Department Surface Waters - Research and Management

Biogeochemistry

The Biogeochemistry Group at Eawag Kastanienbaum studies biogeochemical processes in lakes and marine systems.
We have three main foci:

  • Investigating the process of aerobic and anaerobic methane oxidation in sediments and water columns of lacustrine systems
  • Methanogenesis in dependence on organic material origin
  • Using stable isotopes including compound specific isotopes on amino acids and fatty acids on fish muscle to reconstruct food and trophic positions in lakes in Switzerland and river and fjords in Greenland
  • Reconstructing food webs between aquatic and terrestrial environments (BGB project)

Contact

Prof. Dr. Carsten Schubert Tel. +41 58 765 2195 Send Mail

Team

Prof. Dr. Carsten Schubert Tel. +41 58 765 2195 Send Mail
Serge Robert Tel. +41 58 765 2125 Send Mail
Dr. Grégoire Saboret Tel. +41 58 765 2283 Send Mail

Current Projects

This project contributes to the Blue Green Biodiversity Research Initiative – an Eawag-WSL collaboration focusing on Biodiversity at the interface of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

Food webs across aquatic-terrestrial environments in forests
We try to understand the bulk and compound specific carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions in food chains.

Ecology of food chain in freshwater systems
We investigate how the origin of the organic material determines methane production.

Methanogenesis (dependence on organic material origin)
We investigate the process of anaerobic methane oxidation in the water column of different lake systems.

Methane oxidation in low-oxygen zones