Contact: Santona.Khatun@unil.ch
Office: Geopolis 3120
Research Interest:
I am highly interested in the biogeochemistry of freshwaterecosystems. In particular, the influence of nutrient stoichiometry on plankton communities and methane dynamics in Lake Geneva. The microorganisms of an ecosystem interact with each other in the biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus (C, N, P). Thus, I focus on studying freshwater lakes to elucidate the stoichiometric balance of theseelements and dictate the structure of planktonic microbial communities, thereby controlling the greenhouse emissions infreshwater lakes. I also predict that the human-induced nutrient enrichments might impact the ecophysiology of microbial communities under the predicted climate change scenario, and subsequently may influence the environmental changeslike aerobic production of methane. Therefore, I have always found aquatic ecology exciting to identify how different microbial communities respond to such environmental challenges and to mitigate climate change as well as protect Earth’s ecosystems.
Biography:
2024-present Post-doctoral fellow at EPFL Wallis – SENSE Group, and in the Lakes Group of the Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
2022-2024 Post-doctoral fellow in the Lakes Group of the Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
2020-2022: Research associate at the Department of Soil, Water and Environment (with Prof. Dr. Mustafizur Rahman), University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Associate Program officer at Environment and Social Development Organization, ESDO.
2016-2020: PhD in Interdisciplinary Science on Nature, Biotic and Social Environmental Engineering at the Integrated graduate school of medicine, engineering, and agricultural sciences, University of Yamanashi, Japan.
2014-2016: Master’s in interdisciplinary science at the Integrated graduate school of medicine, engineering, and agricultural sciences, University of Yamanashi, Japan.
Key Publications:
- Bosco-Santos, A., Bekono, E. R. B., Khatun, S., Monchamp, M.-È., Séneca, J., Pjevac, P., and Berg, J. S.: Imprint of eutrophication on methane-cycling microbes in freshwater sediment, EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4489, 2025.
- Khatun, S., Berg, J.S., Jézéquel, D., Moiron, M., Escoffier, N., Schubert, C.J., Bouffard, D. and Perga, M.-E. (2024), Long-range transport of littoral methane explains the metalimnetic methane peak in a large lake. Limnol Oceanogr, 69: 2095-2108. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12652
- Khatun, S., Ferdous, H., Hossain, S., Sultana, S., Choi, I., Lee, Y.-S. (2022) Detection of Endocrine Disruptor Bisphenol A and Bisphenol S in Bangladeshi Thermal Paper Receipts. Environ. Sci. Proc. 20, 1.
- Khatun, S., Iwata, T., Kojima, H., Ikarashi, Y., Yamanami, K., Imazawa, D., Kenta, T., Shinohara, R., Saito, H. (2020) Linking stoichiometric organic carbon-nitrogen relationships to planktonic cyanobacteria and subsurface methane maximum in deep freshwater lakes. Water 12, 402.
- Khatun, S., Iwata, T., Kojima, H., Fukui, M., Aoki, T., Mochizuki, S., Naito, A., Kobayashi, A., Uzawa, R. (2019) Aerobic methane production by planktonic microbes in lakes. Sci. Total Environ. 696, 133916.
- Khatun, S., Ahmed, S.U., Faiz, S.M.A., Rahman, A.H.M. (2014) Impacts of tillage operations and microirrigation practices on Boro rice. Bangladesh J. Envir. Sci. 27, 73-78.