Researchers deploy a benthic lander in the Baltic Sea. — Deployment of the Big Gothenburg Benthic Lander in the northern Baltic Sea under midnight sun conditions. The around-the-clock experiments were conducted in situ to measure the exchange of nitrogen between the seafloor and the water column.

Photo: Stefano Bonaglia

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Seafloor Biogeochemistry

Research group

Active research

Project owner

Department of Marine Sciences

Area

Sustainability and environment Science and Information Technology

Topic

Other Chemistry Topics Geochemistry Oceanography, Hydrology and Water Resources Marine

Short description

Our research group studies biogeochemical processes in marine surficial sediments.The main objective is to increase our knowledge of sediments’ roles in ocean biogeochemical cycles – how these processes lead to or influence fluxes of solutes such as nutrients, inorganic carbon, metals, methane, nitrogen gas, nitrous oxide, etc., across the sediment-water interface.

Recently, our focus has been on the quantification of climate forcing trace gases such as methane and nitrous oxide. We measure and quantify these fluxes both ex situ with state-of-the-art core incubation and in situ using autonomous benthic landers. We also carry out complex incubation experiments with stable isotope tracers.

We have studied most of Earth’s oceans, including the deep sea, but our focus is on the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the North Atlantic fjords.