Teresa Winter is a PhD candidate in the department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology at the University of Vienna. Her research interests focus on thiotrophic mutualistic relationships prevalent in many marine habitats. She is currently studying shallow water wood falls in the Mediterranean Sea, tracking when and under what conditions ciliates harboring thiotrophic ectosymbionts colonize sunken wood. Her Master thesis focused on the thiotrophic endosymbiont Canditatus Endoriftia persephone of the famous giant tubeworm Riftia pachyptila from deep-sea hydrothermal vents and its metabolic versatility once they escape the dead worm. This research trip with the R/V Falkor (too) enables her to carry out follow-up experiments to test experimentally whether the tubeworm endosymbiont can switch to heterotrophic metabolism in the wild.
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