Department of Environmental Microbiology

The new Department of Environmental Microbiology headed by Prof. Dr. Sara Kleindienst works in the fields of Microbial Ecology, Environmental Omics, and Biogeochemistry and makes important contributions to the sustainability research topics environment, water, and biosystems. A main research focus is microbially mediated pollutant turnover in the environment. Current research projects in this area address microbial hydrocarbon degradation in the ocean, examine the microbial degradation of glyphosate in agricultural soils, and investigate microbial nitrate turnover in groundwater. We further explore interrelationships of microbial activities and biogeochemical cycles and identify environmental factors that influence microbial activities. We are using a combination of field-based research, controlled laboratory experiments, and cultivation and we employ cutting-edge techniques (e.g., metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and metaproteomics) to identify and to isolate microbial key-players within diverse microbial communities, to unravel metabolic pathways, and to shed light on the fate of pollutants in the environment. Our future work in the area of Environmental Microbiology will expand to exciting collaborations with Engineers at ISWA, the University of Stuttgart, and beyond.