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

(under construction)

Team

 

 

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 Science10, 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 Science7, 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