Dr. Kristin Bergauer
Microbial Oceanography & Biogeochemistry (MOBi)

Junior Group Leader
RD3: Marine Ecology
RU: Ocean EcoSystems Biology
Office
Room: 1.429
Phone: +49 431 600-4404
E-Mail: kbergauer(at)geomar.de
Address
GEOMAR | Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
Wischhofstrasse 1-3,
24148 Kiel, Germany
Research Interests
- Marine Microbial Ecology & Biogeochemistry
- Archaea Ecology
- Deep Sea Biology | Pelagic nutrient cycles
- Ocean Metabolome (Genomics | Transcriptomics | Proteomics)
- Vitamins | microbial interactions
- Ectoenzymes
Education
Ph.D in Bio-Oceanography, Department of Limnology & Bio-Oceanogrpahy, University of Vienna, Austria "Hetero and chemoautotrophic substrate utilisation in marine prokaryotic communities"
Mentor: Prof. Dr. Gerhard J. Herndl
M.Sc. of Microbial Ecology, University of Vienna, Austria
"Diversity and mode of transmission of Nitrospira in marine sponges"
Mentors: Prof. Mag. Dr. Michael Wagner & Dr. Mike Taylor (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
Professional Experience
09/2022 – present Research Group Leader at the Ocean EcoSystems Biology Unit, RD3 | GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany.
01/2019 – 09/2022 Post-doctoral researcher at the Ocean EcoSystems Biology Unit, RD3 | GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany. Advisor: Prof. Alexandra Z. Worden
01/2018 – 12/2018 Post-doctoral researcher, at the Microbial ecology research group of Alexandra Z. Worden, at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), California, USA
Teaching
- Lecture “Introduction to Deep Sea Biology” MNF-BIOC-201, GEOMAR
- Lecture “Archaea biology” MNF-BIOC-201, GEOMAR
- Lecture “Multi-OMICS tools in microbial ecology” MNF-BIOC-20, GEOMAR
- Lecture “Wunder der Tiefsee und mikrobielle Lebensstile” BSC-BIOL-105, CAU/GEOMAR
Services, Activities
BioGeoScapes
FUTURO
Working group
Bergauer Lab
Team

Jöran Jory Paap [ˈjœ̂ːran jory]
Wissenschaftliche:r Angestellte:r
Research Focus: Analysis of B-Vitamins; archaeal cultures.

Zoe Leonie Krause
M.Sc. student
Research Focus: CAZymes and transporters in the Baltic Sea, multi-OMICS, BONCAT-FISH

Ana Kuonqui Fernandez
M.Sc. student
Research Focus: Quantifying heterotrophic production along vertical dimensions in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; BONCAT-FISH.

Marvin Vieth
Student assistant
Focus: Boknis Eck time series sampling; eDNA, microscopy.

Alumni
Alessia Glavina
B.Sc. Student
Laura Michnew
Internship
Join the Lab
The Bergauer Lab welcomes prospective students to contact us with details about your interests and goals. Please email Kristin at kbergauer(at)geomar.de if you are interested in joining the lab.
MASTER THESIS OPPORTUNITY
Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (Kristin Bergauer Lab) in collaboration with the Microbial Oceanography Unit of the University of Vienna (Gerhard J. Herndl)
Examining whether and how temperature and oxygen changes in the Baltic Sea influence how micronutrients are used in marine microbes and what the consequences of those changes might be for biogeochemical cycles.
Publications
F. Wittmers, N. R. Dames, M. Michelsen, K. Bergauer, K. Vergin, J. Comstock, S. Liu, R. Parsons, B. Temperton, C.A. Carlson, A. Z. Worden. 2025. Pronounced seasonality and distinct clades of Hikarchaeia in warm oceans. Environ. Microbiol. in progress
M. Masdeu-Navarro, J.-F. Mangot, L. Xue, M. Cabrera-Brufau, D. J. Kieber, P. Rodríguez-Ros, S. G. Gardner, K. Bergauer, G.J. Herndl, R. Simó., 2025. The seascape of VOC production and cycling in a tropical coral reef. Elem. Sci. Anth. Under revision
Bergauer, K., Suffridge, C.P., Wittmers, F., Sudek, S., Giovannoni, S.J., Worden, A.Z., 2015. Dark ocean archaeal and bacterial chemoautotrophs drive vitamin B1 production in oxygen minimum zones. ISME Comm. Under revision
M. Masdeu-Navarro, J.-F. Mangot, L. Xue, M. Cabrera-Brufau, D. J. Kieber, P. Rodríguez-Ros, S. G. Gardner, K. Bergauer, G.J. Herndl, R. Simó., 2024. Diel variation of seawater volatile organic compounds, DMSP-related compounds, and microbial plankton inside and outside a tropical coral reef ecosystem. Front. Mar. Sci.
Eckmann, C. A., Eberle, J. S., Wittmers, F., Wilken, S., Bergauer, K., Poirier, C., ... & Worden, A. Z. (2023). Eukaryotic algal community composition in tropical environments from solar salterns to the open sea. Frontiers in Marine Science, 10, Art-Nr.
Suffridge, C. P., Bolaños, L. M., Bergauer, K., Worden, A. Z., Morré, J., Behrenfeld, M. J., & Giovannoni, S. J. (2020). Exploring vitamin B1 cycling and its connections to the microbial community in the North Atlantic Ocean. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, 606342.
Biller, S. J., Berube, P.M., Dooley, K., Williams, M., Satinsky, B.M., Hackl, T., Hogle, S.L., Coe, A., Bergauer, K., Bouman, H.A., Browning, T.J., De Corte, D., Hassler, C., Jacquot, J.E., Maas, E.W., Reinthaler, T., Sintes, E., Yokokawa, T., and Chisholm, S.W., 2018. Marine microbial metagenomes sampled across space and time. Scientific Data Nature.
Berube, P. M., Biller, S. J., Hackl, T., Hogle, S. L., Satinsky, B. M., Becker, J. W., Braakman, R., Collins, S. B., Kelly, L., Berta-Thompson, J., Coe, A., Bergauer, K., Bouman, H. A., Browning, T. J., De Corte, D., Hassler, C., Hulata, Y., Jacquot, J. E., Maas, E., Reinthaler, T., Sintes, E., Yokokawa, T., Lindell, D., Stepanauskas R., and Chisholm, S. W., 2018. Single cell genomes of Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, and sympatric microbes from diverse marine environments. Scientific Data Nature.
Bergauer, K., Fernández-Guerra, A., Garcia, JA., Sprenger, RR., Stepanauskas, R., Pachiadaki, M., Jensen, ON., Herndl, GJ., 2017. Organic matter processing by microbial communities throughout the Atlantic water column as revealed by metaproteomics. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA.
Pachiadaki, M., Sintes, E., Bergauer, K., Swan, B., Hallam, S., Record, N., Lopez-Garcia, P., Herndl, G., Stepanauskas, R., 2017. Major role of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in dark ocean carbon fixation. Science 358: 1046-1051.
Frade, P.R., Roll, K.R., Bergauer, K., Herndl, G.J., 2016. Archaeal and bacterial communities associated with the surface mucus of Caribbean corals differ in their degree of host specificity and community turnover over reefs. PLoS ONE 11(1): e0144702. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0144702, 2011.
Bergauer, K., Sintes, E., van Bleijswijk, J., Witte, H., Herndl, GJ., 2013. Abundance and distribution of archaeal acetyl-CoA/propionyl-CoA carboxylase genes indicative for putatively chemoautotrophic Archaea in the tropical Atlantic's interior. FEMS Journal 84:461-473.
Sintes, E., Bergauer, K., De Corte, D., Yokokawa, T., Herndl, GJ., 2013. Archaeal amoA gene diversity points to distinct biogeography of ammonia-oxidizing Crenarchaeota in the ocean. Environmental Microbiology 15:1647-1658.
Grote, J., Bayindirli, C., Bergauer, K., de Moraes, PC., Chen, H., D'Ambrosio, L., Edwards, B., Fernandez-Gomez, B., Hamisi, M., Logares, R., Nguyen, D., Rii, YM., Schutte, C., Widner, B., Church, MJ., Steward, GF., Karl, DM., DeLong, EF., Eppley, JM., Schuster, SC., Kyrpides, NC., Rappe, MS., 2011. Draft genome sequence of strain HIMB100, a cultured representative of the SAR116 clade of marine Alphaproteobacteria. SIGS (Standards in Genomic Sciences) Journal 5:269-278.
Gallary
![[Translate to English:] ctd](/fileadmin/_processed_/1/5/csm_20180703_080329_09a7c22c34.jpg)
Water sampling for eDNA and B-Vitamins in the Sargasso Sea,
BIOS-SCOPE, (c) KBergauer, 2019
![[Translate to English:] isp](/fileadmin/_processed_/0/a/csm_IMG_9548_315099b8f8.jpg)
Deployment of McLane in situ pumps for multi-OMICs analyses,
BIOS-SCOPE, (c) KBergauer, 2022
![[Translate to English:] metaP](/fileadmin/_processed_/d/e/csm_IMG_1392_4c5c76f40d.jpg)
MetaProteomic extraction from the Baltic Sea and Atlantic Ocean,
(c) KBergauer, 2024
![[Translate to English:] omics](/fileadmin/_processed_/f/a/csm_IMG_9103_57aa4560f6.jpg)
Microbiome 1.2 - 5 µm in the Baltic Sea,
(c) KBergauer, 2024
![[Translate to English:] uvp](/fileadmin/_processed_/1/4/csm_Asset_1_15c190960f.jpg)
Deep Ocean particles
(c) UVP
![[Translate to English:] CCS1](/fileadmin/_processed_/b/3/csm_CCS1_5_9d42c230a2.jpg)
CCS1 archaeal strain
(c) JPaap