Marit Renken
Doctoral candidate
I am a PhD student in Geobiology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) since 2024, focusing on ocean deoxygenation and its implications for dissolved organic matter (DOM) cycling. Before I started my PhD, I obtained my master’s degree in Marine Environmental Science from Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany, specializing in chemical oceanography.
Research
The ocean stores nearly as much carbon in the form of dissolved organic matter (DOM) as the atmosphere stores in the form of CO₂. Over the past five decades, the ocean has lost over 2% of its oxygen content, leading to a 400% increase in anoxic zones. In these zones, DOM is enriched in sulfur (dissolved organic sulfur, DOS), but the mechanisms causing this enrichment are unclear. This project aims to address this issue by considering the mechanics of DOM cycling in the context of oceanic carbon and sulfur cycling and microbial communities. I am interested in identifying common molecular formulas in anoxic water masses and expanding knowledge of marine DOS cycling.
Running project: