Guest professor seminar: Impossible nitrogen and methane cycle microbes in coastal ecosystems

The Faculty of Science Guest Professor Mike Jetten will talk about fascinating microbial processes that play a crucial role in the global nitrogen and methane cycles. These processes evolved in the absence of oxygen and have, over the course of Earth’s history, profoundly influenced the chemical forms of the planet’s major elements.

In his seminar, Mike Jetten will present research from the past two decades aimed at discovering and understanding the role of anaerobic microbes in dynamic coastal ecosystems where terrestrial and marine environments meet, including the Bothnian Sea, the Stockholm Archipelago, and Marine Lake Grevelingen in the Netherlands. These ecosystems are increasingly affected by challenges such as eutrophication and oxygen depletion, which can alter the microbial processes that regulate nitrogen and methane transformations.

By combining approaches such as metagenomic analyses, pore water profiling, sediment incubations and bioreactor enrichment, the research explores the complex microbial pathways involved in these cycles. Molecular studies have revealed that anammox bacteria occur in many oxygen-limited environments and are capable of producing hydrazine – a compound also used as rocket fuel – through unique protein complexes. Depending on nutrient conditions, the anammox process can play a significant role in removing reactive nitrogen from ecosystems.

The seminar will also highlight work on enriching and characterizing marine anammox bacteria from sediments in the Gullmar Fjord, as well as ongoing efforts to identify and cultivate elusive microorganisms involved in ammonium and methane removal in anoxic sediments.

Speaker is Mike Jetten, who is a Guest Professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (MGeo), at the Faculty of Science, Lund University. When he is not here in Lund he is based at the Department of Microbiology, RIBES, Radboud University, Nijmegen, in the Netherlands.

Fika and coffee will be served from 13.00 PM outside the seminar room. The seminar starts at 13.15 PM.