Fundamental research in the Department of Biogeochemistry addresses the microbial cycling of biolimiting elements in the ocean, which controls to a large extent the chemistry of the earth’s ocean and atmosphere. Understanding the pathways, interactions and environmental regulation of microbial processes that control the availability of biolimiting nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and iron, in the ocean is imperative to predict the impact that human activities will have on the chemistry of our ocean and climate.

Current News

Insights into N2 Fixation with Single Cell techniques.....

Andreas Krupke, Nicullina Musat, Marcel Kuypers and Rachel Foster along with Molecular Ecology colleagues Bernhard Fuchs and Rudi Amann have pulbished a new paper in Systematic and Applied Microbiology on N2 fixation by unicellular cyanobacteria populations of Cape Verde. It includessome spectacular nanoSIMs imaging and
FISH images of the uncultivated unicellular group A by Andreas and Niculina.

Controls on Nitrogen Fluxes in the Oxygen Minimum Zone off Peru

Biogeochemistry Group members Tim Kavelage, Gaute Lavik, Phyllis Lam, Sergio Contreras and Marcel Kuypers, together with colleagues from GEOMAR (Kiel, Germany) and IMARPE (Lima, Peru) have published an article in Nature Geoscience. Through extensive shipboard experimentation they have been able to link fixed nitrogen loss from the Peru Upwelling to carbon export.
See News on the MPI homepage for more information and also the informative News and Views article written by Bo Thamdrup.

Sulfur as an intermediate in anaerobic oxidation of methane

Biogeochemistry Group members Jana Milucka, Tim Ferdelman, Daniela Franzke and Marcel Kuypers are lead authors on a recent article in Nature, where new results and a new model for sulfate-dependent anaerobic oxidation of methane appeared.
See News on MPI homepage for more information.

Milucka, J, T.G. Ferdelman, L. Polerecky, D. Franzke, G. Wegener, M. Schmid, I. Lieberwirth, M. Wagner, F. Widdel, M.M.M Kuypers. 2012. Zero-valent sulphur is a key intermediate in marine methane oxidation. Nature, 491, 541-546, doi: 10:1038/nature11656.

Congratulations to Inigo Müller....
...on the successful defense of his doctoral dissertation on March 19th in Geosciences at the University of Bremen. His doctoral dissertation was entitled The pivotal role of sulfite species in shaping the oxygen isotope composition of sulfate: new insights from a stable isotope perspective. Inigo's research was within the DFG sponsored MARUM Project Area: Geo-Biosphere Interactions.

Congratulations to Nguyen Manh Thang....
...on the successful defense of his doctoral dissertation on February 11th in Geosciences at the University of Bremen. His doctoral dissertation was entitled Biogeochemical controls on carbon and sulfur cycling in Baltic Sea sediments. Thang's research was part of the EU Bonus Project Baltic Gas.

Congratulations to Abdul Sheik....
...on the successful defense of his doctoral dissertation on December 10th in Geosciences at the University of Bremen. His doctoral colloqium was entitled Viruses in the microbial loop from a single cell point of view. Abdul Sheik

New online! publications from doctoral students Sarah Sokoll, Nguyen Manh Thang, and other MPI colleagues

Sarah Sokoll, Moritz Holtappels, Phyllis Lam, Gavin Collins, Michael Schlüter, Gaute Lavik and Marcel M. M. Kuypers (2012) Benthic nitrogen loss in the Arabian Sea off Pakistan. Frontiers in Microbiology, doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2012.00395.

Thang, N.M., V. Brüchert, M. Formolo, G. Wegener, L. Ginters, B.B. Joergensen, T.G. Ferdelman. 2012. The impact of sediment and carbon fluxes on the biogeochemitry of methane and sulfur in littoral Baltic Sea Sediments (Himmerfjaerden, Sweden). Estuaries and Coasts, doi: 10.1007/s12237-012-9557-0.