Seke Chainda

Global Swede is an initiative by the Swedish government to promote long-term relations with international students in Sweden, with the aim to create cross-border networks and future collaborations.

Seke Chainda, Master student in Biology at Karlstad University, was awarded as Global Swede 2019 together with 25 other international students studying in Sweden. The students have distinguished themselves in their areas of study and in terms of both innovation and entrepreneurship. They have therefore been deemed good representatives for both Sweden and their home countries. Seke Chainda is from Senanga, a town in western Zambia. On 21 May, Seke visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Utrikesdepartementet) in Stockholm to participate in the Global Swede ceremony. Seke received his diploma from Ann Linde, the Swedish Minister for Foreign Trade.

 

 

 

 

Thomas Blom (Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Karlstad University), Seke Chainda and Stina Eriksson (Vice Head of the Biology Department at Karlstad University) at the Global Swede Ceremony

Seke is enrolled in the Master programme in Ecology and Conservation Biology at Karlstad University. In his master’s thesis, he examined the function of the adipose fin for the swimming performance and drift-feeding capability of juvenile salmonids, which usually is removed from juvenile fish reared at hatcheries for stocking purposes.

 

Seke Chainda, Erik Petersson (Professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) and Elio Bottagisio (master student) doing lab work at Karlstad University

Seke Chainda together with other master students conducting field work

Seke Chainda tagging a fish

Anna Hagelin and the opponent Professor Ian Fleming, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, at Anna’s PhD defense

Anna Hagelin successfully defended her PhD thesis with the title “Conservation of landlocked Atlantic salmon in a regulated river: Behaviour of migratory spawners and juveniles12 April this year.

Anna also presented her research at “forskningspodden” (the research podcast), which is a popular science podcast at Karlstad University. Here you can listen to Anna talk about her research on salmon conservation in river Klarälven (in Swedish).

För ungefär en månad sedan uppmärksammade vi en forskningsartikel som handlade om hur grågåsen genom sin spillning är viktig för växters spridning på skärgårdsöar i Östersjön (läs inlägget här). Lutz Eckstein, Professor i NRRV, är medförfattare på artikeln.

Nu har forskningen fått stort mediegenomslag, och uppmärksammats av bland annat Sveriges Radio (lyssna på ett inslag där Lutz berättar om studien), Aftonbladet, Svenska Dagbladet, Ny Teknik samt en mängd lokaltidningar (Smålandsposten, Kristianstadsbladet, Bohuslänningen, Enköpingsposten, Borås tidning, Uppsala nya tidning, Katrineholms-Kuriren m.fl.).

Anna Hagelin’s PhD thesis nailed at the main entrance at Karlstad University.

PhD-defense: Conservation of landlocked Atlantic salmon in a regulated river

On Friday 12 April, Anna Hagelin will defend her PhD-thesis “Conservation of landlocked Atlantic salmon in a regulated river – Behaviour of migratory spawners and juveniles”. The defense will take place at 10:00 in room 1B309 (Sjöströmssalen) at Karlstad University. Everyone is welcome to attend the defense.

Ian Fleming (Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada) will be the opponent and Jaakko Erkinaro (Natural Resources Institute, Finland), Eva Thorstad (Norwegian institute for Nature Research, Norway) and John Armstrong (Marine Scotland Science Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory, Scotland) constitute the grading committee.

 

Mini-symposium on Atlantic salmon

On Thursday 11 April, a mini-symposium on Atlantic salmon will be held in room 5F322 at Karlstad University, where the visiting researchers will give presentations:

 

Anna Hagelin nailed her thesis at the biology department at Karlstad University on Friday 22 March.

14:00-14:30: Ian Fleming, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Life-history dependent migration strategies in Atlantic salmon 

14:30-15:00: Jaakko Erkinaro, Natural Resources Institute Finland. Diversity in Atlantic salmon – evolutionary ecology and management implications 

15:00-15:30: Coffee break

15:30-16:00: Eva Thorstad, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. Status of salmon in Norway and importance of the ocean phase 

16:00-16:30: John Armstrong, Marine Scotland Science Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory. Current and future applications of science for management of salmon in Scotland

On Tuesday October 30, Peter Hambäck, Professor at Stockholm University, will give a seminar at Karlstad University titled “Spatial subsidies for shore-line spiders: evidence from molecular gut content analysis and stable isotopes”. The seminar will start at 13:15 in room 5F416, everyone who wants to are welcome to attend the seminar.

A Dolly Varden trout (Salvelinus malma).

On Tuesday 16 October, Johan Watz from Karlstad University will give a seminar titled: “Report from a postdoctoral research stay in Sapporo and results from a field experiment: Condition-specific competition between two Japanese charr species”. The seminar will start at 13:15 in room 5F416 at Karlstad University. Everyone who wants to are welcome to attend the seminar.

Amy Newsom on lake Alstern.

In August and September 2018, Amy Newsom from Germany visited Karlstad University and did an internship with NRRV. Here she writes about her months at Karlstad University.

“Having spent a year at Karlstad University as an exchange student in 2017 in the framework of my bachelor program “Environmental and Sustainability Studies” at the Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany, I had already been able to gain a first impression of the university’s biology department, which sparked my interest in freshwater ecology. Consequently, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to join the Naturresurs rinnande vatten Team for a six-week internship in August and September of 2018.

During the weeks I spent at Karlstad University, I was able to work with different researchers, getting to know a variety of projects and greatly extending my previous knowledge on freshwater and riparian ecology, in particular river connectivity. My main aim in this internship was to gain more practical research experience, so I was glad to be able to spend a lot of time both in the lab and in the field. For example, my work included processing raw data on the ventilation rates of young trout to assess differences in metabolism efficiency, counting the eggs of spiders gathered in the field and preparing samples for stable isotope analysis to assess the impact of hydro dams on food web interactions of fish. This was a particularly interesting experience as stable isotope analysis was a new scientific procedure to me, and I was keen to learn more about it. I was also excited to join in some of the field work conducted during my time at NRRV, collecting fish, invertebrates and plankton samples from the lake Alstern and electrofishing in the rivers Mörrumsån and Emån to assess the overall community composition at different sites. I was furthermore able to gain valuable insights into the design of research experiments while accompanying the setting up of an experimental flume in Älvkarleby and the preparation of eel traps in the river Alsterälven. In the time I spent in the office, I was also able to gather more experience in data analysis and scientific writing, both helpful preparations for my upcoming bachelor thesis.

Amy Newsom dissecting a crayfish.

Returning to Karlstad also gave me the opportunity to improve my Swedish, reconnect with old friends and make new contacts, as well as further explore the forests, rivers and lakes in the area that I have come to love so much. My thanks go out to John Piccolo, on whose invitation I was able join NRRV as an intern, the International Offices both in Karlstad and at my home university for helping me with the administrative process, and the German foundation Meifort Stiftung, whose generous support made this internship possible for me. I am also incredibly grateful to all the researchers at the KAU biology department who warmly welcomed me into their team, took the time to introduce me to their work and helped me gain new knowledge and experience, in particular Olle Calles, Rachel Bowes, Larry Greenberg, Denis Lafage, Karl Filipsson, Andrew Harbicht, Lovisa Lind and Niclas Carlsson.”

Amy Newsom and Andrew Harbicht (NRRV-postdoc) electrofishing in river Mörrumsån.

A cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii).

On Monday October 8, Guillermo Giannico, Associate Professor at Oregon State University, will give a seminar titled:Fish Passage and Habitat Restoration: a Priority Setting Approach from Coastal Oregon, U.S.A”. The seminar will start at 13:30 in room 5F322 at Karlstad University. Everyone is welcome to attend the seminar.

Seminars Tuesday 9 October 2018

Posted by Karl Filipsson | Events

A threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), a fascinating animal likely to be mentioned in both talks.

On Tuesday October 9, two seminars will be held at the biology department at Karlstad University.

Adaptive potential and evolutionary responses to climate change: Arctic char and threespine stickleback in GreenlandMichael Hansen, Professor, Aarhus University

Ecological genetics – What’s it about and how can we use it? – Karl Filipsson, NRRV PhD-student, Karlstad University

The seminars will be held in room 5F416 and start at 13:15. Everyone who wants to are welcome to attend the seminars.