Habitat Group

The microbial habitat describes the physical location and type of environment in which a population of microorganisms lives. Hence, this research group studies the physical, chemical, geological hydrological and biological characteristics of distinct microbial habitats. The goal of our research is to understand structure and change of microbial ecosystems, the formation of niches for microbial populations and to investigate environmental dynamics and their consequences on the occurrence, biodiversity and distribution of microbial populations. The uniting topics to all researchers in the group is to obtain 1) “true” quantitative insight to ecosystem structure, dynamics and biogeochemical fluxes based on in-situ measurements and 2) insight into the related variations in microbial biodiversity on relevant spatial and temporal scales. The development of novel instrumentation for in situ studies of submarine ecosystems, ranging from coastal sands to reefs, continental margins, polar waters and hydrothermal vents enables the Habitat group in collaboration with the Microsensor group to improve the quantification of transport and reaction in these habitats, which are dominant factors structuring microbial habitats. Furthermore, we link our in situ biogeochemistry and biodiversity studies closely to the investigation of microbial function in the respective habitats, in collaboration with the department of Microbiology and Molecular Ecology.