Project Leader
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- Departments
- Department of Molecular Ecology
- Molecular Ecology
- People
- Anke Meyerdierks
Dr. Anke Meyerdierks
Department of Molecular Ecology
MPI for Marine Microbiology
Celsiusstr. 1
D-28359 Bremen
Germany
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2202 |
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Research area
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are unique, highly productive oases amidst the predominantly food-limited deep-sea. The extreme habitats at vents are highly dynamic and characterized by steep temperature and chemical gradients partly featuring impressive chimney structures emitting hot hydrothermal fluids into the surrounding cold oxygenated sea-water. Life at hydrothermal vents is based on the microbial oxidation of reduced compounds such as hydrogen sulphide, hydrogen, and methane dissolved in the venting fluids. Based on the dark carbon fixation of autotrophic microorganisms in the sub-seafloor, in sediments, on chimneys, in the fluids and the overlying plume, a heterotrophic community evolves. Microorganisms at vents aid in complexation of metals such as iron, promoting under certain conditions, even phototrophy in the oceans surface layer.
Research focus
The aim of our highly interdisciplinary studies is an advancement of our knowledge of geosphere - biosphere interactions at hydrothermal vents. This includes the purely exploratory description of microbial communities at newly discovered hydrothermal vents. Our main focus, however, is the identification and characterization of microbial key players along physical and geochemical gradients encountered at hydrothermal vents, from areas of hydrothermal discharge to areas where venting has ceased and in the far-field, in order to understand their function within the system and their impact on element cycling.
Personal background
Since 2003 I am investigating free-living microorganisms at deep-sea hydrothermal vents around the world (e.g. Mid Atlantic Ridge, Kermadec Arc), at the beginning as a postdoc, since 2005 as leader of a small project group within the Department of Molecular Ecology of the MPIMM and currently also as key researcher within the Cluster of Excellence “The Ocean Floor – Earth’s Uncharted Interface” lead by MARUM (University of Bremen), ... always in close collaboration with scientist of different disciplines (e.g. geologists, oceanographers, fluid chemists).
Current project group
Well embedded in the Department of Molecular Ecology, I work together with Luigi Gallucci and Charlotte Recke, two doctoral students, and Martina Ferrara an Excellence Cluster financed, shared PhD student with fluid chemist Prof. Dr. Andrea Koschinsky Fritsche (Constructor University, Bremen).