Pascal Karitter

PhD student

Research interest

My main interests involve effects of rapid climate change on plants as well as their ability to adapt and evolve with changing environemntal conditions.

My past work focused on the effects of elevated CO₂ levels and increased light intensities on an antarctic microalgae (Bachelor thesis) and on the phenotypic plasticity of European Beech (Master thesis) using an European-wide reciprocal transplantation experiment.

In my current PhD project (Back to the wild), I aim to investigate the evolutionary adaptations of European perennial plants to the environmental changes of the last three decades. I will utilize the resurrection approach and combine it with a transplantation experiment in order to compare 30 year old stored seeds and recently collected seeds of the same plant populations.

Projects

·        Back to the wild - Combining transplant experiments with the resurrection approach to investigate rapid plant adaptations

CV

2020 - now         PhD Student at the Goethe University Frankfurt

2020                   Research assistant in AG Experimental Plant Ecology with the task of DNA                                 extraction from beech leaves

2018 - 2020        Master of Science in biodiversity and ecology, Universität Greifswald

2016                   Research assistant in the lab of the research vessel Polarstern on research                                 expedition „PS97 Paleo Drake“ starting from Punta Arenas, Chile via Drake                                 passage to the antarktic peninsula and back.

2015                   External Bachelor thesis at the Alfred-Wegener Institut für Polar- und                                           Meeresforschung Bremerhaven at AG Ecotrace of Scarlett Trimborn and                                     AG Pflanzenbiologie of Dr. Dierk Wanke (UdS)

2013 - 2017        Bachelor of Science in human and molecular biology, Universität des                                           Saarlandes

Publications

Karitter P, Covers E, Karrenbauer, M, March-Salas M, Stojanova B, Ensslin A., Rauschkolb R, Godefroid S, & Scheepens JF (2023). Evolution of competitive ability and the response to nutrient availability: a resurrection study with the calcareous grassland herb, Leontodon hispidus. EcoEvorxiv (under review in New Phytologist). Link

Karitter P, March-Salas M, Ensslin A, Rauschkolb R, Godefroid S, & Scheepens JF (2023). Combining the resurrection approach with transplant experiments to investigate adaptation of plant populations to environmental change. EcoEvorxiv (under review in Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics). Link

Trimborn S, Thoms S, Karitter P, & Bischof K (2019). Ocean acidification and high irradiance stimulate growth of the Antarctic cryptophyte Geminigera cryophila. Biogeosci. Rev. 16, 2997–3008. Link