Research

The research of the division Infauna is strongly related to research activities of Senckenberg scientist as well as other national and international research institutes and researchers. We support planning, management, practical work and sample sorting for research expeditions conducted in all parts of the world and studying different marine habitats.

Most important expeditions of the last years supported by our division were e.g. IceAGE 1-2, IceAGE-RR, DISCOl, JPIO, MANGAN, DIVA 1-3, ANDEEP, ANDEEP_SYSTCO, KuramBio I and II.

Our research activities at the DZMB in Hamburg focus on marine invertebrates as for example ‘polychaetes’, or marine bristle worms. The taxonomy and morphology of Spionidae and Pholoidae is the main subject. Apart from light, confocal and scanning electron microcopy histological methods are undertaken. Current studies investigate the spionid fauna from the North Atlantic Ocean, from Atlantic seamounts, and from the Australian shelf. We also study deep-sea species and their global distribution.

In the scope of the IceAGE project species ecology and species distribution are the main focus. By means of species distribution modeling the relationship between the occurrence of a species and the different environmental parameter of their habitat is analyzed. Eventually a species distribution model is formulated and visualized by a prediction map.