Focused flow of hydrocarbon gases, fluids and mud rising from great depth to surface sediments, hydrothermal discharge as well as episodic depositions of organic carbon from dead marine mammals, wood and kelps are spatially limited sources of energy to the food-impoverished deep-sea benthos. We investigate how specialized communities of microorganisms utilize these energy sources, which provide the basis for highly productive benthic ecosystems.

Our research on cold seep ecosystems and the associated microbial methane turnover is supported by the European Union HERMIONE and registered with the EU coordination action CAREX. Furthermore we are involved in the project area “Geo-Biosphere Interactions” of the Cluster of Excellence “The Ocean in the Earth System”, specifically focusing on linking benthic fluxes and the ecology of the ocean floor, a project funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG). In collaboration with the Microbial Symbiosis Group at the MPI for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, within the MPG-CNRS "European scientific coordination network” DiWOOD („Diversity of Organisms Associated to Marine Woods Falls”), and the ESF EUROCORES EuroDeep project CHEMECO, we are investigating the microbial ecology of wood falls, to examine the role of bacterial communities in the colonization and degradation of wood, and the development of associated reduced habitats.

Contact: A. Boetius, A. Ramette, P. Pop Ristova, F. Wenzhöfer

Literature:

Niemann, H., Lösekann, T., de Beer, D., Elvert, M., Nadalig, T., Knittel, K., Amann, R., Sauter, E.J., Schlüter, M., Klages, M., Foucher, J.P. & A. Boetius (2006). Novel microbial communities of the Haakon Mosby mud volcano and their role as methane sink. Nature 443: 854-85.

Treude, T., Smith, C.R., Wenzhöfer, F., Carney, E., Bernardino, A.F., Hannides, A., Krüger, M. & A. Boetius (2009). Microbial sulfur and carbon turnover at a deep-sea whale fall, Santa Cruz Basin, northeast Pacific. Marine Ecology Progress Series 382: 1-21.

Knittel, K. & A. Boetius (2009). The anaerobic oxidation of methane - progress with an unknown process. Annual Reviews of Microbiology 63: 311–334.