The Department of Thematic Studies - 
Water and Environmental Studies
Linköping university

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Phone: +46 (0)13 67088

My research interests include carbon and chlorine biogeochemistry, particularly along redox gradients. A primary focus has been organic matter degradation in oxic and anoxic environments and subsequent implications for greenhouse gas emissions and food webs. Particularly, methane dynamics have attracted my interest. Methane is not only a major product of anoxic carbon metabolism and an excellent source of carbon or energy for organisms under oxic conditions, but also acts as a potent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. All these roles of methane have relevance for conditions on early Earth as well as for present day greenhouse gas emissions and food web energy and carbon supply.

With a background in fields of ecology, microbial ecology, biogeochemistry, I find Astrobiology highly interesting since the frameworks of Astrobiology include many scientific disciplines and covers extreme ranges in terms of environmental conditions and temporal and spatial scales. Hence, Astrobiology not only provides ways to learn about the origin of life and conditions on early Earth or on other planets, but also represents an important approach to increase our knowledge about how the Earth has developed to what it is today.