EXPEDITIONS
Please click below to learn more about the respective research topic.
Corsica
Corsica - Campaign Movie
Corsica - June 2025
Description
In June 2025, we packed our sampling equipment for a scientific diving expedition to the mediterranean seagrass meadows in the South of Corsica. Led by an experienced dive mission leader, we collected samples to isolate and cultivate novel bacteria from the seagrass microbiome and surrounding sediment.
On site, in our apartment kitchen turned laboratory, we carefully documented the samples and prepared them for transport back to Jena.
Currently, we are processing our samples in Jena and hope that they will yield novel bacteria and novel, useful natural products in the near future.
Don´t miss to check out our little campaign movie!
Methods
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Scientific Diving
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Amplicon Sequencing
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Cultivation
Lab members associated to the project
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Prof. Christian Jogler
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Dr. Vivien Hotter
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PhD Student Carmen Wurzbacher
Collaborations
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Dr. Florian Huber (Dive Mission Leader)
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Lea Buse (Scientific Diver)
Greenland
Ikka Fjord - June 2025
Description
Over thousand years ago, famous Viking Erik the Red set sail to explore what lies west of Iceland. He succeeded in finding land and set foot on what we nowadays call Greenland. Other Vikings followed and settled along the fjords around today’s town of Narsarsuaq. However, Greenland was not theirs alone, as it already was home to Inuit for millennia. Mostly living side by side peacefully, conflicts between Vikings and Inuit occurred nevertheless. And so it happened that one cold, dark winter’s day a Viking family was driven out of their home by angry Inuit. Fleeing over a frozen Fjord, the ice broke under the hunted’s feet and they found their death in the icy waters underneath. Where they touched the seabed, they froze to white, branched pillars that still can be admired today in Ikka Fjord.
Since the 1960s, we know that these pillars are not the remnants of dead Vikings but consist of the extremely rare mineral ikaite. Found in few other places on the planet, Ikka Fjord is the only place where the mineral builds mighty columns as high as 20 m. Like every other unique natural phenomenon in the world, the ikaite columns are threatened by climate change and if that weren’t enough, an Australian company plans to mine the site for rare minerals. In the early 2000s, geologists, hydrologists and biologists teamed up with local Inuit to thoroughly investigate the fjord and lay a scientific foundation for its long-term protection.
20 years down the road, the columns of Ikka fjord are still standing and untouched, thanks to the efforts of the group of scientists and the local community. Investigations have included the fjord’s hydrology and the column’s formation as well as the animals and algae living on and around them. However, little is known about the microorganisms occurring on the columns or along the fjord’s shores. To shed light on this understudied aspect of Ikka fjord’s biology, the Jogler lab sent Dr. Vivien Hotter to join the scientists and support their research as a scientific diver. Together with Dr. Florian Huber, she deployed light loggers on selected columns and sampled for the lab’s research both underwater and above. Back in Jena, the Jogler lab is working towards discovering intriguing novel bacteria from this unique Arctic habitat.
Here’s a link to a newspaper article about the research that has been going on in and around Ikka fjord: https://jarvik.dk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/SERM_20250829-28-30.pdf
Methods
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Scientific Diving
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Metagenomics
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Cultivation
Lab members associated to the project
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Dr. Vivien Hotter
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PhD Student Carmen Wurzbacher
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PhD Student Madeleine Kündgen
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Nicole Wohlfarth
Collaborations
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Dr. Erik Trampe (Biologist, ikkaton Climate Solutions)
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Dr. Gabrielle Stockmann (Geologist, Jarvik Geoconsulting AB)
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Dr. Paul Seaman (Hydrologist)
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Dr. Florian Huber (Dive Mission Leader, Submaris)
Palau
Palau - January 2025
Description
Palau – a tropical paradise in the South Pacific. Palm trees, sandy beaches, a bit of diving in pristine coral reefs for sample collection and the rest just a lot of relaxation. At least that’s what everyone has in mind when picturing our PostDoc and sampling enthusiast Dr. Vivien Hotter on that sampling campaign. But oh, they could not have gotten things any more wrong! So let’s start from the beginning. From the very beginning, in fact.
According to an old legend, Palau’s biggest island, Babeldaob, as well as the many tiny Rock Islands in its South are the remains of the gluttonous giant Uab, who was murdered for terrorizing his home village. In 2019, Japanese researchers paid tribute to this old legend by naming a bacterium they discovered in the waters around Palau after it. Like Uab the giant, Uab the bacterium has an insatiable appetite. Unlike any other known bacterium, it stills this appetite by engulfing other bacteria. Bacteria engulfing other bacteria was always believed to be energetically impossible. Thus, “Candidatus Uab amorphum” proved to be a microbiological sensation which turned the beliefs of microbiologists all over the world upside down. As if that wasn’t enough, it turned out to be a planctomycete. Naturally, “Ca. Uab amorphum” soon moved into the Jogler lab for further investigation.
Fast forward to October 2024, when Vivi picks up her phone to learn from a friend and fellow scientific diver about an upcoming expedition to Palau. Realizing that this poses a unique opportunity to draw further secrets from Palau’s waters, it is decided that Vivi will join the expedition. Palm trees, sandy beaches, a bit of diving in pristine coral reefs for sample collection and a lot of relaxation in mind, Vivi applies for the sampling permit. Fast forward again, to end of January 2025, when Vivi still has not successfully obtained the sampling permit despite several phone calls with Palau officials but nevertheless leaves Jena for Palau via train at 4.30 in the morning. 24 h flight with a 6 h stop over lie ahead of her, not to mention the train ride with two train changes in between to Frankfurt airport with 60 kg of luggage full of diving, sampling and photography equipment in tow. So much for the relaxation…
Once in Palau and united with the team of scientific divers, determined and stubborn yet charming Vivi finally obtains the sampling permit from the officials. Now the diving in pristine coral reefs for sample collection can begin! Or so she thinks, as Mother Nature has other plans and soon sends a tropic storm instead. Not only does it hinder all diving, it also turns the usually crystal clear waters with 30-40 m of visibility into a murky soup. While this circumstance doesn’t keep the diving team from doing their work, it heavily impacts the accessibility of certain dive sites, thereby shortening the list of intended sampling sites.
Luckily, all members of the diving team are blessed with an extra portion of thirst for adventure. They learn about hidden, remote water bodies deep in the jungle, scattered all over the islands. Swapping their scuba gear for hiking boots and snorkelling equipment, they set out to explore, ignoring the massive spiders along their way and with just the right amount of respect for the salt water crocodiles said to live in the remote water bodies. Navigating through dense rain forest, crawling under fallen trees and climbing steep walls of sharp, rough lime stone, what they find blows their mind: no water body resembles the other. Some harbour pristine coral reefs, others are muddy, shallow, and full of trash, yet others contain remnants from WWII or ancient settlers from times before Europeans even knew about Palau’s existence. It goes without saying that all of the visited sites were thoroughly documented and sampled.
By the end of February, Vivi returns to Jena, her luggage now even heavier from all the samples she collected. Did she spend her time sunbathing under palm trees on sandy beaches? Not a single day. Did she spend her free time relaxing? No. There were no free days. Even on the rainy days, she collected samples snorkelling in the harbour, documented the samples, prepared for the upcoming days or worked through her piling mails. Does Vivi describe the sampling campaign as exhausting and challenging, both physically and mentally? Yes. Would she do it again? Any time! Bur for now, she is looking forward to the scientific discoveries the diving team’s efforts will enable.
Methods
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Scientific Diving
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Cultivation
Lab members associated to the project
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Dr. Vivien Hotter
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PhD Student Carmen Wurzbacher
Collaborations
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Dr. Florian Huber (Dive Mission Leader)
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Uli Kunz (Scientific Diver)
