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Marine Sedimentology
News - Guests
2025
Study Group Meeting at HWK
May 2025 - Our group presented their data on cold-water coral mounds off Morocco and Mauritania during the fourth meeting of the HWK study group on "Deep-Sea Benthic Ecosystems Offshore West Africa". This hybrid meeting was led by Cova Orejas and Veerle Huvenne (ex-HWK-Fellows), and co-oragnised by Doris Meyerdierks (HWK, Delmenhorst) and André Freiwald and Lydia Beuck (both Senckenberg am Meer). Together with several colleagues from Germany, Spain, UK, Denmark, Morocco, and Mauritania, we started to plan for the proposals of two expeditions exploring cold-water corals along the NW African margin.
participants 2nd day (from left): Veerle, Jürgen, Arne, Florian, Leon, Sidi, Dierk, Cova, Lydia, Claudia, Kai, André, Peggy
participants first day (from left): Claudia, Jürgen (both MARUM), Veerle (NOC), Dierk (MARUM), Cova (IEO-CSIC), Leon, André (both Senckenberg), Sebastian (Uni Kiel), Sidi (IMROP), Lydia, Alex, Kai (all three Senckenberg), Peggy (Thünen Institute)
Two guests from Spain
May 2025 - We are delighted to welcome two guests from Spain. Dr. Covadonga Orejas (IEO-CSIC) and Dr. Beatriz Vinha (University of Barcelona), who are joining us to collaborate on samples collected during the RV SONNE expedition SO306 (COWIO) along the East African margin. Our joint project aims to investigate and compare the trophic webs of cold-water coral ecosystems off Mayotte, Tanzania, and Mozambique through stable isotope analyses (δ15N, δ13C).
Expedition to explore NZ corals
January 2025 - Our group (Dierk, Claudia, Jürgen, Emmanuel) will take part in an expedition with the RV SONNE focusing on cold-water coral ecosystems around New Zealand. The expedition will start on 16th January in Wellington and will end on 15th February.
Welcome back Emmanuel
January 2025 - Our former PhD student Emmanuel Okuma has returned to our research group. During the next 26 months, his work will focus on reconstructing the development of cold-water coral mounds off New Zealand. However, coral mounds are still not know in this region, but we hopefully will discover some during the RV SONNE expedition SO309 "CoralNewZ", which will start soon.
2024
Planning for Projects
December 2024 - We have another visit from our dear cold-water coral colleagues. Dr. Cova Orejas (IEO-CSIC, Gijon, Spain) and Dr. Christian Mohn (Aarhus University, Denmark) are visiting our coral group at MARUM to make plans for future joint projects.
Bremen reunion in Qingdao
October 2024 - In relation to the 100th anniversary of the Ocean University of China in Qingdao, Dierk was invited by Prof. Xiting Liu (left in the picture), a GLOMAR alumni, to give a presentation in the adjoining conference. This was a great opportunity to also meet Haozhuang Wang (2nd from left), also a GLOMAR alumni, and Ziye Li (right), who both are former members of our group. Obviously, this was a really nice reunification!).
Upcoming cruise to NZ
October 2024 - Our working group is currently preparing for another expedition with RV SONNE (SO309 - CoralNewZ). This time we will explore cold-water coral occurrences around New Zealand in the SW Pacific by using the ROV MARUM Squid and various sediment sampling gears. The cruise will start in Wellington in January 2025 and is led by André Freiwald (Senckenberg, Wilhelmshaven).
Cova is back in town
October 2024 - Our dear colleague Dr. Cova Orejas (IEO-CSIC) will stay for another time with our working group. This time she will prepare and run first analyses on benthic fauna samples recently collected during RV SONNE expedition SO306 (CoWIO) along the East African margin. The samples will be used for stable isotope, C/N, lipid and eDNA analyses (in collaboration with Andrea Gori, Charlotte Havermans and Saskia Brix) to get new insights into the trophic net and deep-sea biodiversity.
Ship's log online - SO306
August/September 2024 - Follow our expedition SO306 (COWIO) with the RV SONNE to the West Indian Ocean and see what we explore in the deep sea searching for cold-water corals: https://www.marum.de/Logbuch-SO306.html
RV SONNE expedition SO306
August 2024 - Our group is organising the expedition SO306 with the RV SONNE to the West Indian Ocean with a focus on cold-water coral ecosystems on volcanic islands and seamounts of the Comoros and Mayotte as well as along the East African continental margin. The main objectives are (a) a systematic inventory of the distribution and biodiversity of cold-water coral ecosystems under the influence of the prevailing environmental conditions and (b) a reconstruction of their evolution under the influence of climate change in the geological past. The cruise will depart from Mauritius on 08 August.
Welcome Guillem!
August 2024 - We welcome a new member in our working group. Dr. Guillem Corbera will work on the project Reconstructing the response of West Indian Ocean cold-water corals to environmental change. The project is part of the SO306 expedition with the RV SONNE funded by the BMBF.
Goodbye Karla!
May 2024 - After successfully completing her doctoral thesis, Karla Rubio Sandoval - who has been our dear "guest" PhD student for some time now - will leave Bremen and our group to go back to her home country of Mexico. There she will take up her first PostDoc position and we wish her every success for her future career!!
Cova is back in town
January/February 2024 - Our dear colleague Dr. Cova Orejas (IEO-CSIC) will stay for another time with our working group. She will continue to work with Claudia on different projects, such as start planning her participation in the RV SONNE expedition SO306 ("COWIO"), which will take place in August/September this year, and draft a joint manuscript dealing with coral growth rates determined by Th/U dating and combining this with coral colony size measurements based on image analyses.
New book on corals
January 2024 - A new volume of the Springer series "Coral Reefs of the World" has been published! The volume "Cold-Water Coral Reefs of the World" has been edited by Erik Cordes (Temple University, US) and Furu Mienis (Royal NIOZ, NL) and our coral group (Claudia, Dierk and Jürgen) contributed to three chapters (one as lead author: Wienberg et al. (2023) Cold-Water Coral Reefs in the Oxygen Minimum Zones off West Africa).
2023
Congratulations Dr. Okuma!
December 2023 - On 20 December, Emmanuel successfully defended his PhD with a talk entitled: "Ice-sheet control of sedimentation patterns at glaciated margins". Congratulations and we wish you and your little family all the best for your future!!
Welcome Vivien!
October 2023 - We like to welcome a new member of our working group. Vivien Winter will support Tina with the coordination of the course programme for early career researchers.
Welcome Christian!
September 2023 - We like to welcome Dr. Christian Mohn an oceanographer and modeller from Aarhus University, Denmark. He received a HWK-fellowship and will work on hydrodynamic simulations based on data of our very successful ANNA cruise to the Angolan and Namibian margin.
Goodbye Ziye
September 2023 - Our dear colleague Ziye is leaving our group to go back to China, where she will continue her scientific career. We wish her all the best for the future!!
Goodbye Sinah
July 2023 - Unfortunately, Sinah has left our group. She is looking for a new challenge and will become a primary school teacher in Bremen. We wish her much success and joy in her new job.
Hello again
June 2023 - For the second time this year, we welcome our dear colleague Dr. Cova Orejas (IEO-CSIC). She will work with Claudia on (i) the project outline of a new PhD project on species distribution modelling (together with Dr. Ana Hilario, CESAM), and (ii) the planning of a joint project on coral growth rates (together with Dr. Andrea Schröder-Ritzrau, IUP Heidelberg).
Coral Symposium in Edinburgh
May/June 2023 - The 8th International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals took place in Edinburgh from the 28th May to 2nd June 2023. Our group presented their work on cold-water corals in one keynote (Claudia), three full talks (Dierk, Jürgen, Luis) and two speed talks (Rodrigo, Chelsea). It was also a (re-)union of past, present and future(?) members of the working group!!!
Follow the symposium on Twitter!!!
Congratulations Jens!
April 2023 - On 25 April, Jens successfully defended his PhD with a talk entitled: "Going with the flow - Sedimentation off West Greenland". Congratulations and we wish you and your little family all the best for your future!!
Guest from Heidelberg
April/May 2023 - We welcome Inga Kerber, a PhD student from the IUP (Heidelberg), who will spend two weeks in our working group. Together with Claudia and Jürgen, she is writing a publication dealing with a statistical analysis (Kernel Density Estimation) on the the temporal occurrence of cold-water corals in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.
Interview with Claudia
April 2023 - The journalist Marko Pauli produced a radio feature about the Deep Sea for the German broadcaster Bayrischer Rundfunk (radio). He visited MARUM for this purpose and were talking to Claudia Wienberg, and to Prof. Dr. Elda Miramontes (University of Bremen) and Dr. Saskia Brix (Senckenberg). You can listen to it here (in German).
Interview with Mahyar
February 2023 - Mahyar gave an interview about his current reserach on monsoons to the online magazone "Welt der Physik”. Here you will find the full article ("Die Monsunregenfälle über Ostasien werden intensiver"; in German): https://www.weltderphysik.de/gebiet/erde/atmosphaere/klimaforschung/klimaforschung-die-monsunregenfaelle-ueber-ostasien-werden-intensiver/
Cova is back
February/March 2023 - We welcome our dear colleague Dr. Cova Orejas (IEO-CSIC). She will continue to work with Claudia on (i) ROV videos and oceanographic data from the the Angolan coral mounds (together with Dr. Veerle Huvenne, NOC), (ii) a review paper on the impact of internal waves different coral communities (together with Dr. Marlene Wall, Geomar), (iii) the start-up of a new PhD project on species distribution modelling, and (iv) the planning of a joint project on coral growth rates (together with Dr. Andrea Schröder-Ritzrau, IUP Heidelberg).
New PhD project
February 2023 - Our group is now involved in a new PhD project funded by the UN Ocean Decade programme Challenger150, a global scientific cooperation focussed on deep-sea biological research. The PhD candidate Teresa Ferreira will use ROV videos and CTD data collected during three expeditions organised by our group to characterise megabenthic communities from cold-water coral reefs across the Atlantic. The main aim is to build species distribution models for selected structuring species (Lophelia pertusa). The project is hosted by the University of Aveiro with Ana Hilario being the main supervisor, Cova Orejas (IEO-CSIC) and Claudia are co-supervisors.
Guest from Denmark
February 2023 - We welcome Dr. Christian Mohn from the Aarhus University. Christian is an oceanograph and modeller and will work together with Claudia, Jürgen and Dierk on data from the Angolan slope and the Namibian shelf (M122 - ANNA). The modelling project is part of the EU-project iAtlantic and a fellowship of the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg, which Christian will start in autumn this year.
Guests from Heidelberg
February 2023 - We welcome Dr. Andrea Schröder-Ritzrau & Elvira Beisel from the Institut für Umweltphysik (University of Heidelberg). In collaboration with Claudia, they are sampling cold-water corals of cores from the Angolan and Mauritanian margins (i) to reconstruct thermocline ventilation ages in the NE Atlantic based on paired Th/U-14C dating.
Nature publication
January 2023 - Our dear colleague Ziye is the first author of a new Nature publication. Together with scientists from the USA and UK, she analysed data from deep-sea drilling at 81 global sites to determine the history of organic carbon burial during the Neogene (23-3 Ma). Their results support the assumption that rates were high in the early Miocene & Pliocene and low in the middle Miocene. They assume that carbon sequestration is related to temperature-dependent bacterial decomposition of organic matter during the warm period of the middle Miocene. Follow the article and press release...
Welcome back!
January 2023 - Rodrigo has returned to our research group. During the next three years, his work will focus on developing a proxy to reconstruct past dissolved oxygen conditions. His project is part of the Research Unit Receiver withinn the Cluster of Excellence "The Ocean Floor - Earth's Uncharted Interface". Good to have you back!
Happy New Year
January 2023 - We wish everybody much success, happiness, freedom and health for the year 2023!!!
2022
60!!!
November 2022 - Dierk turned 60 and we celebrated his birthday with a joint breakfast. Congratulations (you look younger than ever) and enjoy your Gin o'clock time :)
Welcome Luis!
September 2022 - We welcome a new member of our working group. Luis Greiffenhagen did his MSc at the University of Edinburgh (UK) on cold-water coral ecosystem functioning and will now work on the carbonate budgeting of coral mounds. His PhD project is part of the Research Unit Recorder within the Cluster of Excellence "The Ocean Floor – Earth’s Uncharted Interface".
Congratulations Leo!
September 2022 - On the 2nd of September, Leonardo successfully defended his PhD with a talk entitled: "The information of cold-water coral mounds beneath the Benguela upwelling system". Congratulations and we wish you and your little family much success for your future career!!
New Working Group
August 2022 - Congratulations! Mahyar handed in a proposal to establish his own working group, which was endorsed by the MARUM-Zentrumsrat during its last meeting. From now on, he is leading the group on "Low-latitude Climate Variability". Martina and Ziye will be members of this new scientifically independent group at MARUM. Check out the new webpage...
New HWK Study Group
June 2022 - Our coral group was invited for a preparatory meeting at the HWK to establish a study group on "Deep-Sea Benthic Ecosystems Offshore West Africa". This meeting was organised by Cova Orejas and Veerle Huvenne (HWK-Fellows), and Doris Meyerdierks (HWK, Delmenhorst). Together with colleagues from the Senckenberg am Meer, GEOMAR, Aarhus University (Denmark), and University of Salento (Italy), we had some fruitful discussions and many ideas for a 3-years study group and the first meeting will hopefully take place in 2023.
New publication
May 2022 - New publication on cold-water corals, led by our colleague Rodrigo Portilho-Ramos and published in Plos Biology. Check out the link to the press release (Past events reveal how future warming could harm cold-water corals) and the paper (Major environmental drivers determining life and death of cold-water corals through time). Congrats Rodrigo!!
Goodbye Chelsea!
May 2022 - Our dear colleague Chelsea Korpanty is leaving Bremen to go back to the U.S. and work as a lecturer for the Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. We wish her and her family all the best and much success for her future scientific career!
Guests from Heidelberg
May 2022 - We welcome Elvira Beisel and Marleen Lausecker from the Institut für Umweltphysik (University of Heidelberg). In collaboration with Claudia, they are sampling cold-water corals of cores from the Moroccan and Mauritanian margins (i) to reconstruct thermocline ventilation ages and temperatures in the NE Atlantic (paired Th/U-14C dating, Li/Mg), (ii) to refine the temporal development of coral mounds, and (iii) to determine water mass origin (Nd-isotopes).
New guest
April 2022 - We like to welcome a new guest in our working group. Botond Árpád Lázár is a PhD student from the Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca in Romania. For the next four months, he will work together with Mahyar and Enno Schefuss.
Field trip to Iran
April 2022 - Mahyar and Dierk are currently on a field trip to Iran with master students of the FB05. Starting in Isfahan, the students will gain insight into geological processes of the Zagros mountains with a focus on oil/gas exploration, tectonic of salt domes/diapirs, transport and deposition mechanisms in eolian systems, mass extinction events in Earth history. The excursion will end in Shiraz.
Welcome back
March 2022 - We like to welcome a new ("old") member of our working group. Dr. Martina Hollstein worked as a PhD student and PostDoc at MARUM, before she left for a job at the BGR. Now she is back and will work for the Cluster of Excellence (RECORDER).
Congratulations
January 2022 - Dharma successfully applied for the Herschel Programme award for women in technical leadership-UK - and (no surprise) she got it! The Herschel Programme aims to address the lack of women in technical leadership positions across science. It provides a space for women to learn new skills to develop themselves in a current technical leadership role or equip themselves for a future role.
Happy New Year!
January 2022 - Our working group wishes everybody much success, happiness and health for the year 2022!!!
2021
Welcome Cova and Veerle!
October 2021 - We like to welcome Dr. Cova Orejas (IEO, Spain) and Dr. Veerle Huvenne (NOC, UK) who are two internationally renowned experts on cold-water coral research and will work with our group in the coming weeks. They received a HWK-fellowship allowing us to proceed and continue joint projects on the outcomes of our very successful ANNA cruise to the Angolan margin.
Congratulations
July 2021 - We congratulate our dear colleague Mahyar for his successful habilitation! Title of his thesis: "Quaternary climate of the low latitudes: The Indo-Pacific realm"; talk: Glacial storage of atmospheric CO2 in the ocean (02. June 2021)".
Happy Retirement!
May 2021 - Our dear colleague Lydie will start her retirement in June and will also leave Bremen to go back to Amsterdam. She was for a long time a member of our working group and we had numerous funny coffee breaks, tasty manuscript cakes and X-mas dinners together. Dear Lydie, enjoy your retirement and your life as much as you can!!
Happy New Year!
January 2021 - Our working group wishes everybody much success, happiness and health for the year 2021!!! Let's hope that we will be able to overcome Corona in a joint effort.