Marine ecology and biodiversity
The ocean hosts a large variety of habitats, including underwater mountains, canyons, abyssal plains, hydrothermal vents, and reef systems. We study these largely unknown biodiversity hotspots and their functioning from water column to ocean floor.
Ocean habitats vary widely in diversity and function. We unravel the ecology of communities and how communities are shaped by environmental and biological interactions over time and identify the ecosystem services they provide. Similar to tropical reef systems, reef-building organisms like cold-water corals, sponges, and mussels can shape deep-sea environments, forming biodiversity and biomass hotspots, often threatened by human activity. We investigate deep-sea faunal biogeography and biodiversity, determine their role in nutrient and carbon cycles and explore the influence of productivity, stress, and disturbance on these ecosystems.