M.Sc. (Diplom), Marine Biology, University of Essen, Germany and University of Bremen, Germany, 1999

Awards:

2003-2004 Lester Armour Graduate Fellowship, The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL

2003 UIC Provost Award for Graduate Research. Taxonomic, phylogenetic and biogeographic studies of the bivalve subfamily Venerinae Rafinesque, 1815

2003 Marshall Field Fund - Fieldwork support from Field Museum's Zoology Department for "Fieldwork in the Cape Verde Islands"

2002 Conchologists of America Student Grant - Fieldwork support for "Fieldwork in the Cape Verde Islands"

2002 University of Illinois at Chicago Travel Award for travel to annual American Malacological Meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.

2001 Delaware Museum of Natural History Graduate Student Scholarship in Malacology for project on Venerinae systematics.

Research Interests:

Systematics, functional morphology, biogeography and ecology of the bivalve family Veneridae, especially of the subfamily Venerinae.

Current research:

I am a UIC graduate student working on a PEET funded project to study the systematics of the bivalve family Veneridae, in collaboration with the AMNH, New York. I am currently investigating the systematics of the subfamily Venerinae (14 nominal extant and fossil genera) and its relationship to the subfamily Chioninae. Both subfamilies have a worldwide distribution, are diverse and commercially important. I create detailed phylogenetic analyses from my data on soft body anatomy, shell structure, and molecular sequences (mitochondrial 16S and COI DNA) to clarify the evolutionary relationships within these subfamilies.

I also concentrate on the biogeography and evolution of eastern Atlantic Venerinae as a regional focus of great zoogeographic interest. This began this year with two collecting trips, first to the Cape Verde Islands, which are unique in their high venerine diversity and endemism, and also to Senegal. Despite their abundance, little is known about the biogeography and evolution of venerid bivalves in the eastern Atlantic. My collections provide valuable material for the morphological and molecular studies and ultimately for the taxonomic revision.

Publications and Presentations:

Publications and Presentations Kappner I. 2003. Preliminary phylogeny of the Venerinae (Mollusca, Bivalvia). In D. Ó Foighil and T. Lee, eds., Abstracts, 69th Annual Meeting of The American Malacological Society, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, June 25-29, 2003. Abstract

Bieler, R., Kappner, I., Mikkelsen, P.M. Periglypta listeri (Gray, 1838) in the western Atlantic: taxonomy, anatomy, life habits, and distribution (Bivalvia: Veneridae) (accepted)

Kappner I. 2002. Effects of various fixation techniques on tissue of a marine bivalve, Mercenaria mercenaria Linné, 1758, 68th Annual Meeting of The American Malacological Society, Charleston, South Carolina, USA, August 3 - 7, 2002. Abstract

Kappner I. 2001. Feeding behavior in worm snails (Vermetidae) - A successful adaptation to sessile life in coral reefs. In L. Salvini-Plawen et al., eds., Abstracts, World Congress of Malacology 2001, Vienna, Austria, p. 170.

Bieler, R., P. M. Mikkelsen, L. Crowley & I. Kappner, 2001. Taxonomy on the half-shell: a "PEET"project investigating marine bivalves. In L. Salvini-Plawen et al., eds., Abstracts, World Congress of Malacology 2001, Vienna, Austria, p. 31.

Kappner I., Al-Moghrabi S.M., Richter C. 2000 Mucus-net feeding by the vermetid gastropod Dendropoma maxima in coral reefs. Marine Ecology Progress Series 204: 309-313.

Kappner I., Al-Moghrabi S.M., Richter C. 1998 Mucus-net feeding - A successful strategy at the coral reef - water interface, 33rd EMBS (European Marine Biology Symposium), Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Abstract