Postdoctoral Fellow
Research group | Home - CEES - Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis
Main supervisor | Bastiaan Star
Co-supervisor | Mark Ravinet
Affiliation | Department of Biosciences, UiO
Contact | jonathan.goldenberg@ibv.uio.no
Short bio
In 2021, I completed my PhD at Ghent University, where I investigated how the colored integument can influence the evolution, ecology, and structure of vertebrates in the context of climate change. Before landing in Oslo, I held a postdoctoral position at Ghent University, followed by a Wenner-Gren Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at Lund University. During this time, I continued studying the ecological factors shaping vertebrate diversity, with a particular focus on understanding the ecological pressures and temporal variations that drive the evolution and maintenance of color patterns.
Throughout my academic career, I have had the pleasure to work on a diverse range of projects, ranging from snake toxins and mussel dispersal patterns to the tagging and nesting biology of sea turtles, and the population structure and exploitation of reef sharks. These experiences have brought me to nine universities and research institutes across five continents, broadening my understanding of ecological processes on a global scale.
Research interests and hobbies
My research centers around unraveling the dynamics of species evolution under changing environmental conditions, examining the processes and timing involved at local and global scales. I integrate a multidisciplinary approach, combining fieldwork, literature analysis, and museum collections with computer vision, biophysical models, spatial analyses, and phylogenetic comparative methods. Such holistic methodology allows me to explore how species adapt to shifting environments across time and space. My studies primarily focus on the adaptive biology of the colored integument in animals. This unique trait, responsible for functions like camouflage, communication, and thermoregulation, serves as a biological record of a species’ evolutionary journey. It comes clear then that studying the colored integument goes beyond aesthetics, offering insights into the ecological, behavioral, and evolutionary dynamics of the animal world.
Besides work, I enjoy documenting wildlife both above and below the water’s surface through the lens of my camera, socializing, and sporting.
DSTrain project
Topological materials for quantum technology
As part of the MSCA DSTrain postdoctoral program, I am currently investigating the impact of pollution on sharks’ integument color. The SHARKSense project specifically evaluates how heavy metals influence melanin deposition and evolution in sharks, which, as meso-apex predators, accumulate high levels of metals from both the food chain and their environment. Pollution poses a significant threat to biodiversity, and assessing the health of ecosystems can be both costly and challenging. In this context, melanin's ability to sequester harmful chemicals has led to the hypothesis that pollution may induce the formation of dark, melanin-rich individuals. SHARKSense aims to test this, exploring whether melanin deposition in organisms' skin serves as an ecological and evolutionary response to sequester heavy metals.
By integrating various techniques such as computer vision, evolutionary analysis, biochemistry, and fieldwork, our goal is to provide the first evidence of correlations between melanin, skin darkness, and pollution across a wide taxonomic range, time, and space. The results will lay the groundwork for determining whether skin darkness can be used as a reliable, non-invasive bioindicator of ecosystem health, helping to reduce the costs and barriers associated with ecological assessments.
Publications
DSTrain publications
Previous publications