Microorganisms interact with their environment as they produce and and consume dissolved compounds that will therefore become depleted or enriched in their surrounding, mainly in the pore water. Analysis of dissolved compounds is therefore a prerequisite for understanding microbial activity in geologic settings. Another major focus of our work in on direct detection of microbial turnover via the use of radioisotopes as those offer unsurpassed sensitivity. As microbial abundance and activity …

In the Organic Surface Geochemistry Lab (OSGLab) of the Geomorphology section, the smallest of molecules and isotopes open a door to the past. In the OSGLab we conduct research on regional differences of the causes and effects of past climate change and variations in biochemical cycles. In some projects, we can determine the "traces" of climate change down to a decade, in other projects biogeochemical processes are traced over millions of years.
In the laboratory, changes in the carbon …

The Stable Isotope Lab addresses stable hydrogen isotope analysis of lipids and hydrocarbons (lean samples), stable carbon isotope analysis of lipids, hydrocarbons, gases (lean samples), stable carbon and hydrogen isotope analysis (rich samples) as well as bulk stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis.