Professor of Microbiology

Email: H.Schaefer@warwick.ac.uk 

Phone: 024 765 75052

Office: D130

Twitter: @HSchaeferLabLink opens in a new windowopens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

Schaefer webpage

Research Clusters

Environment & Ecology

Plant & Agricultural Biosciences

Warwick GRPs and Centres

Centre for Exoplanets and Habitability

Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre

Warwick Environmental Systems Interdisciplinary Centre

Vacancies and Opportunities

For PhD and postdoctoral opportunities, and interest in potential collaborations, please contact me at the above email address.

Research Interests

We study microorganisms that cycle trace gasses and degrade pollutants. Despite their small size, microorganism have a major role in nature as recyclers of organic matter. Their activity has a decisive impact on how organic and inorganic compounds are distributed in terrestrial and marine environments. They also degrade a wide range of environmental pollutants.

Microorganisms produce and consume volatile compounds and trace gases which affect air quality and the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere. Despite their low concentrations, trace gases have wide ranging consequences for climate and human health. For instance, microorganisms produce the sulfur gas dimethylsulfide (DMS) which gets emitted into the atmosphere where it leads to formation of aerosols which have a cooling effect. On the other hand, carbon monoxide, which is degraded by diverse microorganisms, is a toxic gas that impacts human health as well as being an indirect climate warming gas.

Overall, our work is aiming to increase our understanding of microbial trace gas and pollutant cycling using a range of methodologies, including microbiological and molecular biological approaches. Current work addresses cycling of organic sulfur compounds such as DMS, carbon monoxide and methane by marine, terrestrial and plant-associated microorganisms from the temperate zones to the high Arctic.

Research: Technical Summary

The focus of our research are microorganisms that cycle atmospheric trace gases and pollutants relevant for climate regulation and air quality. Microorganisms drive major processes in the Earth system as critical components of biogeochemical cycles that effect the turnover of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and other elements. In doing so, microorganisms affect the composition of the atmosphere. We are particularly interested in microbial production and degradation of gases that affect atmospheric chemistry and climate (e.g., dimethylsulfide, carbon monoxide, methane) and ozone-depleting compounds (methyl halides). Many of these compounds have both natural and anthropogenic sources and understanding the processes that determine their atmospheric concentrations and how they respond to climate change is important.

Recent work has investigated the cycling of organic sulfur compounds such as dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), dimethylsulfide (DMS) and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) in saltmarshes and the Arctic Ocean. Another area of research focusses on microbial communities in the phyllosphere (above ground parts of plants) and how they contribute to cycling of atmospheric pollutants such as carbon monoxide and para-nitrophenol. We apply a wide range of experimental approaches including microbiological, molecular biological, and meta-omics techniques.

Publications

For a full list of publications, see WRAP

publons listing