News
Jiayi joins Environmental Chemistry!
01.10.2025
Jiayi Feng joins the Environmental Chemistry group this week as part of the SNSF Starting Grant MiMOC project. Jiayi has a MSc in Earth Surface and Water from Utrecht University, where she studied effects on alkalinity production from bacteria during pH-induced stress, and a BSc in Environmental Science and Human Geography and Urban-Rural Planning from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. We’re excited to have you as part of the team, Jiayi!
Mareike attends the DBG meeting in Tübingen
17.09.2025
Mareike presented at the Annual Meeting of the German Association of Soil Science (DBG) in Tübingen. Her presentation, Arsenic sorption and oxidation by manganese incorporated magnetite, included solid-phase (XAS, Mössbauer, XRD) and aqueous-phase (ICP-MS) results from model studies following the fate of arsenic during interactions with magnetite in the presence of manganese and ferrous iron.
Clara joins Environmental Chemistry!
01.08.2025
We welcome Clara Gund as the newest member of the Environmental Chemistry group and first member of the SNSF Starting Grant MiMOC! Clara completed her MSc at ETH Zurich in Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, where she studied siderite, an iron-carbonate mineral often found in salt marshes. In the MiMOC project, Clara will continue to work with siderite to understand better its formation, stability, and importance for organic carbon stabilization in soils. We’re happy to have you here, Clara!
Environmental Chemistry at Goldschmidt and ICC
21.07.2025
Yi-Ho and Isabella presented their work at the Goldschmidt conference in Prague. Yi-Ho shared his results on the impacts of mineral additions on carbon dynamics in peat soils, and Isabella presented her work on the reactivity of allophanes. The following week, Laurel and Isabella were in Dublin for the International Clay Conference, where Laurel was the Keynote speaker for the session ‘Interactions of Iron-rich Clays and Iron Oxides with Organics and Heavy Metals: Implications for Iron/Carbon/Metal Cycling’.
New Publication in Applied Geochemistry
10.07.2025
Laurel contributed to a study led by Martina Bottaro of the Geomicrobiology Group (Universität Tübingen) that was recently published in Applied Geochemistry. The study explores cryptic iron cycling in extremely acidic Río Tinto sediments as it relates to nitrate reduction. For more information, you can read the open access article:
Coupling of Fe and N cycles by nitrate-reducing Fe(II)-oxidizing microorganisms in the tidal sediments of an extreme acidic river (Río Tinto, Spain). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2025.106488
MiMOC project in Journal en Direct
04.07.2025
Our project MiMOC (Mineral Mediated Organic Carbon dynamics in soils and sediments), which studies coupled iron and carbon cycling in redox active soils and sediments, was highlighted in Journal en Direct. You can access the article here:
Interactions fer / carbone et émissions de gaz à effet de serre.
Back at SAMBA beamline (Soleil), then to XAFS (Elettra)
23.06.2025
In the last three weeks, we’ve been to both SAMBA (Soleil) and XAFS (Elettra) beamlines. At SAMBA, we collected Fe K-edge XAS for Yi-Ho’s project on Fe and C interactions in peat soils, and at XAFS beamline we studied Fe speciation in palsa soils as part of Louisa’s thesis project. Despite many hours of sample changes, we still found time to enjoy treats like Italian ice cream.
Group pique-nique (picnic) and games
28.05.2025
The weather did not cooperate for a pique-nique (picnic) by the lake, but we still had a nice lunch and managed to play a round of Kubb in front of our building between rain showers!
Yi-Ho presents at the EGU General Assembly 2025 in Vienna
01.05.2025
Yi-Ho presented his work at his first international conference! Yi-Ho’s talk, Impacts of exogenous Fe species on C dynamics in peat soils, included results from a soil incubation which monitored CO2 production as a function of mineral addition.
New Publications in Soil Biology and Biochemistry and JGR Biogeosciences
04.04.2025
Laurel contributed to two studies led by Eva Voggenreiter and Prachi Joshi (Geomicrobiology Group, Universität Tübingen) that were published in Soil Biology and Biochemistry and JGR Biogeosciences. Both studies demonstrate the role of iron in mediating carbon cycling in thawing permafrost soils. For more information, you can read the open access articles:
Reduction of iron-organic carbon associations shifts net greenhouse gas release after initial permafrost thaw. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2025.109735
Suppression of Methanogenesis by Microbial Reduction of Iron-Organic Carbon Associations in Fully Thawed Permafrost Soil. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JG008650
Beamtime at Samba
20.02.2025
Last week, Mareike, Leo and Laurel were at the SAMBA beamline (Soleil synchrotron) to measure solid-phase speciation of As, Fe, and Mn. The data collected will help us better understand As redox chemistry in the presence of Fe and Mn minerals.
Welcome Louisa!
27.01.2025
We welcome Louisa Wolpert to the group! Louisa already joined Yi-Ho and Laurel last summer for 3 weeks of field work at the palsa field site in the Icelandic highlands. Now, she will continue to process the soil cores and porewater samples she collected as part of her MSc thesis. Her focus is on quantifying and characterizing iron and carbon in the thawing permafrost landscapes as part of the Swiss Polar Institute Exploratory Grant ‘Assessing the role of iron minerals as drivers of carbon release during permafrost thaw in the Icelandic highlands‘.
Welcome Neomi!
01.12.2024
We are happy to welcome our newest group member, Neomi Widmer! Neomi completed her MSc at ETH Zurich in Engineering Geology where she studied soil moisture dynamics in a reforestation initiative through geophyiscal monitoring. At UniNE, she will work with co-supervision of Prof. Daniel Hunkeler (Hydrochemistry and Contaminants) to study the impact of managed water table fluctuations on carbon dynamics in mineral-amended agricultural soils in the Seeland. We’re looking forward to this new and exciting collaboration!
Laurel recieves a SNSF Starting Grant
22.11.2024
Congratulations to Laurel for success with a SNSF Starting Grant! The project ‘MiMOC: Mineral-Mediated Organic Carbon dynamics in soils and sediments: Advancing understanding from the lab to the field‘ will investigate iron mineral transformations and their impact on carbon dynamics in soils and sediments in both the lab and the field. Read more about it in the links below:
Laurel, Yi-Ho and Mareike attended the 2024 SGM in Basel
09.11.2024
Yi-Ho and Mareike presented their most recent research at the 2024 Swiss Geoscience Meeting in Basel and Laurel gave an invited keynote presentation.
Group hike to Chaumont
19.10.2024
The Environmental Chemistry group and friends hiked to Chaumont; Neuchâtel’s ‘house mountain’. After lunch at the top, the group took the funicular back down to the city to enjoy views over lake Neuchâtel.
