College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Fisheries and Wildlife

Education

B.Sc. – Natural Sciences in Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Latvia, Latvia, 2010

M.Sc. – Natural Sciences in Chemistry (Analytical/Environmental Chemistry), Faculty of Chemistry, University of Latvia, Latvia, 2012

P.hD.  – Natural Sciences in Biology (Marine Biology/Aquatic Ecology), Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Rostock, Germany, 2020

Profiles

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2979-9613

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elvita-Eglite

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elvita-eglite-99443a88/

Background

Elvita’s fascination with environmental processes and aquatic research began during her BSc and MSc, when she studied chemistry at the University of Latvia. During her MSc studies and her first position as a research assistant, she investigated nitrogen cycling and microbial denitrification in the Gulf of Riga at the Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology. Elvita moved to Germany and started her PhD in isotope ecology at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research. She set up a state-of-the-art technique for compound-specific isotope analyses of individual amino acids. In 2020, she received her PhD in Marine Biology/Aquatic Ecology from the University of Rostock on planktonic food web structuring using both traditional and advanced stable isotope applications in the Baltic Sea. She continued her research at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel and laid the first foundation for a future centralized stable isotope database of the Baltic Sea. She has participated in over ten research and monitoring cruises in the Baltic Sea and has crossed the Atlantic Ocean from north to south. In October 2021, Elvita moved to the USA and joined the Dr. Tomas O. Höök Lab at Purdue University as a postdoctoral researcher, and together with fisheries biologists, she studied the Great Lakes of North America. In October 2023, she joined Dr. Brian Roth’s lab at Michigan State University to continue her studies on the Great Lakes.

Research

Elvita's broad research interests are in natural consumer-resource relationships and how these interactions shape the food webs in diverse aquatic ecosystems. Elvita is an isotope ecologist specializing in food web processes and long-term fisheries data analysis in both marine and freshwater ecosystems. Broadly, her current research involves data analysis, utilizing statistical modeling techniques, adapting isotope mixing models, to estimate the energy resources available to fish in large lake systems and tributaries and characterize the trophic relationships of all five Great Lakes of North America. Currently, Elvita is working with Dr. Brian Roth and studying relationships between predatory and preyfish in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron to provide a holistic understanding of spatial and annual preyfish variations by utilizing the stomach content and stable isotope data of historical and modern data collections. With her work, Elvita’s overarching goal is to contribute synthesized knowledge to the field of aquatic ecology by supporting the conservation and management efforts of ecologically important habitats and promoting sustainable fish resources.

Selected Publications

Eglite, E., Stein, S.R., Turschak, B.A., Bowen, G.J. and Höök, T.O. 2024. Bidirectional energy subsidies for fish in river mouths of a large lake as revealed by stable isotopes and fatty acids. Limnol Oceanogr. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12500

Eglite, E., Mohm, C., and J. Dierking. 2023. Stable isotope analysis in food web research: systematic review and a vision for the future for the Baltic Sea macro-region". Ambio 52: 319-338. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01785-1

Eglite, E., Mohm, C., and J. Dierking. 2022. Baltic Sea stable isotope ecology meta-data collection [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sj3tx966d

Eglite, E., Graeve, M., Dutz, J., Wasmund, N., Wodarg, D., Schulz-Bull, D., and N. Loick-Wilde. 2019. Metabolism and foraging strategies of mid-latitude mesozooplankton during cyanobacterial blooms as revealed by fatty acids, amino acids and their stable carbon isotopes. Ecology and Evolution 17(9): 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5533

Loick-Wilde, N., Fernandeź-Urruzola, I., Eglite, E., Liskow, I., Nausch, M., Shulz-Bull, D., Wodarg, D., Wasmund, N., and M. Volker. 2019. Stratification, nitrogen fixation, and cyanobacterial bloom stage regulate the planktonic food web structure. Global Change Biology 25(3): 794-810. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14546

Eglite, E., Wodarg, D., Dutz, J., Wasmund, N., Nausch, G., Liskow, I., Schulz-Bull, D., and N. Loick-Wilde. 2018. Strategies of amino acid supply in mesozooplankton during cyanobacteria blooms: a stable nitrogen isotope approach. Ecosphere 9(3): 1- 20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2135