A new research network in the marine sciences is aiming for a future cluster of excellence together with Bremen. Coordinator Helmut Hillebrand from the Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) talks about developing a joint agenda - and a new perspective on biodiversity.
QUESTION: Mr Hillebrand, the new MarBAS research network in the marine sciences is being funded in the "Top-level research in Lower Saxony" call. How do you rate this success?
HILLEBRAND: The project promotes the idea that we should enter the Excellence Initiative together with the University of Bremen. In the joint cluster we are aiming for, the focus would be on MARUM - it is larger than the ICBM and is already a cluster of excellence. But one pillar of our joint application for excellence will be an expansion of MARUM's existing research to include the topic of "Marine Ecosystems and Biodiversity". This is an established focus at the University of Oldenburg, which will also coordinate this pillar. Both universities co-operate very well with non-university institutions in the marine sciences, but so far we have lacked direct bilateral interaction. The MarBAS network will promote this.
QUESTION: You mentioned that Bremen would be in charge. How do you see Oldenburg's role, how strongly would a joint cluster be anchored here?
HILLEBRAND: The "Marine Ecosystems and Biodiversity" pillar should have its conceptual centre of gravity in Oldenburg. But in the end, the overall concept will either be funded or not, so it is important to dovetail it with all the other pillars: Ocean and Climate, Geosphere-Biosphere Interaction, Seabed Dynamics and Innovative Marine Technologies. Oldenburg is therefore not an isolated island with its own agenda, but these five pillars must develop a common agenda. This will certainly be our main coordination task until we submit our proposal to the Excellence Initiative.
QUESTION: What is special about Oldenburg's focus on biodiversity and ecosystems?
HILLEBRAND: In recent years, we in Oldenburg have been working intensively on the functional consequences of biodiversity: What does the rapid change in biodiversity actually mean for the ecosystem - does it function differently with the loss of some species or species groups or even the immigration of species? This is a question that is so fundamental that we think we should already know all this, but in fact it was only with the rapid change in biodiversity that this question arose in the first place.
QUESTION: What has changed as a result?
HILLEBRAND: Previously, biodiversity was mainly seen as a product of the environment. There are species-rich ecosystems, while others have few species, and biodiversity - i.e. biological diversity in every respect - was seen more as a consequence of the characteristics of the ecosystem. However, the findings of the last 20 years have virtually reversed this view, so that the functional role of biodiversity has come into focus. This is because many of the most important processes in ecosystems, such as the formation of new biomass, are biologically driven processes and are therefore based on biodiversity. If it changes, we need to understand whether the process is also changing: This approach is exactly the one that has been established in Oldenburg. And we have a strong interdisciplinary understanding of it, which also characterises our research. Oldenburg is a heavyweight in marine biodiversity research, so the decision to organise this pillar from here is a logical one.
QUESTION: The research network that is now being funded includes several projects. Can you explain them a little?
HILLEBRAND: The six "work packages" have been developed with a view to identifying where there are already potential synergies. Where are there researchers who have a high potential to work together? Each project has been allocated a postdoctoral position; they are intended to act as intermediaries between the participating working groups from Oldenburg and Bremen. We have also focussed on projects that we can get started with immediately, as the term until the application for excellence is submitted is only two years.
QUESTION: And what is the content of the programme?
HILLEBRAND: The first project takes up a discussion that is currently very prevalent in the literature: How does the global extinction of animal and plant species make itself felt locally? Is it enough to observe whether and how the number of species in an ecosystem changes over time? In our opinion, this falls short of the mark. Here's a blatant example: If there are suddenly ten moss species in an ecosystem instead of ten tree species, you still have ten species - but a bog instead of a forest. We also have to look at the exchange, the displacement of species - over long periods of time, if we want to recognise the influence of humans. This is exactly what we do with the help of longer time series from palaeoecology, which can provide us with the species composition over several 10,000 years. For our joint analysis, we also have access to a data set that covers more than a million years.
QUESTION: So the focus is less on the number of species and more on the change in species.
HILLEBRAND: Exactly, the focus on the number of species is the Achilles heel of the whole discussion. In my opinion, it is much more relevant: Is species composition changing at a different rate today than in the past? This is what this project aims to find out, with the help of mathematicians who are familiar with time series analysis. In another work package, a team led by Peter Schupp is looking at coral reefs and analysing why algae often displace corals. Gabi Gerlach and Bernd Blasius, together with colleagues from Bremen, are taking a look at evolutionary biology and analysing the adaptability of marine invertebrates. Almost all of them spread via larval drift - what are the evolutionary consequences of this?
QUESTION: So the question is whether these sea creatures have to pay a certain "price" for their high flexibility.
HILLEBRAND: Yes, we want to understand what consequences this plasticity has for the organism. Two other work packages focus on the interaction between biology and geochemistry: once in Meinhard Simon's project using the example of sugar-degrading bacteria - and once using the example of deep-sea hot springs, known as hydrothermal vents. This is about the role of dissolved organic matter, or DOM for short, one of the largest carbon pools on our planet. We are bringing together MARUM's high level of expertise in deep-sea research with our DOM expert Thorsten Dittmar - very exciting.
QUESTION: This is one of the two work packages that the University of Oldenburg is funding from its own resources.
HILLEBRAND: That's right, two of the six projects in the network are funded by the university in order to strengthen co-operation. The other of the university's own projects aims to further develop joint teaching in the north-west. Among other things, it is about linking face-to-face learning and electronic learning more closely, keyword "blended learning". Here, marine sciences could also act as a pioneer for projects in other subject areas.
Interview: Deike Stolz