| Title: | Assistant Professor |
| Function: | Assistant Professor |
| Public phone number: | +385(0)1 4877 716 |
| Cellphone number: | +385977696389 |
| E-mail: | |
| Department: | Division of Botany |
| Graduation year: | 2014 |
| PhD graduation year: | 2018 |
| Employed in this institution since: | 2015 |
undergraduate
doctoral
Maja Mucko completed her primary and secondary education in Knin and developed a passion for marine research and ecology during her childhood in Podaca. She earned her undergraduate degree in Biology at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb in 2012, and completed a Master's in Ecology and Nature Conservation with a thesis titled “Succession of Primary Biofilm on Artificial Substrates in the Sea” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Zrinka Ljubešić in 2014. She began her doctoral studies as part of her employment through the Croatian Science Foundation’s “Career Development Project for Young Researchers” in 2015 and defended her doctoral dissertation titled: “Morphology and Phylogeny of Picoeukaryotes and Pennate Planktonic Diatoms in the Middle and South Adriatic Sea”, under the mentorship of Dr Ljubešić in 2018. During her doctorate, she established the use of molecular methods and protocols for research and bioinformatic data processing in the Laboratory for Algology and Environmental DNA Research at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science.
To date, she has published 27 original research articles, several review and professional papers, and has participated in over 20 conferences. As a postdoctoral researcher, she expanded her work to plant phylogeny and phylogeography using modern molecular methods. She actively contributes to education as a lecturer in several courses at all levels of study. She gained experience in financial and data management through two terms as Secretary of the Croatian Botanical Society and as an administrator of the public database Flora Croatica Database module Algae. She is a passionate diatomologist, actively engaged in the cultivation and taxonomy of Adriatic diatoms, and contributes materials to the Croatian National Diatom Collection.
Show publications in CRORIS
1. Mucko, Maja; Russo, Luca; Matek, Antonija; Grgurević, Filip; Pestorić, Branka; Achterberg, Eric P.; D'Alelio, Domenico; Ljubešić, Zrinka Influence of internal island-trapped waves on plankton structure and trophic networks in stratified oligotrophic coastal waters // Marine environmental research, 212 (2025), 107578-107578. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2025.107578
2. Mucko, M.; Lakušić, D.; Frajman, B.; Bogdanović, S.; Doboš, M.; Ljubičić, I.; Kuzmanović, N.; Rešetnik, I. (2024) Diversification of fescues (Festuca sect. Eskia, Poaceae), a key-component of southern European mountainous grasslands // Taxon, 00, 00; 1-21. doi: 10.1002/tax.13278
3. Kanjer, L.; Filek, K.; Mucko, M.; Zekan Lupić, M.; Frleta‐Valić, M.; Gračan, R.; Bosak, S. (2024) Growing older, growing more diverse: Sea turtles and epibiotic cyanobacteria // Journal of phycology, 60, 6; 1390-1405. doi: 10.1111/jpy.13511
4. Kolda, A.; Mucko, M.; Rapljenović, A.; Ljubešić, Z.; Pikelj, K.a; Kwokal, Ž.; Fajković, H.; Cuculić, V. (2024) Beach wracks microbiome and its putative function in plastic polluted Mediterranean marine ecosystem // Marine environmental research, 202, 106769, 15. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2024.106769
5. Ljubešić, Z.; Mihanović, H.; Matek, A.; Mucko, M.; Achterberg, E. P.; Omand, M.; Pestorić, B.; Lučić, D.; Čižmek, H.; Čolić, B.; Balestra, C.; Casottii, R.; Janeković, I., Orlić, M. (2024) Marine plankton community and net primary production responding to island-trapped waves in a stratified oligotrophic ecosystem // Heliyon, 10, 18; e37788, 20. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e37788
6. Al-Handal, Adil Y. ; Mucko, Maja ; Peharec Štefanić, Petra ; Wulff, Angela Entomoneis grisslehamnensis, a New Diatom (Bacillariophyceae) from the Baltic Coast of Sweden with taxonomic and ecological notes on Entomoneis paludosa (W. Smith) Reimer// Diatom research, 38 (2023) 462023, 14 doi: 10.1080/0269249X.2023.2215110
7. Matek, Antonija ; Mucko, Maja ; Casotti, Raffaella ; Trano, Anna Chiara ; Achterberg, Eric P. ; Mihanović, Hrvoje ; Čižmek, Hrvoje ; Čolić, Barbara ; Cuculić, Vlado ; Ljubešić, Zrinka Phytoplankton Diversity and Co-Dependency in a Stratified Oligotrophic Ecosystem in the South Adriatic Sea// Water, 15 (2023) 12 ; 2299, 23 doi: 10.3390/w15122299
8. Kanjer, Lucija ; Filek, Klara ; Mucko, Maja ; Majewska, Roksana ; Gračan, Romana ; Trotta, Adriana ; Panagopoulou, Aliki ; Corrente, Marialaura ; Di Bello, Antonio ; Bosak, Sunčica Surface microbiota of Mediterranean loggerhead sea turtles unraveled by 16S and 18S amplicon sequencing// Frontiers in ecology and evolution, 10 (2022) 907368, 16 . 10.3389/fevo.2022.907368
9. Durkin, Colleen A. ; Cetinić, Ivona ; Estapa, Margaret ; Ljubešić, Zrinka ; Mucko, Maja ; Neeley, Aimee ; Omand, Melissa Tracing the path of carbon export in the ocean though DNA sequencing of individual sinking particles// Isme journal, 10.1038/s41396-0 (2022) 10.1038/s41396-022-01239-2, 11 . 10.1038/s41396-022-01239-2
10. Gastineau, Romain; Hansen, Gert; Poulin, Michel; Lemieux, Claude; Turmel, Monique; Bardeau, Jean-François; Leignel, Vincent; Hardivillier, Yann; Morançais, Michèle; Fleurence, Joël et al. Haslea silbo, A Novel Cosmopolitan Species of Blue Diatoms // Biology, 10 (2021), 4; 328, 27 doi:10.3390/biology10040328
11. Mucko, Maja; Bosak, Sunčica; Mann, David G; Trobajo, Rosa; Wetzel, Carlos E.; Peharec Štefanić, Petra; Ljubešić, Zrinka A polyphasic approach to the study of the genus Nitzschia (Bacillariophyta): three new planktonic species from the Adriatic Sea // Journal of phycology, 57 (2021), 143-159 doi:10.1111/jpy.13085
12. Mucko, Maja; Padisák, Judit; Gligora Udovič, Marija; Pálmai, Tamás; Novak, Tihana; Medić, Nikola; Gašparović, Blaženka; Peharec Štefanić, Petra; Orlić, Sandi; Ljubešić, Zrinka Characterization of a lipid-producing thermotolerant marine photosynthetic pico-alga in the genus Picochlorum (Trebouxiophyceae) // European journal of phycology, 55 (2020), 4; 384-399 doi:10.1080/09670262.2020.1757763
13. Al-Handal, Adil Yousif; Mucko, Maja; Wulff, Angela Entomoneis annagodhei sp. nov., a new marine diatom (Entomoneidaceae, Bacillariophyta) from the west coast of Sweden // Diatom research, 35 (2020), 3; 269-279 doi:10.1080/0269249X.2020.1787229
14. Kanjer, Lucija; Mucko, Maja; Car, Ana; Bosak, Sunčica Epiphytic diatoms on Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile leaves from eastern Adriatic Sea // Natura Croatica : periodicum Musei historiae naturalis Croatici, 28 (2019), 1; 1-20 doi:10.20302/NC.2019.28.1
15. Kolda, Anamarija; Petrić, Ines; Mucko, Maja; Gottstein, Sanja; Žutinić, Petar; Goreta, Gordana; Ternjej, Ivančica; Rubinić, Josip; Radišić, Maja; Gligora Udovič, Marija How environment selects: Resilience and survival of microbial mat community within intermittent karst spring Krčić (Croatia) // Ecohydrology, 12 (2019), 2; e2063, 16 doi:10.1002/eco.2063
16. Mucko, Maja; Bosak, Sunčica; Casotti, Raffaella; Balestra, Cecilia; Ljubešić, Zrinka Winter picoplankton diversity in an oligotrophic marginal sea // Marine Genomics, 42 (2018), 14-24 doi:10.1016/j.margen.2018.09.002
17. Mejdandžić, Maja; Bosak, Sunčica; Nakov, Teofil; Ruck, Elizabeth; Orlić, Sandi; Gligora Udovič, Marija; Peharec Štefanić, Petra; Špoljarić, Igor; Mršić, Gordan; Ljubešić, Zrinka Morphological diversity and phylogeny of the diatom genus Entomoneis (Bacillariophyta) in marine plankton: six new species from the Adriatic Sea // Journal of phycology, 54 (2018), 2; 275-298 doi:10.1111/jpy.12622
18. Mejdandžić, Maja; Bosak, Sunčica; Orlić, Sandi; Gligora Udovič, Marija; Peharec Štefanić, Petra; Špoljarić, Igor; Mršić, Gordan; Ljubešić, Zrinka. Entomoneis tenera sp. nov., a new marine planktonic diatom (Entomoneidaceae, Bacillariophyta) from the Adriatic Sea. // Phytotaxa. 282 (2017) , 1; 1-18
1. Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-IP-2020-02-9524) - Island trapped waves as a driver of primary production (ISLAND), https://www.pmf.unizg.hr/biol/island/en
2. Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ UIP-05-2017) - Phylogeography and evolution of three ecologically divergent amphi-Adriatic plant groups, https://www.pmf.unizg.hr/biol/AmphiAdriPlant/en
3. Croatian Science Foundation (UIP-2017-05-5635) - Loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) microbiome: insight into endozoic and epizoic communities (TurtleBIOME), https://www.pmf.unizg.hr/turtlebiome/en
4. Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ-UIP-2013-11-6433) - Bio-tracing Adriatic water masses (BIOTA), http://www.pmf.unizg.hr/biol/en
5. COST Action DNAqua (Developing new genetic tools for bioassessment of aquatic ecosystems in Europe CA15219), http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/ca/CA15219
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