Rate My Professor Linn Hoffmann

Associate Professor Linn Hoffmann is an Associate Professor of Marine Botany in the Department of Botany within the Division of Sciences at the University of Otago. She earned a Master of Science degree and a PhD in Marine Biology from the University of Kiel, Germany, following earlier work at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research and the University of Rostock. Her career includes positions as Emmy Noether Group Leader and Research Associate at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel from 2012 to 2014. She joined the University of Otago in 2014 as a Lecturer, advancing to Senior Lecturer and then Associate Professor. Since 2017, she has served as Director of the Future Ocean Research Theme, previously known as the Ocean Acidification Research Theme. She is a steering committee member of the New Zealand Ocean Acidification Community and He Kaupapa Hononga, a network investigating climate change impacts.

Hoffmann's research specializes in biological oceanography, focusing on marine phytoplankton eco-physiology and the responses of phytoplankton communities to multiple environmental and climate change stressors, including ocean acidification, ocean warming, light availability, macronutrient concentrations, temperature changes, trace metal bioavailability, and microplastics. Her work examines implications for higher trophic levels and food webs, often through interdisciplinary collaborations with fields such as chemistry, palaeoceanography, geology, geochemistry, biochemistry, and ecology. She has authored 36 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 16 of which address ocean acidification. Key recent publications include Meyers et al. (2025) on mesozooplankton communities off New Zealand's southeast coast in the New Zealand Journal of Marine & Freshwater Research; Zarekarizi et al. (2025) on light quality impacts on fucoxanthin content; Hoffmann (2024) 'Finding the sweet spot in the deep ocean' in Communications Biology; and Olgun et al. (2024) on lithological controls in Antarctic lakes in Science of the Total Environment. She supervises postgraduate students on topics like ocean acidification effects on phytoplankton-bacteria interactions, microplastics adhesion to algae, and dinitrogen fixation under acidification. Hoffmann teaches courses including BTNY 203 Marine and Freshwater Botany, ECOL 211 Ecology of Communities and Ecosystems, and MARI 322 Coastal and Shelf Seas Oceanography. Current projects investigate Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption impacts, marine heatwaves on parasitic dinoflagellates, and coccolithophore responses to trace metals.