scientific interests in a nutshell:
Host-microbe interactions play an essential role in the health and physiology of diverse marine organisms, but environmental stressors such as climate change increasingly threaten the physiological function of the holobiont (the assemblage of host and microbes, forming an ecological unit). My research investigates the biogeochemistry of host-microbe interactions, as well as their physiological and ecological consequences. A key goal of my work is to provide a mechanistic understanding of how host-microbe interactions lead to peculiar metabolisms of the holobiont, and of how these reverberate on nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning. By integrating across biological scales and maintaining an environmental context, my work will help to evaluate the capacity of marine host-microbe interactions to shape their ecosystems and to withstand and adapt to a changing marine environment.
Selected publications:
Cardini U, MarÃn-Guirao L, Montilla LM, Marzocchi U, Chiavarini S, Rimauro J, Quero GM, Petersen JM, Procaccini G (2022) Nested interactions between chemosynthetic lucinid bivalves and seagrass promote ecosystem functioning in contaminated sediments. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13:918675
Berlinghof J, Peiffer F, Marzocchi U, Munari M, Quero GM, Dennis L, Wild C, Cardini U (2022) The role of epiphytes in seagrass productivity under ocean acidification. Scientific Reports, 12:6249
Marzocchi U, Bonaglia S, Zaiko A, Quero GM, Vybernait-Lubiene I, Politi T, Samuiloviene A, Zilius M, Bartoli M, Cardini U (2020) Zebra mussel holobionts fix and recycle nitrogen in lagoon sediments. Frontiers in Microbiology, 11:610269
Cardini U, Bartoli M, Lücker S, Mooshammer M, Polzin J, Lee RW, Micić V, Hofmann T, Weber M, Petersen JM (2019) Chemosymbiotic bivalves contribute to the nitrogen budget of seagrass ecosystems. The ISME Journal, 13:3131-3134
Cardini U, Bednarz VN, Naumann MS, van Hoytema N, Rix L, Foster RA, Al-Rshaidat MMD, Wild C (2015) Functional significance of dinitrogen fixation in sustaining coral productivity under oligotrophic conditions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 282:20152257