Researchers aboard the MSM 146 are investigating climate-sensitive sources and sinks of hydrocarbons in Baffin Bay. On August 19, the expedition—led by Dr. Miriam Römer of MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen—set sail from Reykjavik, Iceland, and is headed to Nuuk, Greenland. The expedition includes an interdisciplinary, international team of marine geologists, geochemists, and microbiologists who are locating current gas and oil seeps, recording their composition and fluxes, and assessing microbial turnover at rising temperatures due to expected global warming.

Two ICBM teams are contributing complementary expertise to the expedition. One team is investigating the composition and reactivity of dissolved organic matter, focusing in particular on which dissolved carbon compounds are released by oil spills, altered by microorganisms, or persist in seawater over the long term. Another ICBM team is focusing on methanogenic and methanotrophic microorganisms. Methanogenic microorganisms produce methane under oxygen-free conditions in the sediments, while methanotrophic microorganisms can break down methane at the sediment surface and in the water column. How much methane is produced and how much of it is degraded before it reaches the atmosphere is a central question that will be addressed through measurements taken on board. In addition, the ICBM microbiologists are investigating microbial diversity in sediments and the water column and analyzing how these communities are affected by methane and oil spills.