Fen Guo

Freshwater Ecosystems

Research

Dr Fen Guo is an aquatic ecologist with an internationally recognized reputation in food web and fatty acid ecology and strengths in conception and implementation of successful research projects as evidenced by her high research track record.

She was awarded her PhD in 2016 from Griffith University, then worked as a post-doc at WasserCluster Lunz – Inter-University Centre for Aquatic Ecosystem Research, Austria, and currently work at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She will take an associate professor position in mainland China soon. Her research has pioneered new understandings about the importance of high-quality food sources for aquatic animals by addressing the fundamental ecological question “are aquatic food webs supported by allochthonous or autochthonous food sources?” from a nutritional perspective.

She has published key papers in this field, systematically exploring the role of high-quality food sources from individuals to ecosystems. In her PhD, she made significant contributions to demonstrate that high-quality algae support stream animals (producing 6 papers with 358 citations). Two of her articles published in Freshwater Biology have been recognized as Highly Cited Paper by Web of Science.

Through her PhD she became one of only a handful of researchers internationally to use fatty acids to untangle trophic relationships in freshwater food webs. Since that time her track record has rapidly accelerated through leadership roles at two international research institutes. Her work in Austria represents the first step towards documenting differences in high-quality food distribution and retention in aquatic ecosystems, and for the first time, she proposed the mechanisms that aquatic animals use to accumulate high-quality food sources. During the two-year time (June 2016 – June 2018), she led a key component of the Austrian Science Fund project “Trophic pathways of omega-3 fatty acids in stream food webs” (funded to Dr Martin Kainz, a world-leading fatty acid ecologist).

Fen investigated the fatty acid distribution of biota along the river continuum in subalpine ecosystems, which involved in intensive field sampling, lab work and data analysis. She learnt new methods (compound-specific isotope analysis), supervised a master student (Thomas Kühmayer, 2017-2018) and collaborated with high-profile scientists on river ecosystem ecology (Prof. Stuart Bunn, Australia), stable isotope ecology (Prof. Brian Fry, Australia), fatty acid ecology (Prof. Mike Brett, USA) and river carbon dynamics (Prof. Tom Battin, Switzerland). These collaborations are well maintained now.

Fen's current work in Hong Kong complements her previous findings in river ecosystems by addressing the trophic bases for marine ecosystems, and will, for the first time, draw a conceptual view on the importance of high-quality food sources for aquatic animals from source to sea. She was leading the food web part of the Environment and Conservation Fund “Unravel the food web dynamics sustaining Hong Kong’s shallow marine soft-bottom ecosystems” (funded to Prof. Joe Lee, a world-leading estuarine ecologist).

In addition, her previous work experience in China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment from 2009 to 2012 and Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences provides her opportunities to tackle real environmental problems, identify scientific solutions for effective management and work with people from different backgrounds such as scientists, catchment managers and other stakeholders.