- Community ecology: biodiversity and ecosystem functioning

- Trophic interactions and food web ecology

- Coastal ecosystems: salt marshes, shallow soft-sediment habitats

As part of the Levin lab, I study the recovery of altered food webs in coastal ecosystems; more specifically restored salt marshes in Mediterranean-climate areas (Southern California and Venice lagoon, Italy). By assessing the re- development of trophic interactions within the infaunal macroinvertebrate community, I want to determine rates and trajectories of food-web succession, and identify factors influencing trophic functioning in developing coastal wetlands. The project is funded through an ASLA-Fulbright Research Grant for a Junior Scholar 2011-2012.

Continuing collaboration with Erik Bonsdorff (Abo Akademi University) and research group includes work on food webs in Baltic Sea coastal benthic communities in relation to biodiversity, biological traits and habitat structure.

Publications:

Nordstrom, M.C., Currin C.A.,Talley T.S., Whitcraft C.R., Levin L.A. Trophic succession in a developing salt marsh (in review).

Nordstrom, M.C., Lindblad, P., Aarnio, K., Bonsdorff, E. 2010. A neighbour is a neighbour? Consumer diversity, trophic function, and spatial variability in benthic food webs. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 391: 101-111.

Nordstrom, M., Aarnio, K. & Bonsdorff, E. 2009. Temporal variability of a benthic food web: patterns and processes in a low-diversity system. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 378: 13-26.

Nordstrom, M., Booth, D.M. 2007. Drift algae reduce foraging efficiency of juvenile flatfish. J. Sea Res. 58: 335-341.

Nordstrom, M., Bonsdorff, E., Salovius, S. 2006. The impact of infauna (Nereis diversicolor and Saduria entomon) on the redistribution and biomass of macroalgae on marine soft bottoms. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 333: 58-70.