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  Welcome
  

  Research in our laboratory aims at an understanding of microbial activities in nature. We try to elucidate principles and limits of substrate turnover and energy exploitation as well as the ecology of microorganisms performing mainly anaerobic processes. 

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  Welcome
  

  Our studies usually start with samples from lake or marine sedi­ments, wastewater sludge, or wetland soils, from which microorganisms are isolated that catalyse key processes in the environment and often possess unusual metabolic activities.

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  Welcome
  

  For example, we discovered processes like phosphite oxidation coupled to sulfate reduction, iron oxidation coupled to nitrate reduction, or anaerobic phototrophic nitrite oxidation.