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Biography

Marie Curie Post-doctoral fellow, The Natural History Museum, London, UK. April 2011 - March 2013

Post-doctoral Research Assistant Syntax, The Natural History Museum, London, UK. May - November 2010  

PhD, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden. 2005 - 2009   

Research

Deep Ocean Dispersal and Evolution

In recent years, many hundreds of new species have been discovered in the deep sea. An interesting question is how deep-sea fauna are able to disperse. The simplest explanation has been cosmopolitanism, with animals having easy access to all ocean basins and following currents around the world. However, for many species there may be barriers to dispersal in the form of substrate specialisation, limited mobility or reproductive traits.

Polychaetes

In my work together with Dr Adrian Glover we will target one of the most abundant and species-rich groups, the polychaetes. 

To answer questions of dispersal and evolution in the deep sea we study three contrasting groups of polychaetes. 

• polynoid (scale-worm) polychaetes are mobile with pelagic larvae that can drift some distances in ocean currents, although some polynoid species brood their offspring. 
• dorvilleid polychaetes which are mobile yet have direct developing larvae with a presumed limited dispersal ability.  
• the clade of ’bone-eating’ worms, Osedax, that are sessile but with pelagic larvae, and that exist on the most specialised of habitats -  whale bones on the sea floor.

Using molecular data we will construct phylogenies to evaluate the relationships within the three groups, and to determine levels of cryptic speciation and population connectivity in the deep sea.

Publications

2010

• Ravara A, Wiklund H, Cunha M, Pleijel F.   ( 2010 ) Phylogenetic relationships within Nephtyidae (Polychaeta, Annelida). Zoologica Scripta 39(4) : 394-405 .
• Thurber AR, Kröger K, Neira C, Wiklund H, Levin LA. ( 2010 ) Stable isotope signatures and methane use by New Zealand cold seep benthos. Marine Geology 272 : 260-269 .
• Verna C, Ramette A, Wiklund H, Dahlgren TG, Glover AG, Gaill F, Dubilier N. ( 2010 ) High symbiont diversity in the bone-eating worm Osedax mucofloris from shallow whale-falls in the North Atlantic. Environmental Microbiology 12(8) : 2355-2370 .

2009

• Wiklund H, Glover AG, Dahlgren TG. ( 2009 ) Three new species of Ophryotrocha (Annelida: Dorvilleidae) from a whale-fall in the North East Atlantic. Zootaxa 2228 : 43-56 .
• Wiklund H, Glover AG, Johannessen PJ, Dahlgren TG. ( 2009 ) Cryptic speciation at organic-rich marine habitats: a new bacteriovore annelid from whale-fall and fish farms in the North East Atlantic. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 155 : 774-785 .

2008

• Pleijel F, Rouse G, Ruta C, Wiklund H, Nygren A. ( 2008 ) Vrijenhoekia balaenophila, a new hesionid polychaete from a whale fall off California. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 152 : 625-634 .
• Wiklund H, Nygren A, Pleijel F, Sundberg P. ( 2008 ) The phylogenetic relationships between Amphinomidae, Archinomidae and Euphrosinidae (Amphinomida, Aciculata, Polychaeta), inferred from molecular data. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK 88(3) : 509-513 .

2007

• Ruta C, Nygren A, Rousset V, Sundberg P, Tillier A, Wiklund H, Pleijel F. ( 2007 ) Phylogeny of Hesionidae (Aciculata, Polychaeta), assessed from morphology, 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, 16S rDNA and COI. Zoologica Scripta 36(1) : 99-107 .

2006

• Dahlgren TG, Wiklund H, Källström B, Lundälv T, Smith CR, Glover AG. ( 2006 ) A shallow-water whale-fall experiment in the north Atlantic. Les Cahiers de Biologie Marine 47(4) : 385-389 .

2005

• Wiklund H, Nygren A, Pleijel F, Sundberg P. ( 2005 ) Phylogeny of Aphroditiformia (Polychaeta) based on molecular and morphological data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 37 : 494-502 .