Our focus in research and teaching is the analysis of organisms (ostracods, diatoms) as environmental and climate indicators, limnological, ecological and sedimentological methods as well as GIS-based environmental reconstructions. Organisms are aquired from limnic and marine sediments using drilling devices and sediment grabs. In the laboratory follows the microscopic identification of organisms, sediment description as well as sample preparation for trace element and stable isotope analysis.
Field-work in Germany and abroad is done using two rubber boats of different size (for example Honda T-35 AE with motor), two Uwitec corer (sediment-short core-sampler), two sediment grabs (Ekman grab), WTW multi-parameter probes, portable photometer (Winlap Dataline) in aquatic environments, as well as Wacker hammer and driving rods, Pürckhauer, rods and soft-head hammer in terrestrial environments.
Our institute possesses a laboratory for microscopic analysis, which is equipped with the research microscope Leica DM 5000 B, the high-performance light optical microscope Zeiss Imager M2 with reflected-light function and the camera AxioCam HRC.
For the analysis of macroscopic organisms eight high-resolution binocular microscopes (leica) with two integrated computer-aided high-performance cameras (CT 5 ProgRes from Jenoptic) are used.
The water- and sediment laboratory is used to process and analysis samples. Therefore, various devices are available, for example drying oven, freeze dryer, rotary evaporator, muffle furnace, centrifuge and water bath.
The paleogenetics laboratory is mainly used for the analysis of ancient DNA from sediments. The lab units for the analysis of recent DNA and the post-PCR area are located in the Institute of Zoology and shared with us. We mainly analyze ancient DNA from sediment cores (terrestrial or lacustrine) in our laboratory for paleogenetics. Currently, we are analyzing samples from (alpine) lake sediment cores and paleolakes in Africa and the Middle East, as well as archaeological artifacts.
We utilize metabarcoding and metagenomics (shot-gun sequencing and DNA hybridization capture). We are especially interested in spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity, focusing on diatoms, terrestrial flora and fauna, as well as hominin DNA. Our analysis of archaeological artifacts provides important details aiding the interpretation of diverse sites. Depending on the methodology we can analyze the taxonomic and functional species composition on a population scale or even the entire ecosystem and investigate their variations across ecosystems. Furthermore, it is possible to extend archaeological contexts with genetic information.
We are using the following molecular genetic methods:
Specificities of the Paleogenetic laboratory:
The laboratory for paleogenetics is spatially secluded from other genetic laboratories, to avoid contamination. Our lab has a high purity degree, following the standard guidelines for the work with ancient DNA.