Molecular Biogeochemistry

Team | Projects | Facilities | Intranet

Mission

The research group explores key processes in the global biogeochemical cycles at the molecular level. Biomarkers and their isotopic content hold information on the regulation of the individual processes. The group is developing new tools and is applying existing techniques to investigate single key processes.

Interested in working with us?

We are always looking for interested students who want to pursue a Masters Thesis (preferably in combination with a project module) with us. More information about open positions:
Mikrobielle Aktivität entlang des Bodenprofils.

News

• 09.18 - Gerd and Simon attended the 19th International Conference of the International Humic Substances Society (IHSS) in Varna, Bulgaria. Gerd presented on molecular and structural changes in dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the Critical Zone. Simon was awarded with a Travel Award by the IHSS for his work on identifying new markers for DOM transport in the Critical Zone.

• 09.18 - New Paper Alert - Simon et.al paper about molecular signals of heterogeneous terrestrial environments identified in dissolved organic matter: A comparative analysis of orbitrap and ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometers is online. Find the paper here
• 08.18 - Somak attended the 17th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology held in Leipzig. He presented a poster titled "Increased carbon (C) costs for nitrogen (N) gain when plants associate with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)"
• 08.18 - Gerd attended ESA (Ecological Society of America) 2018 annual meeting held in New Orleans, Louisiana. He gave an invited talk in the session "Plant-Soil Interactions Under Changing Climate" on "Microbial handshake in the rhizosphere".
• 07.18 - Natalie and Gerd went to lake "Chatyr Kul" in Kyrgyzstan to collect plant samples and measure chemical properties of the lake and its tributaries. They also participated in a summer school “Learning landscape through environmental research and monitoring” by the University of Central Asia, within the framework of the project "PALESCA - Palaeoclimate, Environmental Change and Social Interaction in Central Asia"

• 06.18 - Gerd, Yan, Simon and Carsten attended CRC AquaDiva On-Site Retreat 2018 held from 26th to 27th of June in Vitaleum, Hütten. Yan presented new findings and recent progress made on "Tracing Metabolic and Organic Signals Through the Earth’s Critical Zone" and the group's contribution in the joint project (CRC 1076 funded by DFG) as a whole. The discussions were followed by a field trip to the new AquaDiva site nearby.

• 06.18 - Gerd & Carsten attended the ATTO workshop 2018? held at the MPI-BGC, Jena to contribute in the planning and co-ordination of future scientific work at the ATTO site.
• 06.18 - For this years group activity we went Canoeing. And luckily no one got lost, no one drowned and no boat capsized. ;-)

• 05.18 - PhD student Yang Xia from Laboratorie d'Ecology, Systématique et Évolution [ESE] Université Paris-Sud is visiting with us to analyse plant metabolite isotopes (sugar, organic acid and amino acid).
• 04.18 - Gerd and Carsten attended the European Geoscience Union Assembly 2018 in Vienna, Austria and gave talks. -- Gerd's talk was on Resistance and recovery of rhizospheric carbon and nitrogen flow in fungi- and bacteria-dominated plant communities after drought -- Carsten spoke about Identification of ecosystem-specific markers in dissolved organic matter by Orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry (Pictures by @RouskLab via Twitter)

• 04.18 - Sophie von Fromm - Master's student from TU Bergakademie Freiberg will be working with us to understand composition of various extractable C fractions of soil organic matter (SOM) and determine their ages with radiocarbon (¹⁴C) isotope analysis.
• 12.17 - Conference Attendance - At the joint annual meeting of BES, GfÖ, NecoV and EEF in Ghent Markus presented his findings on how Dissolved Organic Matter mediates plant diversity effects on below-ground processes.
• 12.17 - New Paper Alert - Karlowsky et al. paper about land use in mountain grasslands and drought responses associated with plant microbe interaction is online. This work resulted from a multi-institute collaboration under the umbrella of REGARDS project. Find the paper here

Archive

Latest Publications

1	Buchmann, T., Schumacher, J., Ebeling, A., Eisenhauer, N., Fischer, M., Gleixner, G., Hacker, N., Lange, M., Oelmann, Y., Schulze, E. D., Weigelt, A., Weisser, W. W., Wilcke, W., Roscher, C. (2018). Connecting experimental biodiversity research to real-world grasslands. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 33, 78-88. doi:10.1016/j.ppees.2018.06.002.
2	Camino-Serrano, M., Guenet, B., Luyssaert, S., Ciais, P., Bastrikov, V., De Vos, B., Gielen, B., Gleixner, G., Jornet-Puig, A., Kaiser, K., Kothawala, D., Lauerwald, R., Peñuelas, J., Schrumpf, M., Vicca, S., Vuichard, N., Walmsley, D., Janssens, I. A. (2018). ORCHIDEE-SOM: Modeling soil organic carbon (SOC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) dynamics along vertical soil profiles in Europe. Geoscientific Model Development, 11(3), 937-957. doi:10.5194/gmd-11-937-2018.
3	Ding, S., Kohlhepp, B., Trumbore, S. E., Küsel, K., Totsche, K.-U., Pohnert, G., Gleixner, G., Schwab, V. F. (2018). In situ production of core and intact bacterial and archaeal tetraether lipids in groundwater. Organic Geochemistry, 126, 1-12. doi:10.1016/j.orggeochem.2018.10.005.
4	Ebeling, A., Hines, J., Hertzog, L. R., Lange, M., Meyer, S. T., Simons, N. K., Weisser, W. W. (2018). Plant diversity effects on arthropods and arthropod-dependent ecosystem functions in a biodiversity experiment. Basic and Applied Ecology, 26, 50-63. doi: 10.1016/j.baae.2017.09.014.
5	Ebeling, A., Rzanny, M., Lange, M., Eisenhauer, N., Hertzog, L. R., Meyer, S. T., Weisser, W. W. (2018). Plant diversity induces shifts in the functional structure and diversity across trophic levels. Oikos, 127(2), 208-219. doi:10.1111/oik.04210.
6	Fabian, J., Zlatanovic, S., Mutz, M., Grossart, H.-P., van Geldern, R., Ulrich, A., Gleixner, G., Premke, K. (2018). Environmental control on microbial turnover of leaf carbon in streams - ecological function of phototrophic-heterotrophic interactions. Frontiers in Microbiology, 9: 1044. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2018.01044.
7	Hacker, N., Gleixner, G., Lange, M., Wilcke, W., Oelmann, Y. (2018). Phosphorus release from mineral soil by acid hydrolysis: method development, kinetics, and plant community composition effects. Soil Science Society of America, 81(6), 1389-1400. doi:10.2136/sssaj2017.02.0064.
8	Huang, J., Hammerbacher, A., Weinhold, A., Reichelt, M., Gleixner, G., Behrendt, T., van Dam, N. M., Sala, A., Gershenzon, J., Trumbore, S. E., Hartmann, H. (2018). Eyes on the future – evidence for trade-offs between growth, storage and defense in Norway spruce. New Phytologist. doi:10.1111/nph.15522.
9	Ingrisch, J., Karlowsky, S., Anadon-Rosell, A., Hasibeder, R., König, A., Augusti, A., Gleixner, G., Bahn, M. (2018). Land use alters the drought responses of productivity and CO2 fluxes in mountain grassland. Ecosystems, 21(4), 689-703. doi:10.1007/s10021-017-0178-0.
10	Karlowsky, S., Augusti, A., Ingrisch, J., Hasibeder, R., Lange, M., Lavorel, S., Bahn, M., Gleixner, G. (2018). Land use in mountain grasslands alters drought response and recovery of carbon allocation and plant-microbial interactions. Journal of Ecology, 106(3), 1230-1243. doi:10.1111/1365-2745.12910.
11	Landhäusser, S. M., Chow, P. S., Dickman, L. T., Furze, M. E., Kuhlman, I., Schmid, S., Wiesenbauer, J., Wild, B., Gleixner, G., Hartmann, H., Hoch, G., McDowell, N. G., Richardson, A. D., Richter, A., Adams, H. D. (2018). Standardized protocols and procedures can precisely and accurately quantify non-structural carbohydrates. Tree Physiology. doi:10.1093/treephys/tpy118.
12	Malik, A. A., Puissant, J., Buckeridge, K. M., Goodall, T., Jehmlich, N., Chowdhury, S., Gweon, H. S., Peyton, J. M., Mason, K. E., van Agtmaal, M., Blaud, A., Clark, I. M., Whitaker, J., Pywell, R. F., Ostle, N., Gleixner, G., Griffiths, R. I. (2018). Land use driven change in soil pH affects microbial carbon cycling processes. Nature Communications, 9: 3591. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05980-1.
13	Milcu, A., Puga-Freitas, R., Ellison, A. M., Blouin, M., Scheu, S., Girin, T., Frechet, G., Rose, L., Scherer-Lorenzen, M., Barot, S., Lata, J.-C., Cesarz, S., Eisenhauer, N., Gigon, A., Weigelt, A., Hansart, A., Greiner, A., Pando, A., Gessler, A., Grignani, C., Assandri, D., Gleixner, G., Le Galliard, J.-F., Urban-Mead, K., Zavattaro, L., Muller, M. E., Lange, M., Lukac, M., Bonkowski, M., Mannerheim, N., Buchmann, N., Butenschoen, O., Rotter, P., Seyhun, R., Devidal, S., Kayler, Z., Roy, J. (2018). Genotypic variability enhances the reproducibility of an ecological study. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2(2), 279-287. doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0434-x.
14	Ray, R., Baum, A., Rixen, T., Gleixner, G., Jana, T. K. (2018). Exportation of dissolved (inorganic and organic) and particulate carbon from mangroves and its implication to the carbon budget in the Indian Sundarbans. Science of the Total Environment, 621, 535-547. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.11.225.
15	Ray, R., Michaud, E., Aller, R. C., Vantrepotte, V., Gleixner, G., Walcker, R., Devesa, J., Le Goff, M., Morvan, S., Thouzeau, G. (2018). The sources and distribution of carbon (DOC, POC, DIC) in a mangrove dominated estuary (French Guiana, South America). Biogeochemistry, 138(3), 297-321. doi:10.1007/s10533-018-0447-9.
16	Schall, P., Gossner, M. M., Heinrichs, S., Fischer, M., Boch, S., Prati, D., Jung, K., Baumgartner, V., Blaser, S., Böhm, S., Buscot, F., Daniel, R., Goldmann, K., Kaiser, K., Kahl, T., Lange, M., Müller, J., Overmann, J., Renner, S. C., Schulze, E. D., Sikorski, J., Tschapka, M., Türke, M., Weisser, W. W., Wemheuer, B., Wubet, T., Ammer, C. (2018). The impact of even-aged and uneven-aged forest management on regional biodiversity of multiple taxa in European beech forests. Journal of Applied Ecology, 55(1), 267-278. doi:10.1111/1365-2664.12950.
17	Simon, C., Roth, V.-N., Dittmar, T., Gleixner, G. (2018). Molecular signals of heterogeneous terrestrial environments identified in dissolved organic matter: a comparative analysis of orbitrap and ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometers. Frontiers in Earth Science, 6: 138. doi:10.3389/feart.2018.00138.
18	Türke, M., Lange, M., Eisenhauer, N. (2018). Gut shuttle service: endozoochory of dispersal-limited soil fauna by gastropods. Oecologia, 186(3), 655-664. doi:10.1007/s00442-018-4058-x.