Geomicrobiology in Periglacial Environments
The geomicrobiological research group (GEOMICs) of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam studied the microbial processes and communities involved in the carbon dynamics of Arctic and Antarctic periglacial environments. In particular, the research focuses on the microbial controls of carbon fluxes, on the activity and structure of the microbial communities and on their response to changing environmental conditions. For this purpose an integrated research strategy was applied, which connects trace gas flux measurements to soil ecological characterisation (e.g. geochemistry, soil-physics) of the different habitats and microbiological analyses (e.g. turnover rates, abundance, community structure, sequencing, stress experiments) of bacterial and archaeal communities. Present projects are carried out in Siberia, maritime and continental Antarctic and on the Tibetan Plateau.
Working Group
- PD Dr. Dirk Wagner (Group Leader)
- Dr. Sizhong Yang (Postdoc)
- Juliane Griess (PhD Student)
- Felizitas Bajerski (PhD Student)
- Janosch Malaszkiewicz (PhD Student)
- Béatrice Barbier (PhD Student)
- Paloma Serrano (PhD Student)
- Roman Osudar (PhD Student, in cooperation with Ingeborg Bussmann, AWI Helgoland)
- Isabel Dziduch (Master Student)
- Janine Görsch (Master Student)
- Andrea Kiss (Diploma Student)
- Frederick Büks (Student Assistant)
- Martin Karels (Student Assistant)
- Oliver Burckhardt (Laboratory Assistant)
Former Group Members
- Lisa Padur, MSc in 2011
- Lars Ganzert, PhD in 2011 (now University of Tromso, Norway)
- Dr. Katharina Feige (née Koch), PhD in 2009
- Hendrik Frentzel, diploma in 2009
- Dr. Susanne Liebner, PhD in 2007 (now University of Tromso, Norway)
- Katja Rublack, diploma in 2007
- Dr. Daria Morozova, PhD in 2007 (now Helmholtz Centre Potsdam)
- Elke Finsel, diploma in 2006
- Julia Schneider, diploma in 2005
- Dr. Svenja Kobabe, PhD in 2005 (now Shire Deutschland GmbH, Hamburg)
- Jun.-Prof. Dr. Lars Kutzbach, PhD in 2005 (now Institute of Soil Science, University of Hamburg)
