Rate My Professor Marc Schallenberg

Marc Schallenberg, Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology within the Sciences Division at the University of Otago, earned his PhD in Limnology from McGill University in Montreal in 1993. He arrived in New Zealand in 1994 for a postdoctoral position with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in Christchurch, and joined the University of Otago the following year to continue his lake research under Professor Carolyn Burns. Over more than 30 years, Schallenberg has studied over 100 aquatic sites including lakes, ponds, wetlands, lagoons from Northland to Campbell Island, and melt ponds in Antarctica. His career encompasses empirical field and experimental studies, palaeolimnological reconstructions, statistical and deterministic modeling, and collaborations with government agencies, regional councils, iwi organizations, and community groups.

Schallenberg's research focuses on anthropogenic impacts on lake ecosystems such as eutrophication, contaminants, and climate change; how environmental gradients structure freshwater communities including keystone species; microbial carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and oxygen cycling; food webs and energy flow in deep pre-alpine lakes like Wakatipu, Wanaka, and Hawea; drivers of mucilage production by nuisance diatoms; and operationalizing stressor-response relationships for restoration and management. Key publications include van der Zon and Schallenberg (2024), 'Patterns of nutrient limitation of algal productivity from headwaters to estuary' in Inland Waters; Langhans and Schallenberg (2023), 'Accounting for diverse cultural values in freshwater management plans' in New Zealand Journal of Marine & Freshwater Research; Schallenberg et al. (2022), 'Dynamics of pelagic mucilage produced by the invasive diatom Lindavia intermedia' in PLOS Water; and highly cited earlier works such as Schallenberg and Burns (1989), 'The humic content of lake water and its relationship to watershed and lake morphometry' in Limnology and Oceanography (348 citations), and Schallenberg et al. (2003), 'Consequences of climate-induced salinity increases on zooplankton' in Marine Ecology Progress Series (297 citations). He has supervised over 20 graduate students, served as President of the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society, advised central government and regional councils on freshwater policy for over 20 years, and contributed pro bono to lake care groups and schools.