Helle Ploug

Helle Ploug is marine scientist known for her work on particles in seawater. She is a professor at the University of Gothenburg, and was named a fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography in 2017.

Education and career Ploug grew up in Denmark. She has an M.Sc. (1992) and a Ph.D. (1996) from Aarhus University. Following her Ph.D. she did postdoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and the University of Copenhagen. Starting in 2006 she was a scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research,

Research Ploug's early research used fiber optic sensors to measure light in marine sediments. She went on to examine how particles assemble in marine systems. Her work on particles includes developing methods to quantify bacterial use of particles, and the implications for consumption of particles produced by copepods. Ploug has developed methods to measure how fast particles sink through the ocean and the rate sinking particles are converted into carbon dioxide. Her recent research has focused on measurements of biogeochemical cycling at the single cell level using Nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry.

Size and classification of marine particles from Simon, Grossart, Schweitzer, and Ploug (2002) Aquatic Microbial Ecology.

Selected publications

Awards and honors In 2017 Ploug was named a fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.