Shipeng finished his dissertation on 12.12.12

Shipeng successfully defensed his doctorate dissertation last week on 12.12.12. Prof Joel Kostka from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA joined his defense.

Joel, Kirsten and Shipeng at the celebration party

Merry Christmas and happy new year!

The AquaDiv@Jena team and the whole working group wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Different bacteria isolated from groundwater and passive sampler material in the Hainich (by Patricia Lange)

Olivia Rasigraf got Examenspreis des Rektors

Olivia Rasigraf, a former bachelor student of our group in 2009, got the prize for the best master exam of the Faculty of Biology and Pharmacy from the rectorate of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena on 25th Oct. She did an external master thesis at the Radboud University Nijmegen (the Netherlands) in the microbiology group of Prof. dr.ir. Mike Jetten with Kirsten as the second advisor. Her thesis was entitled 'Stress physiology and C1 metabolism of Methylomirabilis oxyfera enrichment cultures'.

Olivia after the ceremony

Limnologisches Geländepraktikum SS2012

Limnology practical course
From 24-28 Sep. 2012, 25 bachelor students practiced limnological methods in the field at stream Leutra and lake Porstendorfer See, as well as lab skills.

 Teaching at the lake

 Taking sediment cores

BETRIEBSAUSFLUG AUTUMN 2012

Tree climbing

On 2012.07.16, The whole team practiced our climbing skill in Kletterwald-Hohenfelden and enjoyed a BBQ afterwards. 

 The BRAVE TEN

Making the BBQ fire

The winner team of Kubb

Sampling at Schlöppnerbrunnen

On 07.04.2012, Maria, Anke and Jenny went on a field trip to the acidic fen Schlöppnerbrunnen to take soil core samples.

Anke is teaching Jenny how to use a pürkheimer soil corer to take peat cores.

Sampling at Reichwalde: clogged well

On 03.07. 2012 Juanjuan Wang, Carolin Stamm and Volkmar Haus went sampling at open mining site Reichwalde, where iron oxides cause severe well clogging.

Iron crust clogged well

NEW MULTIFUNCTIONAL BUILDING IS READY TO USE

After more than one year's construction, the new Hi-Tech multifunctional building in the back yard is now ready for the users. It is equipped with climate chambers and gas supplying system on the first floor and storage room on the second floor.

On 11.06 2012, we moved our stuff back into this brand new building under the organization by Mr. Fischer and Anna . The job was tough, however, The icecream bought by Tsing was really helpful (check the blue arrow). 

Passing the bricks to the storage room on the second floor.

Mofette field work

Felix, Carsten, and Denise went to the field this week to collect soil samples from a mofette in the Hartousov region of the Czech Republic. We had amazing weather--almost 30ºC!! and sun the whole day. Soil samples were primarily collected for Carsten's bachelors thesis, in which he will measure enzyme activities over the soil profile. 

Carsten and Felix taking samples from a soil core (0-50 cm depth).

Anti-Ochre field work

Juanjuan, Maren, and Carolin went to the field this week to sample iron ochres from Vattenfall wells. They were able to sample ochres and groundwater from 9 wells at 2 locations. They are planning to investigate differences in microbial communities and iron cycling in the different wells.
Juanjuan and Carolin are excited for the weeks of work ahead!

Carolin and Juanjuan preparing microcosms in the anoxic chamber.

iDiv is funded!!!

On 27 April 2012, the University Alliance Halle-Jena-Leipzig was awarded a joint national research centre for biodiversity research to be located in Leipzig.

The four designated directors, Christian Wirth (University Leipzig), Helge Bruelheide (Martin-Luther university Halle), Francois Buscot (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research) and Kirsten Küsel (Friedrich Schiller University Jena) celebrated the positive outcome of the joint effort.

iDiv - German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research

Image from http://www.idiv-biodiversity.de/

iDiv, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, is a hub for international biodiversity science with its central mission to promote theory-driven synthesis and data-driven theory. iDiv is based in Leipzig and jointly hosted by the University of Leipzig (UL), the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU), all of which have a strong tradition in biodiversity sciences.

The expertise of the consortium is strongly enhanced by eight non-university institutions – the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI BGC), the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (MPI CE), the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI EVA), the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB), the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), the Leibniz Institute Senckenberg Museum of Natural History (SMNG), and the Leibniz Institute German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ).

EGU 2012, Vienna

Kirsten and Denise joined the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2012 in Vienna, Austria from 22 – 27 April. They both presented in the session “Nexus between microbes, metals and minerals in the environment” (BG7.2), convened by Harish Veeramani, Virginia Tech, USA.

Kirsten was a keynote speaker for the session and the title of her talk was “Cold war biogeochemistry: Microbes as architects for metal attenuation”. In addition, Kirsten was awarded the distinction of EAG Eminent Speaker 2012. Information about the award and her video interview can be found here.

Kirsten receiving the EAG Eminent Speaker award from Harish Veeramani

Denise and Franziska Schäffner (from FSU Jena's Inst. of Earth Sciences) presented invited posters about their work at the Gessenwiese test field on Thursday.

Kirsten and Denise enjoyed the conference and also took some time to visit the sites in Vienna. It is a beautiful city with rich culture and too much to see in between conference sessions! We can only hope to go back to have more time to explore.

2012 Bachelor Students

The new group of Bachelor's students started this month and we are happy to have them in the working group.

Laura Degenkolb is working with Sebastian Opitz on the AquaDiva project.
Carsten Simon is working with Felix Beulig on the mofette project.
Carolin Stamm is working with Juanjuan Wang on the Anti-Ochre project.
Jenny Weichelt is working with Anke Hädrich on iron cycling.

Jenny, Carolin, Laura, and Carsten

We hope they enjoy their experience and have a lot of success in their projects.

Betriebsausflug Spring 2012

The Aquatic Geomicrobiology working group hiking through the hills behind the Institute of Ecology, searching for Winterlinge flowers.

The Aquatic Geomicrobiology working group had a Betriebsausflug (outing) on Leap Day, Feburary 29, 2012.  We went on a hike through the hills behind the Institute of Ecology looking for winter flowers, specifically the Winterlinge or Winter aconite (Eranthis spp.).  These little yellow perennial flowers are some of the first plants to come up in the spring to take advantage of the sunshine available before the trees start producing leaves.  Although the weather was not particularly pleasant, we had a great day and finished it up with a lunch of homemade pasta at the Noodlehaus in Zwätzen (northern Jena).  See more pictures of our day below.

The Yellow fuzz you see over the fallen leaves are the Winterlinge in their thousands

A bit closer picture of the flowers sticking up out the leaves