Dr. Maja Ilić

Data Analyst/R Programmer in Ecology

Queen's University Belfast, School of Biological Sciences

Biography

I am a passionate young researcher with a PhD in aquatic ecology, and a strong interest in food quality, phytoplankton-zooplankton interface, biodiversity - ecosystem functioning relationship, ecosystem stability, functional traits, community ecology, mesocosm experiments, analytical chemistry and programming in R. In May 2019, I successfully defended my PhD thesis entitled Effects of natural phytoplankton trait diversity on Daphnia spp., which I completed at the University of Cologne in the Workgroup of Aquatic Chemical Ecology, supervised by PD Dr. Patrick Fink within the DFG funded priority program DynaTrait, in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Herwig Stibor and Dr. Maria Stockenreiter (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich). Since March 2019, I have been employed as Data Analyst at Queen’s University Belfast. Until October 2019, I was working within the EU funded project “ProByFish” in collaboration with several European institutes specialized in marine biology and fisheries management. In November 2019, I joined the Grassland Resilience project at QUB, which involves collaboration with colleagues from the University College Dublin. Next to research, I enjoy teaching and have given several workshops on Data Manipulation and Visualization in R and recorded a series of R tutorials within the QUB PEER Club, covering a range of simple and complex applications of R in ecology. During my PhD, I got the chance to visit many great conferences being held at beautiful locations. A small collection of photos taken during my travels can be found in my posts, as well as lots of new photographs I have taken during my time here in Northern Ireland. For any further information, explore my website, email me, follow me on Twitter or download my CV from the toolbar.

Interests

BEF relationship
Aquatic ecosystems
Ecosystem stability
Mesocosm experiments
Phytoplankton
Zooplankton
Daphnia
Food web
Stable isotopes
Polyunsaturated fatty acids
Pigments
Analytical Chemistry
Programming in R

Education

PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in Zoology (Aquatic Chemical Ecology), 2019
University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
MSc in Biology, 2014
Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany
BSc in Biology, 2012
Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany

Professional career

Data Analyst/R Programmer in Ecology

Queen’s University Belfast

Nov 2019 – Present Belfast, UK

Data Analyst within the Grassland Project

I am responsible for the manuscript writing and the analysis of the data collected during the Drought experiment, performed in 2017 across the island of Ireland. More information about the project can be found here.

Data Analyst/R Programmer

Queen’s University Belfast

Mar 2019 – Oct 2019 Belfast, UK

Data Analyst within the ProByFish project

Responsibilities include:

Data analysis and reorganisation
Validation of models
Version control

Scientific Assistant

Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf

Oct 2017 – Mar 2018 Düsseldorf, Germany

Supported lecturers involved in teaching the course “Zoology” within the Biology Bachelor programme at HHU and helped to establish a traininig course for Zoology on the e-learning platform.

PhD Student

University of Cologne

Oct 2014 – Feb 2019 Cologne, Germany

PhD project: Effects of natural phytoplankton trait diversity on Daphnia spp.

Responsibilities include:

Teaching assistance
Supervision of students (e.g. during their Bachelor thesis)
PhD club
R workshops
Pigment-analysis via HPLC and GC
Cultivation of isolated Daphnia clones

Skills

R

90%

Statistics

85%

Analytical Chemistry

75%

Mesocosm Experiments

70%

Plankton Taxonomy

60%

Photography

60%

Featured Publications

Dr. Maja Ilić, Mathilde Cordellier, Patrick Fink

September 2020 Freshwater Biology

Intrapopulation variability in a functional trait - Susceptibility of Daphnia to limitation by dietary fatty acids

We found pronounced differences between naturally coexisting Daphnia longispina genotypes in their specific patterns of susceptibility to limitations by the availability of essential dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids. On average, D. longispina population was more strongly susceptible to availability of the omega6-PUFA arachidonic acid (20:4 n-6) than to the availability of omega3-PUFAs alpha-linolenic acid (18:3 n-3) and eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5 n-3). Our findings suggest that such intrapopulation variation in susceptibility to absence of dietary PUFAs might be one of the driving forces of natural selection and local adaptation among freshwater zooplankton.

PDF DOI

Dr. Maja Ilić, Christian Werner, Patrick Fink

May 2019 Limnology and Oceanography

Equal relevance of omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids for the fitness of Daphnia spp.

Using dose-response growth experiments and bootstrapping to determine the growth and reproduction saturation thresholds, we show that ω6-PUFA arachidonic acid (ARA, 20:4 n-6) limits the growth and reproduction of two Daphnia species to an equal extent as ω3-PUFA eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5 n-3).

PDF DOI

Christian Werner, Dr. Maja Ilić, Eric von Elert

September 2018 Hydrobiologia

Differences in heat tolerance within a Daphnia magna population - the significance of body PUFA content

Here we report significant variation in heat tolerance, measured as knock-out time (time until immobilization, T_imm) in a single D. magna population. Furthermore, we show that T_imm negatively correlates with the body PUFA-content of D. magna clonal lineages.

PDF DOI

Recent Publications

Intrapopulation variability in a functional trait - Susceptibility of Daphnia to limitation by dietary fatty acids

We found pronounced differences between naturally coexisting Daphnia longispina genotypes in their specific patterns of susceptibility …

Dr. Maja Ilić, Mathilde Cordellier, Patrick Fink

PDF DOI

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)

Our results show that there is a specialisation of the stage one nymphs in which they differ from later stages, which may be understood …

Joachim T. Haug, Veronika Winder, Dr. Maja Ilić, Gideon T. Haug, Carolin Haug

PDF DOI

Equal relevance of omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids for the fitness of Daphnia spp.

Using dose-response growth experiments and bootstrapping to determine the growth and reproduction saturation thresholds, we show that …

Dr. Maja Ilić, Christian Werner, Patrick Fink

PDF DOI

Differences in heat tolerance within a Daphnia magna population - the significance of body PUFA content

Here we report significant variation in heat tolerance, measured as knock-out time (time until immobilization, T_imm) in a single D. …

Christian Werner, Dr. Maja Ilić, Eric von Elert

PDF DOI

Cast away - drift as the main determinant for larval survival in western fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra) in headwater streams

We found strong temporal and spatial variation in population density of larval salamanders along three headwater streams in the Eifel …

Timm Reinhardt, Louisa Baldauf, Dr. Maja Ilić, Patrick Fink

PDF DOI

See all publications

Recent & Upcoming Talks

Multiple measures of ecological stability demonstrate cascading effects of a perturbation on different components of an ecosystem

Food security depends on the resilience of agro-ecosystems, that is their capacity to withstand extreme climatic events. This depends …

Dec 14, 2020 09:00 Online

GitHub & RMarkdown

This course was mainly focused on GitHub and RMarkdown. I provided an introduction into version control and explained how RStudio can …

Feb 19, 2020 11:00 Queen's University Belfast, UK

Effects of phytoplankton diversity on intraspecific competition in Daphnia - A common garden experiment

Biodiversity loss in aquatic ecosystems is believed to have cascading effects on multiple trophic levels. In particular the …

Dec 12, 2019 15:00 Belfast, UK

Data Visualization Part II - Plotting in R using ggplot

Following the seminar Data Visualization - Think before you plot!, I will discuss alternative ways of plotting summary statistics …

Oct 14, 2019 14:00 Queen's University Belfast, UK

Data Visualization Part I - Think before you plot!

During the seminar, we will discuss some graphs from the literature that are misleading, wrong, hard to interpret or simply …

Oct 9, 2019 13:00 Queen's University Belfast, UK

See all talks

Awards

Award for the best lightning talk

British Ecological Society and Freshwater Biological Association Sep 2019

Travel grant (€ 1965)

German Academic Exchange Service - DAAD Feb 2019

Award for the best student talk

Cladocera XI. Meeting Sep 2017

Frontiers in Zoology Award for the best oral presentation (€ 200)

108th Annual Meeting of the German Zoological Society - DZG Sep 2015

DAAD RISE fellowship for supervision/internship of one undergraduate student from University of British Columbia, Canada (€ 2910)

German Academic Exchange Service - DAAD Sep 2015

Teaching and Supervising

Workshop: Introduction to R

For PhD candidates @ King’s College London and Imperial College London (online course) Dec 2020

Content:

Introduction to R and RStudio
Packages
Projects
Data sets in R
Data types
Data structures
Data collection and import into R
Data management and processing with tidyverse
Data visualization with ggplot2
Functions
Loops
Package foreign
Package likert
Spatial data analysis

Workshop: GitHub and RMarkdown

PEER Club @ Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK Feb 2020

Content:

Introduction to GitHub
Connecting RStudio and GitHub
Introduction to RMarkdown
Tips & Tricks for efficient code editing, incl. live coding
#PruittData
General discussion on data integrity

Workshop: Data Visualization Part II - Plotting in R using ggplot

PEER Club @ Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK Oct 2019

Content:

Introduction to the package ggplot2
The ggplot logic
Aesthetics
Geoms
Themes
Scales
Annotations
Legend
Facetting
Multiple panels

Seminar: Data Visualization Part I - Think before you plot!

PEER Club @ Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK Oct 2019

Content:

Misleading plots in the literature and how to improve them
Tips for scientific data presentation
Other sources e.g. R Graph Gallery
General discussion

Workshop: Data Manipulation with R

PEER Club @ Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK Jun 2019

Content:

Data Manipulation with base r and tidyverse
Linear regression
Functions

Supervision of student projects

University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany Feb 2015 – Jul 2018

Students:

M. Etienne¹ (2018), short research project, 1 month
L. Franke⁴ (2018), advised during phytoplakton pigment analysis via HPLC within BSc thesis, 2 months
L. Klar⁴ (2017), advised during phytoplakton pigment analysis via HPLC within BSc thesis, 2 months
N. Bogodukhova³ (2017), BSc thesis (in English), 4 months
S. Brehm¹ (2016), BSc thesis (in German), 4 months
J. Krause¹ (2016), Bsc thesis (in English), 4 months
E. Gosselin² (2015), research internship, 3 months
S. Walden¹ (2015), BSc thesis (in German), 4 months

From:

University of Cologne, Germany
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany
University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Teaching assistance

University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany Oct 2014 – Jul 2017

Courses:

Methods and Techniques in Chemical Ecology (MSc program, in English)
- High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
- Gas chromatography (GC)

Experimental Ecology (BSc program, in German)
- Introduction into aquatic ecology
- Chemical ecology of organismal interactions

Teaching assistance

Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany Apr 2012 – Jul 2014

Courses:

Botany (BSc program, in Germany)
- Photosynthesis
- Cell structure and physiology
- Introduction to microscopy

Cell Biology (BSc program, in Germany)
- Cellular differentiation
- Protein extraction
- SDS-PAGE and Western Blotting

Ecology (BSc program, in Germany)
- Biodiversity
- Ecosystems
- Ecological niches
- Interspecific interactions
- Phenotypic plasticity
- Population growth

Evolutionary Biology (BSc program, in Germany)
- Bioinformatics
- Evo-Devo
- Phylogenetics
- Quantitative Genetics

Molecular Plant Sciences (BSc program, in Germany)
- Enzyme Kinetics
- Hormones
- Isolation of Proteins, RNA and DNA
- Photosynthesis

Statistics (BSc program, in Germany)
- Statistical analysis with R
- Parametric and non-parametric statistical tests
- Linear models

Research related activities and responsibilities

Manuscript review (7) for Limnology, Scientific Reports, Environmental Reviews Biology, Aquatic Ecology, The American Naturalist and Environmental Science and Pollution Research

2018 – 2020

Responsible person for the standardized pigment analysis via HPLC

University of Cologne, Germany 2018 – 2015

Adviser for the pigment analysis via HPLC and supervisor of students within a collaboration with the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

University of Cologne, Germany 2017 – 2018

Organizer of a regular group-internal PhD meeting

University of Cologne, Germany 2017 – 2018

Organizer and lecturer of a weekly group-internal course on Statistical analysis and data visualization with R

University of Cologne, Germany 2015

Workshops

Career Advancement for Exceptional Female Scientists: Fast Tract to Independence

Ruth Willmott (bioscript) and Graduate School for Biological Sciences (University of Cologne) Sep 2018

Population Growth Models with R

Thomas Petzoldt - TU Dresden Feb 2017

Time Series Analysis with R

DynaTrait - University of Potsdam Feb 2016

Univariate Statistics in Ecology and Evolution

BRESSS - University Bremen Jul 2015

Theory and Literature Workshop on Trait variation and Ecological dynamics

DynaTrait - University of Potsdam Mar 2015

Memberships

British Ecological Society (BES)

Member since Jun 2019

German Limnological Society (DGL)

Member since May 2019

Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO)

Member since Feb 2017

German Zoological Society (DZG)

Member since Sep 2015

People

Co-Authors

Christian Burberg

Current position - PhD Student in Aquatic Chemical Ecology

Cyanobacteria, Protease Inhibitors, LC-MS

Christian Werner

Current position - PhD Student in Aquatic Chemical Ecology

Food quality, Polyunsaturated fatty acids, Analytical Chemistry, Molecular Biology

Patrick Fink

Current position - Group leader in Department of River Ecology

Aquatic Chemical Ecology, Molecular Ecology, Algae-herbivore interactions, Biodiversity, Climate change, Food quality, Polyunsaturated fatty acids, Stable isotopes in ecology, Ecological stoichiometry, Maternal effects, Freshwater molluscs, Biogenic volatile organic compounds, Chemical communication / infochemicals, Inducible and activated defences