Silva Uusi-Heikkilä profile picture
Silva
Uusi-Heikkilä
Docent, Department of Biology
PhD in Evolutionary Ecology. Docent in Evolutionary Biology
Equine gut microbiota and responses to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) at the molecular level: FINEBIOME (Finnish eDNA/equine microbiome). Fisheries-induced evolution and adaptive potential.

Contact

Natura, yliopistonmäki
20014
Turku

Areas of expertise

Evolutionary ecology
Experimental ecology
Molecular biology
Next-generation sequencing
Genomics
Microbiomes.

Research

Currently I am investigating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in horses and how it affects gut microbiota diversity and composition and the function of mitochondria in the gut. 

I am also studying the effect of anthropogenic stressors on experimental fish populations. My main focus has been on the effect of size-selective fisheries and during the recent years we have exposed the fish populations to other stressors occurring simultaneously, such as thermal stress, starvation, pollution and infections. In my research group, we have studied the responses at both phenotypic and molecular level (whole genome sequencing, whole genome bisulfate sequencing and RNA sequencing). We also study how thermal stress, hypoxia and genotype affects fish skin microbiota diversity and composition.

Finally, I have studied community ecology by modeling aquatic food webs and their dynamics in response to changes in life-history strategies, stocking and size-selective fishing. 

Publications

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Generalist invasion in a complex lake food web (2023)

Conservation Science And Practice
Kuparinen, Anna; Uusi-Heikkilä, Silva; Perälä, Tommi; Ercoli, Fabio; Eloranta, Antti P. P.; Cremona, Fabien; Noges, Peeter; Laas, Alo; Noges, Tiina
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä )