One university, two marine research institutions, one shared goal: a healthy ocean. In this interview, Katharina Pahnke (Director of the Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, ICBM) and Helmut Hillebrand (Director of the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity, HIFMB) discuss how their institutes' vision and complementary research approach helps to advance marine science at national and international levels.
Ms Pahnke, Mr Hillebrand, Oldenburg is home to two strong marine research institutes: the ICBM and the HIFMB. What is their respective research mission?
Pahnke: At the ICBM, we study the diversity of the ocean ecosystem in biological, chemical, geological and physical terms, from individual molecules and cells to global scales.
Hillebrand: The HIFMB focuses on biological diversity in the oceans, from fundamental research to applied concepts of ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation.
Where do these perspectives meet, and how do they complement each other?
Pahnke: Both institutes are interested in the health of the oceans. The ICBM, originally a coastal research institute, has long been active on a global scale. Our aim is to develop an interdisciplinary fundamental understanding of the ocean in order to enable further research approaches. For instance, we examine how the environment is changing due to human influences, and compare this with what has happened naturally on geological timescales. This enables us to place today's environmental changes in a broader context.
Hillebrand: How we can maintain the functioning of ecosystems is a central question that unites us. The HIFMB has had a global focus from the onset and is expanding the Oldenburg portfolio. Two research groups, for instance, examine the management and governance of oceans — that is, how people and their institutions regulate and control ecosystems. The professorship for marine nature conservation focuses on protecting and restoring ecosystems. This fills a gap in marine environmental science, not only in Oldenburg, but in Germany as a whole.
Research groups from both institutes are also involved in the Ocean Floor cluster of excellence.
Hillebrand: That's right, and the cluster is a very good example of concrete cooperation between the two institutes and the University of Bremen. It covers two important aspects of our research in Oldenburg. Firstly, it looks at how microorganisms interact with organic carbon dissolved in seawater, and what this means for the global carbon cycle. Secondly, we investigate how the biodiversity of organisms has naturally changed over millions of years. We hope to use information from the past to develop scenarios for the future.
Pahnke: To address the question of how coastal areas, including biodiversity, has changed recently, a new professorship will be established at the ICBM in collaboration with the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research. This is a good example of how we are collaborating to address research gaps.
The HIFMB is a Helmholtz Institute at the University of Oldenburg. What does that mean?
Hillebrand: Helmholtz Institutes are always located on a university campus. However, they are formally and financially part of a Helmholtz centre. In our case, it is the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI). We are very close to both parents: on the one hand, to the AWI, through the joint research programme in which Helmholtz centres research is planned every seven years. On the other hand, our five professorships are in cooperation with the ICBM and are therefore based at the university. We regularly meet with the heads of the ICBM's working groups to develop new project ideas. We use joint methods, particularly those involving molecular analysis, and we jointly supervise postdocs, for instance on topics such as tipping points and coral reefs.
In marine research, a large proportion of institutes are non-university, as universities are often unable to provide the necessary infrastructure. Nevertheless, the ICBM was founded as a university institute in 1987. What are the advantages of this?
Pahnke: One enormous advantage is the direct contact with students. We can communicate our research findings directly to the next generation. We also collaborate closely with other institutes in research and teaching, such as the Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences (IBU). What also sets us apart is that despite our small size, we conduct research on large vessels and have considerable infrastructure for marine research. We have the appropriate measuring equipment, sensors and sampling devices for fieldwork, as well as unique analytical equipment in our laboratories. For coastal research, we benefit from our own research boats, the research infrastructure on Spiekeroog, and our location in Wilhelmshaven, which gives us direct access to the sea.
Hillebrand: The HIFMB also benefits from these opportunities. Our students give the Institute a campus feel. We not only cooperate with the ICBM, but also with research groups in the social sciences. The HIFMB also contributes to the high-performance computer at the University of Oldenburg.
What important research questions would the institutes like to tackle together in the future?
Pahnke: One possible focus is the land-sea transition zone. Two of the DFG research groups coordinated at the ICBM and IBU focus precisely on this zone. This is where human influences are most noticeable, putting enormous pressure on the ecosystems — for example, due to anthropogenic inputs or offshore wind farms.
Hillebrand: In coastal regions, we have to deal with a variety of problems, and climate change is just one of them. To understand environmental change and its effects on humans and the need for action, we also want to involve the social sciences. Our vision is therefore to take a broader research approach to the topic of 'Coasts in the Anthropocene', combining the ICBM's expertise in coastal research with that of the HIFMB in the social sciences.
Interview: Constanze Böttcher
