Research

Ongoing projects 

Freshwater benthic algae as monitoring tool to assess water quality

• WATERS (Waterbody Assessment Tools for Ecological Reference conditions and status in Sweden) Research into assessment criteria for the classification of ecological water status (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency – SEPA)
• Development of new diatom tools (lakes, toxins, acidification) (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency – SEPA, Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM/HaV) & Environmental Monitoring and Assessment programme at SLU (Fortlöpande miljöanalys = FOMA & regional water authorities)
• Contact for diatoms as bioindicator in national & regional monitoring programmes (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency – SEPA & regional water authorities)

Regulation of freshwater benthic algal biodiversity

• Impact of toxins (heavy metals and organic pollutants) on diatom community composition and valve formation
• Regulation of benthic diatom flora in streams and lakes (together with PhD student Steffi Gottschalk)
• Nutritional constraints in benthic algal communities across latitudinal gradients (cooperation with Antonia Liess, University of Umeå) 

Read more about freshwater benthic algae!

NorBAF - the Nordic-Baltic Network for Benthic Algae in Freshwater

Påväxtalger/bentiska kiselalger som miljöindikator (in Swedish)
 

Appointments

• Director of study: Graduate school 'Focus on soils and water' (FoSW) 
• Member of ArtDatabankens/The Swedish Species Information Centre expert committee 'algae'
• Member of The Swedish Microalgae Committee  
• Corodinator of NorBAF - the Nordic-Baltic Network for Benthic Algae in Freshwater

Teaching

• Course leader for the courses MV0166 and MX0051 ("Project in Soil and water management" and "Project in pollution effects in the environment")
• Coordinator for the compulsory parts belonging to certain courses "individual project"

Student supervision (active students)

• PhD student Steffi Gottschalk

Education

• 2009 Associate Prof. in Ecology with an Orientation in Environmental Assessment at SLU
• 2001 Ph.D. in Limnology at Uppsala University
• 1995 Diploma in Zoology at the University of Cologne, Germany 

Selected publications

(full list of publications)

LIESS, A. AND KAHLERT, M. (2007). Grastropod grazers and nutrients, but not light, interact in determining periphytic algal diversity. Oecologia, 152(1): 101-111.

HILLEBRAND, H., KAHLERT, M., HAGLUND, A. L., BERNINGER, U. G., NAGEL, S., WICKHAM, S. (2002). Control of microbenthic communities by grazing and nutrient supply. Ecology 83(8) 2205-2219.

KAHLERT, M., ALBERT, R.-L., ANTILLA, E.-L., BENGTSSON, R., BIGLER, C., ESKOLA, T., GÄLMAN, V., GOTTSCHALK, S., HERLITZ, E., JARLMAN, A., KASPEROVICIENE, J., KOKOCINSKI, M., LUUP, L., MIETTINEN, J., PAUNSKSNYTE, I., PIIRSOO, K., QUINTANA, I., RAUNIO, J., SANDELL, B., SIMOLA, H., SUNDBERG, I., VILBASTE, S. and WECKSTRÖM, J. (2008). Harmonization is more important than experienced results of the first Nordic-Baltic diatom intercalibration exercise 2007 (stream monitoring). Journal of Applied
Phycology (published online 13 December 2008, DOI 10.1007/s10811-008-9394-5).

KELLY, M.G., BENNETT, COSTE, C. M., DELGADO, C., DELMAS, F., DENYS, L., ECTOR, L., FAUVILLE, C., FERREOL, M., GOLUB, M., JARLMAN, A., KAHLERT, M., LUCEY, J., NÍ CHATÁIN, B., PARDO, I. PFISTER, P., PICINSKA-FALTYNOWICZ, J., SCHRANZ, C., CHAUMBURG, J., TISON JULIETTE, T., van DAM, H. and VILBASTE, S. (2008). A comparison of national approaches to setting ecological status boundaries in phytobenthos assessment for the European Water Framework Directive: results of an intercalibration exercise. Hydrobiologia 621(1): 169 - 182 (DOI: 10.1007/s10750-008-9641-4).