The taste of salt

The Baltic Sea is characterized by its distinct horizontal and vertical pelagic salinity gradient, with the unique feature that 62 % of its surface zone is represented by brackish conditions (5-8 salinity). Observationsconcerning the diversity of pelagic microorganisms in the Baltic Sea demonstrated the presence of marine as well as freshwater taxa, but no coherent view exists on the area of a shift between marine and freshwater microorganisms, or the composition of potential brackish water microbial assemblages.

Phylogenetic markers are investigated for transects covering the horizontal and vertical salinity gradient of the whole Baltic Sea. The bacterial diversity and abundance will be studied applying 16S rRNA/rRNA gene Tag pyrosequencing analyses, resulting in the first biogeographical as well as microbial richness mapping of the Baltic Sea on a high resolution, three-dimensional basis.

ATKiM project (coordinator)
Degradability of artic, terrigenous carbon compounds in the Sea (ATKiM)

Herlemann D. P. R.,  Labrenz M. , Jürgens K., Bertilsson S., Waniek J.J. and A.F. Andersson. 2011, Transitions in bacterial communities along the 2000 km salinity gradient of the Baltic Sea. ISMEJ 5: 1571–1579.

Herlemann D. P. R., Geissinger, O., Ikeda-Ohtsubo, W., Kunin, V., Sun, H, Lapidus A., Hugenholtz P., and A. Brune. 2009. Genome analysis of Elusimicrobium minutum, the first cultivated representative of the Elusimicrobia phylum (formerly Termite Group 1). Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75, 2841-2849

Geissinger O., Herlemann, D. P. R., Maier U., and A. Brune. 2009. Elusimicrobium minutum gen. nov., the first isolate of the Termite Group 1 phylum. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75, 2831-2840.

Herlemann D. P. R., Geissinger, O., and A. Brune. 2007. The Termite Group 1 phylum is highly diverse and widespread in the environment. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 73, 6682-6685.

• since 2009 Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, Warnemünde; Postdoc
• 2006 –2009 Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology Marburg, Germany.
  Doctor of natural science (Ph.D.)
• 2005 External diploma thesis at the
  Helmholtz Centre for Environmental research (UFZ), Leipzig.
• 2003 Semester abroad (ERASMUS) at the University of Klaipeda, Lithuania
• 2000- 2005 Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University Greifswald, Diplom