I am a biological oceanographer conducting system-oriented and interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary environmental research. My focus is on cold and deep ocean environments and emerges from an ecological perspective. My work is centered around ecosystem dynamics, matter fluxes, and biodiversity assesments over space and time encompassing varying scales. My focus are the microbial communities which live inside of "deep-sea forests", i.e. inside of habitat-forming deep-sea animals at the seafloor (in particular at sponge grounds and more recently also at cold-water coral reefs). I am particularly interested in how these microbiomes are embedded into a dynamic ocean: How are they and their interactions shaped by the environment, and how do they drive ecosystem processes? I love to evaluate coherences, such as the interplay between abiotic and biotic components, biological networks, feedback mechanisms, and connectivity. All just mentioned aspects are crucial for a sustainable living with the ocean.
Methodological toolbox:
Besides in situ observational and experimental approaches at sea, especially in silico techniques are my current core theme in the era of a "digital ocean". I have experience in molecular ecology and in managing and processing of large datasets and establishing bioinformatic analysis pipelines. A particular emphasis lies on statistics and the development of integrative modelling frameworks and novel data visualisation formats. One key aim of my work is to improve accessibility and monitoring of my study system by new technological developments, and to generate accurate predictions of microbial biodiversity and ecosystem function for inaccessible timeframes and areas.
