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Sabine Dittmann
 
School of Biological Sciences
Flinders University
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide SA 5001

Phone: +61 8 8201 2280
Fax: +61 8 8201 3015
Email: info.biology@flinders.edu.au

School Office
Room 201
Biological Sciences building
Building #51 on University map

Dr Sabine Dittmann

Contact Details

     Phone: +61 8 8201 2007
     Fax: +61 8 8201 3015
     Email: sabine.dittmann@flinders.edu.au
     Location:  Room 135/136, Biological Sciences building (building 51)

Key Responsibilities

  • Course Coordinator for Marine Biology degree
  • Senior Lecturer for Marine Biology
  • Member of the marine/aquaculture cluster within the School

Teaching

  • Marine Biology & Ecology
  • Marine Organisms & Environments
  • Marine & Terrestrial Animal Diversity
  • Living Marine Resources
  • and in further marine ecology and aquaculture topics

Research

The focus of my research lies on coastal ecosystems, especially intertidal and estuarine areas, where I have a particular interest in the biology and community ecology of soft-bottom benthic organisms. I work with both meio- and macrozoobenthos, with a special interest in polychaetes and platyhelminths. Descriptive studies and manipulative field experiments are applied to investigate repressive as well as promotive interactions between organisms to understand major processes structuring and regulating community compositions in soft-sediment systems. Benthic animals are thus used to test hypotheses in a wider context of ecological theory.

My research activities include topics of biodiversity, biogeography and bioinvasion, for example:
  • Assessing benthic species diversity and distribution patterns in nearshore soft-sediment systems of South Australia
    (surveying benthic faunal diversity, temporal and spatial distribution patterns)
  • Assessing effects of human modification of coastal and estuarine ecosystems
    (effects of water management on benthos in the Murray estuary and Coorong)
  • Positive interactions
    (ecosystem engineering in soft-sediment systems)
  • Trophic interactions
    (grazing, fate of mangrove and seagrass detritus, predation and scavenging)
  • Invasive species
    (biology of aliens, ecological change brought about by invasive species)
  • Comparative studies
    (sizes and species frequencies of benthic fauna in temperate and tropical tidal flats; successional dynamics and recruitment patterns)

Research Team

Post-Doc

  • Dr Alec Rolston – Response mechanisms and recovery potential of macrobenthos with environmental changes in the Murray River estuary and Coorong

PhD students

  • Agnes Cantin – Population dynamics and ecology of mud cockles (Katelysia spp.), with implications for their sustainable use

  • Sarah Imgraben – Spatial patterns of mobile macrobenthic grazers in intertidal soft sediment habitats

  • Gitanjali Katrak – Helograpsus haswellianus as an ecosystem engineer in saltmarshes

  • Justine Keuning – Foraging behaviour and harvestable food fractions for waders in the Murray River estuary

Honours students

  • Sarah Imgraben – Litter fall dynamics and litter consumption in temperate mangroves (completed)

  • Mark Langton – Competition between native blue swimmer crabs (Portunus pelagicus) and introduced European shore crabs (Carcinus maenas) (completed)

  • Nadine Hackett – Population biology of portunid crabs (Nectocarcinus spp., Ovalipes australis) (completed)

  • John Matthews – Impacts of recreational harvesting of mud cockles (Katelysia spp.) on benthic community (completed)

  • Graeme Noll – Razor shells (Pinna bicolor) as ecosystem engineers

  • Matt Hoare – Ecological effects of transplantation of deep water rock lobster

  • Cathy Cooney – Mussel beds as ecosystem engineers in South Australia’s mudflats

  • Jason Earl – Feeding ecology of southern garfish

  • Candice Cameron (exchange student, University of Ulster) – Spatial and temporal variations in distribution patterns of mud cockles (Katelysia spp.)

Research Assistants

  • Matt Nelson

  • Cathy Cooney

  • Mark Langton

Student projects offered

The following topics are currently offered for Honours projects, but some can be extended to PhD projects. Contact me for details or discussing further potential topics.

  • Species interactions of macrofauna in sandflats of South Australia

  • Recruitment dynamics of benthic invertebrates

  • Salinity tolerances over the life history of benthic invertebrates

  • Meiofaunal abundance and taxonomic composition in mangrove versus sandflat sediments

  • Comparison of mangrove macrobenthos on a regional scale

  • Subtidal benthos in the Murray estuary and Coorong

  • Recolonization of azoic sediment created by decaying seagrass detritus on tidal flats

  • Biology and possible impact of introduced marine species

  • Food web analysis in an artificially created inland salt water system

See publication list

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