Biogeochemistry

The Biogeochemistry Group at Eawag Kastanienbaum studies biogeochemical processes in lakes and marine systems.
We have three main foci:

• Following degradation of organic material from the water surface through the water column and sediments using organic geochemical and isotopic tools
• Investigating the process of anaerobic methane oxidation and anaerobic ammonium oxidation in sediments and water columns of lacustrine and marine systems
• Estimating methane emissions including diffusive emissions and ebullition from lakes and reservoirs

Systems under investigation include African and Siberian lakes (Kivu, Baikal), lakes in Switzerland (Lake Rotsee, Lago di Cadagno, Lake Zug, Lake Sihl), and Lake Van.

Projects

• HYPOX - In situ monitoring of oxygen depletion in hypoxic ecosystems of coastal and open seas, and land-locked water bodies [...]
• Degradation and transformation of lacustrine organic nitrogen compounds: microbiology and biogeochemistry [...]
  
• Drilling of Lake Van within ICDP (2010) [...]
• MAIOLICA: Modelling And experIments On Land-surface Interactions with atmospheric Chemistry and climAte [...]
  
• Anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) in freshwater systems – Lake Rotsee, Lago Cadagno [...]
  
• Degradation of organic carbon in lakes and marine systems, finished 2008 [...]
• Climate gases (CH₄ and N₂O) in lakes and marine systems, finished 2008 [...]
  
• Redox cycling at oxic / anoxic interfaces – a biomarker and tracer study in the Eastern Black Sea, finished 2008 [...]
  
• Amino sugar concentrations / isotopes in anoxic basins, finished 2007 [...]
  
• EU Project CRIMEA: Methane cycling in the Black Sea, finished 2006 [...]
  
• Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (ANAMMOX) in freshwater systems – Lake Tanganyika, finished 2006 [...]

Team

• Carsten Schubert, group leader
• Gijs Nobbe, technician
• Prosper Zigah, postdoc
  
• Dörte Carstens, PhD student
• Mathias Kirf, PhD student
• Sebastian Näher, PhD student
• Kirsten Oswald, PhD student
  
• Marie-Ève Randlett, PhD student
• Numa Pfenninger, civil servant