Vigdís Sigurðardóttir

I was born in a small village on the south coast of Iceland, called Eyrarbakki. In my childhood I spent a lot of time on the beautiful beach in town. At the age of 14 I started to work in a lobster factory during summer and processing the lobsters triggered my interest in marine life, in particularly the interest for crustaceans. Now I work in zooplankton researches and have a lobster for a pet.

My M.S. research project is on zooplankton in Breiðafjörður, in the summers of 2007-2009.
The aim is to investigate:
a) Regional and seasonal variation in zooplankton community composition and abundance.
b) Energy management of zooplankton. Estimation of egg production rate for two key species of the zooplankton community in the fjord, Calanus finmarchicus and Temora longicornis will be determined in relation to phytoplankton feeding and the dominant phytoplankton species.

The zooplankton cruises were conducted approximately with ten day interval in the time periods. The project was initiated in spring of 2008 and will continue to the end of year 2010.

Scientifically, my interests are in pelagic food webs, in particularly the lower trophic levels. I would like to enhance my understanding of the basis of the food web; copepods and what they are eating, how they survive and how changes within copepod populations and communities affect the pelagic food web and energy transfer.

My non-work related activities are nature studies through the lens of my camera. In May 2009 I held my first photograph exhibition of landscape photographs from Iceland.

Education
2009. DTU Aqua, The challenge of pelagic feeding: from prey detection to secondary production – The challenge of measuring: from bottle to open ocean. Hirtshals, Denmark, August 2009.
2007. B.S. in biology from the University of Iceland. 2004. Matriculation certificate in Natural sciences from the South Iceland College.
2000. Graduation from grade school.

Presentations
Vigdís Sigurðardóttir, Erla Björk Örnólfsdóttir and Ástþór Gíslason. Poster: Fecundity of copepods in Breiðafjörður. Conference of the Icelandic Biological Association. Reykjavík, November 2009.
Vigdís Sigurðardóttir and Erla Björk Örnólfsdóttir. Lecture: Zooplankton in Breiðafjördur; feeding and fecundity. DTU Aqua, The challenge of pelagic feeding: from prey detection to secondary production – The challenge of measuring: from bottle to open ocean. Hirtshals, Denmark, August 2009.
Vigdís Sigurðardóttir, Erla Björk Örnólfsdóttir and Ástþór Gíslason. Poster: Zooplankton community in Breiðafjörður in the summers 2008 and 2008. Marine Research Institute Conference, Ocean and Marine Biota in Iceland. Reykjavík, February 2009.

Non-work related activities:
Vigdís Sigurðardóttir. Lecture: How to take “good” photos? Hamrahlíð College, February 2010.
Vigdís Sigurðardóttir. Lecture: How to take “good” photos? Zelsius Youth Community Centre in Selfoss, July 2009. Vigdís Sigurðardóttir. Photograph exhibition with landscape photographs from Iceland. Eyrarbakki, May 2009.

Photo page www.flickr.com/vigdis