Project

The new PhD Research Training Group “The Ecology of Molecules” is being coordinated at the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) at the University of Oldenburg. Twelve working groups, located in Oldenburg und Wilhelmshaven, are involved. The ICBM is an interdisciplinary research institute, performing fundamental and applied research in the marine sciences. The institute aims at understanding the function of marine environmental systems through the close cooperation of the various scientific disciplines (chemistry, biology, physics, mathematic modelling) of its research groups. The research focuses on marine biogeochemical cycles and on the functional role of marine biodiversity. Besides the ICBM, the Institute for Chemistry (IfC), the Institute for Biology und Environmental Sciences (IBU) and the Faculty of Engineering at the Jade University of Applied Sciences (Jade HS) are involved in EcoMol.

15 doctoral students work in EcoMol in a multidisciplinary environment. With EcoMol we introduce and advance a new conceptual framework that extends ecological principles to the non-living molecular environment, the “ecology of molecules”. Ecology investigates interactions among organisms and their environment. The ecology of molecules understands organic matter as populations of compounds that interact with communities of organisms in a mutual way. This novel scientific framework merges the classical disciplines of ecology and geochemistry.

Coordinator

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Dittmar
(Carl von Ossietzky University, Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), Marine Geochemistry)

Pparticipating institutes and scientists

Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM)

Institute for Biology and Environmental Sciences (IBU)

Institute for Chemistry (IfC)

Jade University of Applied Sciences (Jade UAS)