Feb 22, 2019
Endospores Rival Growing Cells in Ocean Sediments
A survey of ocean sediments from around the world finds that dormant bacterial endospores are about as common as slow-growing cells, and make up a ...
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Ocean Floor
exploring & describing
The ocean floor is one of the most dynamic and geologically diverse regions on Earth. Its shape is constantly being changed by the input of sediments, their further transport and deposition as well as by submarine volcanism, earthquakes, anthropogenic influences and many other factors.
MARUM scientists deal with a broad spectrum of processes that shape the sea floor. These include current-driven sediment movement and its influence by human activities, the influence of seafloor dynamics on morphology and benthic ecosystems, as well as cascading natural hazards and their precursors. The interactions between the Earth's crust and the sediment bed at oceanic rift and spreading centers are also the focus of MARUM's research.
Some of the questions that drive our research are:
- How are oceanic crust and plates formed and how do they evolve and how do they affect geochemical cycles in the ocean?
- What controls slope instability and how does it affect human activities?
- What processes control the transport and accumulation of sediments and other particles, such as organic carbon and plastic?
- What factors control the growth of cold-water corals?
To answer those and many other questions, we apply different methods ranging from numerical modelling, analysis of sediment cores or observations of the seafloor using the technology of MARUM.
Sampling with the diving robot MARUM-QUEST at a water depth of 520 meters on the Azores Plateau, Photo: MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen
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MARUM is home to the Cluster of Excellence ›The Ocean Floor - Earth's Uncharted Interface‹.