Redox cycling

The nutrient and carbon fluxes on the North-western shelf have been extensively studied during the last decade. Reliable data from the Eastern Black Sea are missing, although they could provide crucial information for the functioning of the redox boundary far from the influence of the major rivers. This project addresses two basic research questions concerning biogeochemical cycling at the oxic / anoxic interface of the Eastern Black Sea:

• To which extend is anaerobic methane oxidation occurring in the water column at the redoxcline of the Black Sea? Which microorganisms are responsible for the process?
• What are the rates and pathways of denitrification at the oxic/anoxic interface in the Black Sea? How important is the anamox –process in this context?
  

Funding

• Eawag
• SNF

Collaborations

• Bo Thamdrup (Danish Center for Earth System Science, Institute of Biology, University of Southern Denmark)
• Marcel Kuypers (MPI for Marine Microbiology)

Publication

Schubert, C.J., Coolen, M., Neretin, L., Schippers, A., Abbas, B., Durisch-Kaiser, E., Wehrli, B., Hopmans, E., Sinninghe-Damstè, J., Wakeham, S., and Kuypers, M.M.M. (2006) Anaerobic and aerobic methanotrophs in the the Black Sea water column. Environmental Microbiology, doi: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2006.01079.x.