{"id":763,"date":"2025-01-22T14:01:43","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T19:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/?post_type=person&#038;p=763"},"modified":"2025-01-22T14:01:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T19:01:43","slug":"melanie-heckwolf","status":"publish","type":"person","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/","title":{"rendered":"Melanie Heckwolf"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Melanie is a marine evolutionary biologist specialising in (epi)genomics and transcriptomics in fishes. She received her BSc, MSc, and PhD from the University of Kiel, Germany, where she studied the compensatory effects of transgenerational plasticity on climate change-related stress. As a postdoc, she shifted her focus from micro- to macroevolutionary scales, investigating rapid speciation processes in Caribbean reef fishes (Hypoplectrus spp.), first at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, UK, and later during a fellowship between the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research in Germany. At UCF, Melanie is part of the \u201cDISKER\u201d project, which maps the spatial distribution of dispersal events (dispersal kernels) to predict population dynamics and improve marine spatial planning efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melanie is a marine evolutionary biologist specialising in (epi)genomics and transcriptomics in fishes. She received her BSc, MSc, and PhD from the University of Kiel, Germany, where she studied the compensatory effects of transgenerational plasticity on climate change-related stress. As a postdoc, she shifted her focus from micro- to macroevolutionary scales, investigating rapid speciation processes [&hellip;]","protected":false},"featured_media":764,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"people_group":[7],"class_list":["post-763","person","type-person","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","people_group-postdoctoral-researcher"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Melanie Heckwolf - Gaither Lab<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Melanie Heckwolf - Gaither Lab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Melanie is a marine evolutionary biologist specialising in (epi)genomics and transcriptomics in fishes. She received her BSc, MSc, and PhD from the University of Kiel, Germany, where she studied the compensatory effects of transgenerational plasticity on climate change-related stress. As a postdoc, she shifted her focus from micro- to macroevolutionary scales, investigating rapid speciation processes [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gaither Lab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/01\/Melanie-Heckwolf.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/\",\"name\":\"Melanie Heckwolf - Gaither Lab\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/01\/Melanie-Heckwolf.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-22T19:01:43+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/01\/Melanie-Heckwolf.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/01\/Melanie-Heckwolf.jpg\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"A person with long blonde hair and a light green top smiles in front of a blurred green foliage background.\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/\",\"name\":\"Gaither Lab\",\"description\":\"Molecular Ecology and Evolution\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Melanie Heckwolf - Gaither Lab","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Melanie Heckwolf - Gaither Lab","og_description":"Melanie is a marine evolutionary biologist specialising in (epi)genomics and transcriptomics in fishes. She received her BSc, MSc, and PhD from the University of Kiel, Germany, where she studied the compensatory effects of transgenerational plasticity on climate change-related stress. As a postdoc, she shifted her focus from micro- to macroevolutionary scales, investigating rapid speciation processes [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/","og_site_name":"Gaither Lab","og_image":[{"width":512,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/01\/Melanie-Heckwolf.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/","name":"Melanie Heckwolf - Gaither Lab","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/01\/Melanie-Heckwolf.jpg","datePublished":"2025-01-22T19:01:43+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/person\/melanie-heckwolf\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/01\/Melanie-Heckwolf.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/01\/Melanie-Heckwolf.jpg","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"A person with long blonde hair and a light green top smiles in front of a blurred green foliage background."},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/","name":"Gaither Lab","description":"Molecular Ecology and Evolution","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/person"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":765,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/763\/revisions\/765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763"},{"taxonomy":"people_group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/gaitherlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people_group?post=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}