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Dr Genoveva F Esteban

Dr Genoveva F Esteban
Lecturer

  • Room: The River Laboratory, Wareham, Dorset
  • Telephone: +44 (0)1929 40 1886
  • Email: g.esteban("at" sign)qmul.ac.uk

Research interests:

Microbial ecology, taxonomy and functional groups of free-living protozoa in fresh waters, soils and marine habitats (coastal and the deep sea)

Using long-term ecological, taxonomic and DNA sequence archives, the research group aims to identify fundamental new patterns in the biodiversity of microbial eukaryotes, in a range of natural environments. Dr Esteban pursues strategic research on Biodiversity at the microbial level in order to understand and predict the functioning of aquatic and terrestrial systems. She does this by characterising microbial biodiversity at local and regional scales, and by defining the role played by microbes in the natural environment. She designs rapid and simple tools to assess natural aquatic habitats by using ciliated protozoa as indicators of ecosystem health. To achieve this, Dr Esteban routinely collects data for cumulative species richness in local protozoan communities. With a microscope and a counting chamber, it is simple to produce a cumulative distribution of active species richness against total abundance (rarefaction curves) in no time at all. She also has long experience in assessing the performance of sewage-treatment plants by devising simple methods based on protozoan abundance (no species identifications needed) that administrators use on a daily basis.

Research group

Postgraduate supervision:

Stewart, Rebecca; r.stewart ("at" sign) qmul.ac.uk;

Publications:

  • Armitage PD & Esteban GF (2010) Selection of testate amoebae as food by tanypodine midge larvae (Chironomidae: Diptera - non-biting midges) in a Dorset stream. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 131: 2-4.
  • Esteban GF & Finlay BJ (2010) Conservation work is incomplete without cryptic biodiversity. Nature 463: 293.
  • Esteban GF, Bradley MW & Finlay BJ (2009) A case-building Spirostomum (Ciliophora, Heterotrichida) with zoochlorellae. European Journal of Protistology, 45: 156-158.
  • Esteban GF, Finlay BJ & Clarke KJ (2009) Sequestered organelles sustain aerobic microbial life in anoxic environments. Environmental Microbiology 11: 544-550.
  • Finlay BJ & Esteban GF (2009) Oxygen sensing drives predictable migrations in a microbial community. Environmental Microbiology, 11: 81-85.
  • Finlay BJ & Esteban GF (2009) Can biological complexity be rationalised? Bioscience, 50: 1-8.
  • Esteban GF & Finlay BJ (2008) It's a small world. British Wildlife, 26. 19: 316–320.
  • Esteban GF, Gooday AJ & Clarke KJ (2007) Siliceous scales of filose-amoebae (Pompholyxophryidae, Rotosphaerida) from deep Southern Ocean sediments, including first records for the Southern Hemisphere. Polar Biology, 30: 945-950.
  • Esteban GF & Finlay BJ (2007) Exceptional species richness of ciliated protozoa in pristine intertidal rock pools. Marine Ecology Progress Series 335: 133-141.
  • Fenchel T, Esteban GF & Finlay BJ (2006) Dishing a modern myth about microbes. Nature 444: 31.
  • Finlay BJ, Esteban GF (2007) Body size and biogeography, In: Brit Ecol. Spec. Symp. Body size and the organisation and function of aquatic ecosystems.
  • Esteban GF, Clarke KJ, Olmo JL, Finlay BJ (2006) Soil Protozoa – an intensive study of population dynamics and community structure in an upland grassland. Applied Soil Ecology 33: 137-151.
  • Gooday AJ Esteban GF & Clarke KJ (2006) Tiny protistan scales in abyssal sediments. JMBA Global Marine Environment: 24-25.
  • Finlay BJ, Esteban GF, Brown S, Fenchel T & Hoef-Emden K (2006) Multiple cosmopolitan ecotypes within a microbial eukaryote morphospecies. Protist, 157: 377-390.
  • Esteban GF (2006) Book Review: ANTARCTIC MARINE PROTISTS (edited by Fiona J. Scott & Harvey J. Marchant). Acta Protozoologica 45: 211-213.
  • Gooday AJ, Esteban GF, Clarke KJ (2006) Organic and siliceous protistan scales in North-East Atlantic abyssal sediments. Journal Marine Biological Association, UK 86: 679-682.
  • Esteban GF (2006) El fango activado es una ampliación del entorno natural de los protozoos. In: Protozoos en el Fango Activado. Fundación EMASESA. Special Publication.
  • Esteban GF, Clarke KJ, Finlay BJ (2005) Paraluffisphaera tuba n. gen., n. sp. – a newly-discovered eukaryote. Acta Protozoologica, 44: 265-270.
  • Esteban GF, Clarke KJ, Al-Rasheid KAS & Finlay BJ (2005) Paraphysomonas vestita – cell scales recovered from two extreme environments. Phycologia, 44 (Suppl.):30-31.
  • Esteban GF, Gooday AJ & Clarke KJ (2005) Small scale research. Planet Earth (Autumn issue): 10.
  • Esteban GF & Harrison A (2004) The William Saville-Kent Research Centre. Protist 155: 269-270.
  • Esteban GF & Finlay BJ (2004) Marine protozoa from Central Spain. Planet Earth (Spring issue), Bite-sized science, p. 9.
  • Esteban GF & Finlay BJ (2004) Marine ciliates (Protozoa) in central Spain. Ophelia 58: 1-10.
  • Finlay BJ, Esteban GF & Fenchel T (2004) Protist diversity is different? Protist 155: 15-22.
  • Finlay BJ & Esteban GF (2004) Ubiquitous dispersal of free-living micro-organisms. In: A.T. Bull ed. Microbial Diversity and Bioprospecting, ASM Press, USA.
  • Esteban GF & Finlay BJ (2003) Cryptic freshwater ciliates in a hypersaline lagoon. Protist, 154: 411-408.
  • Esteban GF, Corliss JO & Finlay BJ (2002) Saville-Kent’s string of pearls. Protist, 153: 413-430.
  • Esteban GF (2002) Book Review: The Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa 2nd edition. Organisms traditionally referred to as protozoa, or newly discovered groups. Edited by John J. Lee, Gordon F. Leedale, and Phyllis Bradbury (2000). Society of Protozoologists. Freshwater Forum, 19: 59-60.
  • Esteban GF, Baltanás A & Finlay BJ (2002) Saline ponds and secretive ciliates. Planet Earth, Autumn issue: 10-11.
  • Esteban GF & Finlay BJ (2002) Historical encounters with a little-known ciliate (Gerda glans Claparède and Lachmann, 1858) from the ‘Jungfernheide’. Protist, 153: 79-86.
  • Esteban GF, Olmo JL & Finlay BJ (2001) Re-discovery of a “missing link” ciliated protozoon. Limnetica, 20: 73-79.
  • Finlay BJ & Esteban GF (2001) Ubiquitous microbes and ecosystem function. Limnetica, 20: 31-43.
  • Finlay BJ & Esteban GF (2001) Exploring Leeuwenhoek’s legacy; the abundance and diversity of protozoa. International Microbiology, 4: 110-116.
  • Finlay BJ, Esteban GF, Clarke KJ & Olmo JL (2001) Biodiversity of terrestrial protozoa appears homogeneous across local and global scales. Protist, 152: 355-366.
  • Esteban GF, Olmo JL & Finlay BJ (2001) Redescription of Psilotricha acuminata Stein, 1859 and revisions of the genera Psilotricha and Urospinula (Ciliophora, Hypotrichida). Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 48: 280-292.
  • Esteban GF, Finlay BJ, Charubhun, N & Charubhun, B (2001) On the geographic distribution of Loxodes rex (Protozoa, Ciliophora) and other alleged endemic species of ciliates. Journal of Zoology, 255: 139-143.
  • Esteban GF (2001) A microbial missing-link found at Sourhope. Soil Biodiversity NERC Thematic Programme Newsletter, 7: 3.