Information about Prof. Dr. Dieter Piepenburg

Portrait

Dieter Piepenburg studied fisheries biology at the Institute of Marine Research in Kiel (now: Geomar - Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel). He earned his doctorate at the Institute for Polar Ecology of Kiel University in 1988 with a PhD thesis on the sea floor fauna (benthos) of western Fram Strait. In 1997, he completed his habilitation thesis on the ecology and biology of Arctic brittle stars. Since 2006 he is professor at Kiel University, and since 2014 he is also at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research Bremerhaven.

Research questions

• How do climate-driven changes in the ocean (warming, acidification and, in polar regions, sea-ice decline) affect distribution, composition, diversity and ecosystem functions of benthic communities?
• How do benthos species respond in ecologically relevant functions (e.g. growth, production, metabolism) to mulitple stress factors in their natural environment?
• How does the pelagic-benthic coupling work, i.e., what relationships exist between benthic ecosystem functions and processes in the overlying water column and sea ice?