Research projects of current students
- Judith Pump
- Start Date: March 2009
- Nationality: German
- Diploma Thesis:
Enzyme-catalyzed synthesis of amino acid derivatives and hybrid molecules and their
metabolization by fungal cells (09/ 2008), Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Germany
- Research Group:
AG Conrad, Department of Biogeochemistry, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology,
Marburg, Germany
- Research Project Description:
My research is focused on the structure and function of soil microbial communities and their
impact on global nutrient cycles. Specifically, I am interested in archaeal community in the
rhizosphere of wetland plants. In my PhD project I am studying the carbon flow of rice plant
assimilated carbon and the methane emission derived from rhizodeposits via stable isotope
labeling. Using a culture independent, genomic approach, I analyze the archaeal and in
particular the methanogenic population to investigate the impact of microbial communities on
methane turnover. Methanogenic archaea are the key players in the production of methane as
potent greenhouse gas and thus they contribute to global warming. The relationship between
the microbial community structure in the rhizosphere and biological processes like
methanogenesis in terrestrial ecosystems is not well understood yet.
