Dr. Solveig Bühring

photo courtesy of Roy Price

My research focuses on the link between organisms and ecosystem functioning. I prefer to work in situ using lipid biomarker and stable isotope assays, as well as labeling techniques. With the use of different 13C-labeled substrates and subsequent analysis of prokaryotic biomarkers, I can follow the uptake into metabolically active populations. As a geomicrobiologist, I aim to identify key players in carbon cycling in diverse aquatic settings.

The newly established DFG - Emmy Noether Young Investigator research group “Hydrothermal Geomicrobiology” will focus on marine shallow-water hydrothermal vents. The study of extremophiles inhabiting these systems presents an enormous opportunity, because they (1) provide a window into a microbiome characterized by high metabolic versatility and unique adaptations to extreme conditions, they (2) are vastly understudied, and they (3) combine easy accessibility with a wide range of geological, chemical, and biological processes similar to those taking place in deep-sea vents. My group will focus on the study of autotrophic microorganisms and the processes mediated by them.

Recent and ongoing projects

• Microbial carbon fixation in a marine shallow-water hydrothermal vent system
• Microbial community of the Farbstreifensandwatt
• Microbial diversity of Río Tinto
• Black Sea anoxic water column community
• Terrestrial sulfidic spring community

Bühring, S.I., Schubotz, F., Harms, C., Lipp, J.S., Amils, R. & Hinrichs, K.-U. (2012) "Lipid signatures of acidophilic microbial communities in an extreme, acidic environment: Río Tinto, Spain", Organic Geochemistry 47: 66-77.

Bühring, S.I., Sievert, S.M., Jonkers, H.M., Ertefai, T., Elshahed, M.S. Krumholz, L.R. & Hinrichs, K.-U. (2011) "Insights into chemotaxonomic composition and carbon cycling of phototrophic communities in an artesian sulfur-rich spring (Zodletone, Oklahoma, USA), a possible analogue for ancient microbial mat systems". Geobiology 9/2: 166-179.

Christiansen, B., Bühring, S.I., Pfannkuche, O. & Weikert, H. (2010) "The near-bottom plankton community at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain, NE-Atlantic: structure and vertical distribution". Marine Biology Research 6/2: 113-124.

Bühring, S.I., Smittenberg, R.H., Sachse, D., Lipp, J.S., Golubic, S., Sachs, J.P., Hinrichs, K.-U. & Summons, R.E. (2009) "A hypersaline microbial mat from the Pacific Atoll Kiritimati: Insight into composition and carbon fixation using biomarker analyses and a 13C-labeling approach". Geobiology 7: 308-323.

Elshahed, M.S., Luo, Q., Najar, F.Z., Roe, B.A., Sisk, T.M., Bühring, S.I., Hinrichs, K.-U. & Krumholz, L.R. (2007) "Phylogenetic diversity and metabolic capabilities of members of the phylum Planctomycetes in anaerobic, sulfide and sulfur-rich sediments in a mesophilic spring (Zodletone spring, OK, USA)". Applied and Environmental Microbiology 73/15: 4707-4716.

Bühring, S.I., Ehrenhauss, S., Kamp, A., Moodley, L. & Witte, U. (2006) "Enhanced benthic activity in sandy sublittoral sediments: Evidence from 13C-tracer experiments" Marine Biology Research 2:120-129.

Bühring, S.I., Lampadariou, N., Moodley, L., Tselepides, A. & Witte, U. (2006) "Benthic microbial and whole-community responses to different amounts of 13C-enriched algae: in situ experiments in the deep Cretan Sea (eastern Mediterranean). Limnology & Oceanography 51/1: 157-165.

Bühring, S.I., Elvert, M. & Witte, U. (2005) "The microbial community structure of different permeable sandy sediments characterised by the investigation of bacterial fatty acids and fluorescence in situ hybridisation". Environmental Microbiology 7/2: 281-293.

Ehrenhauss, S., Witte, U., Bühring, S.I. & Huettel, M. (2004) "Effect of advective pore water transport on distribution and degradation of diatoms in permeable North Sea sediments". Marine Ecology Progress Series 271:99-111.

Bühring, S.I., Koppelmann, R., Christiansen, B. & Weikert, H. (2002) "Are Rhodophyceae a dietary component for deep-sea holothurians?" Journal of Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 82:347-348.

Bühring, S.I. & Christiansen, B. (2001) "Lipids in selected abyssal benthopelagic animals: links to the epipelagic zone?" Progress in Oceanography 50:369-382.

Price, R.E., Savov, I., Planer-Friedrich, B., Bühring, S.I., Amend, J. & Pichler, T.: "Processes influencing extreme As enrichment in shallow-sea hydrothermal fluids of Milos Island, Greece", submitted to Chemical Geology.

As part of my Marie-Curie Fellowship I did research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. Please visit my external homepage.