Research, grow, think ahead: International junior researcher with Humboldt Fellowship at RPTU

Temperature changes and pollutants alter habitats for plants and microorganisms. Funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Dr. Laura Zantis at RPTU is researching how stressors affect bodies of water and why ecosystems become unbalanced.

A boat stops off the coast of New Zealand. A pink cloud floats in the water in front of it: it is the excrement of a whale, colored by the krill it has eaten. Laura Zantis leans over the railing and takes samples. Later in the lab, she searches for microplastics. "I studied marine and freshwater biology at the University of Glasgow in Scotland," she explains. "My year abroad in New Zealand was the first time I was able to do real research. The fact that I got to work with whales, of all things, was like a dream."

Into science with curiosity

The fact that Laura Zantis would one day end up in research was already apparent in her childhood: she would sit for hours watching animals, devouring books about the sea and dreaming of working for environmental protection. Growing up in Luxembourg, she attended a multilingual school and moved between languages and cultures at an early age. A background that shaped her career.

Laura Zantis went to Glasgow to study marine and freshwater biology. The seminars and lectures she attended at university gave her the foundation for her later research. However, she is really enthusiastic about working outside: on excursions, taking her own measurements, in direct contact with the ecosystems. When the opportunity arose to spend a year conducting research in New Zealand, she did not hesitate. There she worked independently on a project for the first time and realized that this was exactly what she wanted to do.

Plants under stress

Her fascination for research drives Laura Zantis to continue after her Master's degree. A scientist, an associate professor, from Leiden University in the Netherlands, who was researching microplastics in soil and plants, offered her the opportunity to do her doctorate with him. "I found it very exciting to investigate how microplastics work in other ecosystems," she says. "And what really surprised me: At that time, there was hardly any research on microplastics on land, even though we produce so much plastic."

In the laboratory, Laura Zantis investigates how lettuce, carrots, barley and wheat react to microplastics and comes across a result that still concerns her today: "The plants were very stressed. Regardless of how much they were exposed to microplastics." This often remained invisible from the outside. Inside the cells, however, there were clear changes: altered photosynthesis, biochemical traces in the tissue.

The deeper Laura Zantis delves into the matter, the clearer it becomes: Studying individual substances in isolation is not enough. In nature, various stressors have a simultaneous effect on an ecosystem - such as temperature, precipitation, pesticides and plastic. "That's what makes it so complex," says Zantis. "Two stressors can reinforce or cancel each other out." The search for answers ultimately leads her back to the topic of water.

Biofilms as an early warning system

Through a joint EU research project, Laura Zantis met Professor Mirco Bundschuh from RPTU, who drew her attention to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's research fellowship. The scholarship supports researchers from abroad with above-average qualifications for a research stay in Germany.

The scholarship enables her to move to RPTU and gives her something that is particularly valuable in research: real freedom. "I can organize my project as I see fit," she says, "and I have access to new laboratories, new methods and new perspectives. That enriches my own work enormously."

"I can design my project as I see fit. And I have access to new laboratories, new methods and new perspectives. That enriches my own work enormously."

In Landau, Laura Zantis works with biofilms: communities of microorganisms that live on stones, sediments and plants in bodies of water. They decompose organic material, regulate nutrient cycles and form the basis for many food chains. Because they react particularly quickly to changes in their environment, they are well suited as an early warning system for the condition of a body of water. If this balance is upset, this has consequences for the entire system. In the laboratory, Laura Zantis exposes these biofilms to specific stressors - changed temperature, different light, different nutrient conditions - and observes how they react. "These organisms are tiny," she says, "but if something changes in their environment, it has consequences for the whole system."

Research that makes a difference

With her work, Laura Zantis wants to help mitigate these consequences. For example, where pollutants enter the water and cause demonstrable harm, her findings should help to protect the ecosystem.

To achieve this goal, Laura Zantis has moved several times: Scotland, New Zealand, the Netherlands and now Germany. "Every change of location means starting afresh, settling in, getting to know a new research culture," she says. "And yet I don't regret any of them. I've learned so much through these experiences: about other countries, about science, about myself."

"Every change of location means starting over, settling in, getting to know a new research culture. And yet I don't regret any of them. I've learned so much through these experiences: about other countries, about science, about myself."

One of these places remains particularly close to Laura Zantis. Off the coast of New Zealand, above a pink cloud in the Pacific, she felt for the first time that she wanted to stay in research. She always returns there in her thoughts. Even today, when she analyzes the next samples in the laboratory in Landau.