Overview

Research Division 3: Marine Ecology

Overview

The Research Division Marine Ecology has five Research Units: Experimental Ecology - Benthos, Marine Evolutionary Ecology, Marine Natural Products Chemistry, Marine Symbioses and Ocean EcoSystems Biology.

RD3 mission: Ocean’s biological diversity drives ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles. A deeper knowledge on existing diversity, the associated processes and the reactions to environmental perturbation is needed to project future changes, and to guide sustainable use of biological resources.

These are a few key questions that scientists of RD3 are addressing:

How will species interactions and marine communities be reorganized under multiple environmental changes, including invasion pressure and novel pathogens?

How will ecosystem biodiversity, functioning and services (for example, productivity, carbon sequestration, nutrient retention) change in response to perturbations and re-organization (due to range shifts /species introductions)? What are the relative contributions of evolutionary change, physiological plasticity and community restructuring to overall ecological response to global change?

What are novel marine resources in terms of genetic/genomic resources and marine organism and substances that can be utilized for human application? How can we sustainably use marine resources by understanding the biology of the exploited species in order to minimize effects on population sizes and biodiversity and the affected habitats?

Research groups

There are currently 15 research groups in the research area Marine Ecology. Follow the links to the respective research group pages.

Marine Evolutionary Ecology - Prof. Dr. Thorsten Reusch — Marine Evolutionary Ecology
Prof. Dr. Thorsten Reusch

Marine Symbioses - Prof. Dr. Ute Hentschel Humeida — Marine Symbioses
Prof. Dr. Ute Hentschel Humeida

Ecophysiology - Prof. Dr. Frank Melzner — Ecophysiology
Prof. Dr. Frank Melzner

Stress Ecology - Prof. Dr. Martin Wahl — Stress Ecology
Prof. Dr. Martin Wahl

Marine Natural Products Chemistry - Prof. Dr. Deniz Tasdemir — Marine Natural Products Chemistry
Prof. Dr. Deniz Tasdemir

Marine Microbial Ecology - Prof. David Needham — Marine Microbial Ecology
Prof. Dr. David Needham

Deep-sea biology - Dr. Henk-Jan Hoving — Deep-sea biology
Dr. Henk-Jan Hoving

Marine Behavioural Ecology - Dr. Christopher Monk

Marine Macrophytes - PD Dr. Florian Weinberger — Marine Macrophytes
PD Dr. Florian Weinberger

Biodiversity - Dr. Birte Matthiessen — Biodiversity
Dr. Birte Matthiessen

Invasion Ecology - PD Dr. Elizabeta Briski — Invasion Ecology
PD Dr. Elizabeta Briski

Coral Adaption to Extremes
Dr. Marlene Wall

Microbial Oceanography & Biogeochemistry
Dr. Kristin Bergauer

RD3 News

A small green animal crawls on a seagrass stalk under water

29.10.2024

Bacterial communities on seagrass leaves suppress waterborne pathogens

New GEOMAR study shows high antibiotic potential against marine and human pathogens

An almost transparent, slightly iridescent rainbow-coloured jellyfish swims in front of a black background

25.10.2024

Shedding Light on the Ocean’s Twilight Zone

EU Twinning Project to Investigate Deep-Sea Food Webs around Madeira

RD3

Marine Ecology

Head of the Research Division:
Prof. Dr. Thorsten Reusch
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
Wischhofstr. 1-3
D-24148 Kiel
Germany
Room: 5-1.502
Phone: +49-431 - 600-4550
e-mail: treusch(at)geomar.de
Assistant / Office Manager:
Cornelia Rüther
Phone: +49-431- 600-4551
Room: 5-1.505
e-mail: cruether(at)geomar.de
Publications of the research unit
Archiv - 2011
Current seminars within RD3 and RUs
Past seminars

Bacterial communities on seagrass leaves suppress waterborne pathogens

Shedding Light on the Ocean’s Twilight Zone

Contact

Publications

Press releases

Seminars within RD3 and RUs