Microorganisms interact with their environment as they produce and and consume dissolved compounds that will therefore become depleted or enriched in their surrounding. In the subsurface environments those processes mainly take place in the pore water, the interstitial water that fills the voids between sediment grains or fractures in igneous rocks. Therefore, fine-scale analysis of dissolved compounds is a prerequisite for understanding microbial activity in geologic settings. We therefore employ a wide range of tools, analysing aqueous and gaseous compounds. 

Another major focus of our work in on direct detection of microbial turnover via the use of radioisotopes. Despite major advances in molecular biological techniques, radiotracer incubations still offer unsurpassed sensitivity. As microbial abundance and activity decreases with depth, radiotracers are often the only option to detect these faint traces of life. 

Instrumens:

• Ion Chromatography systems for Anions, Kations and organic acids
• Photometry
• Gas Chromatograph
• Gas Chromatography-Isotope Ratio-Mass Spectrometer