Prof. Dr. Eva-Maria Pfeiffer

University of Hamburg Institute of Soil Science Allende-Platz 2 20146 Hamburg Germany Room 315 Tel.: +49 / 40 / 42838-4194 Fax: +49 / 40 / 42838-2024 e-mail:

Curriculum Vitae

Eva-Maria Pfeiffer was born on 17.09.1955 in Landau. Since the winter semester 2002/03 she is C4-professor for soil science at the Department of Geosciences of the University of Hamburg. She studied biology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main and finished her Ph.D. in geosciences in 1985 at the University of Hamburg. As a postdoc she carried out an EU project on heavy metal pollution of tropical soils on the Philippenes until 1987. Afterwards she worked as a scientific employee in the Environmental Protection Agency of the City of Hamburg until 1989. Being an assistent professor from 1989 to 1996 at the University of Hamburg, she finished her habilitation in 1997. Until the end of 1998 she worked as a scientic employee and vice section head in the field of soil protection at the Environmental Protection Agency of the City of Hamburg. Afterwards she became a scientific employee at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Ocean Research in Bremerhaven and at the research station Potsdam. At that time she was also teaching at the University of Potsdam. The focuses of her research and teaching at the University of Hamburg are soil ecology and soil genesis. The working group "Soil ecology and soil genesis" is concerned with pedogenic processes of the anaerobic C turnover with focus on methane emissions and the N circulation in ecosystems in different climates. Since 2004 she is directress-general of the Institute of Soil Science and educational dean of the Department Geosciences.

Research and Working Focuses

• Research and teaching focus soil ecology and soil genesis in ecosystems in diferent climates, especially arctic and tropical soils
• Current BMBF joint projects Laptev Sea 2000 and Process Studies on Permafrost Dynamics in the Laptev Sea
• Further working focuses: Soil quality and soil assessment; in this field several projects are carried out in Northern Germany (Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein)

Teaching

Teaching at the University of Hamburg (in German):

• Orientation unit Soil Science, 1 SWS
• Basic lecture Soil Science I + II, 4 SWS
• Special lecture Soils of Cold Climates, 2 SWS
• Special lecture Soils of the Tropics and Subtropics, 2 SWS
• Special lecture Archive Soil, 2 SWS
• Advanced seminar Current Topics of Earth Systems Research, 2 SWS
• Soil Science Colloquium, 1 SWS
• Practical Course in Soil Mapping (Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Austria), 4 SWS
• Big Soil Science Excursions (Germany, Austria, Tunesia, Russia), 4 SWS
• Small Soil Science Excursions (Marsh lands, moors, Soils in front of our door, Harz, Wageningen / NL), 2 SWS

Teaching export for other Universities:

• Soils of periglacial environments, POMOR, University of St. Petersburg
• Subtropical and tropical soils, University Cantho, Vietnam

National and International Cooperations

• University of Tyumen, Russia
• University Cantho, Vietnam
• University of St. Petersburg, Russia
• AWI Potsdam
• GEOMAR Kiel

Further Duties and Activities

• Vice Dean of the Department Geosciences of the University of Hamburg
• Directress-general of the Institut of Soil Science
• Chairwoman of the Cryosol Working Group of the International Union of Soil Science and the International Permafrost Association (CWG IUSS & IPA)
• Co-chair des geplanten Projekts 'Carbon Pools in Permafrost Regions' (CAPP) der Internationalen Permafrost Vereinigung (IPA)
• Member of the Advisory Board of the Alfred Wegener Foundation (AWI)
• Member of the Advisory Board of the German Society of Polar Research (DGP)

Publications

Selection of the last five years:

• Wagner, D., Pfeiffer, E.-M. & E. Bock, 1999: Methane production in aerated marshland and model soils: effects of microflora and soil texture. Soil Biol. Biochem. 31, pp. 999-1006
• Samarkin, V.A., Gundelwein, A., Pfeiffer, E.-M., 1999: Studies of methane production and emission in relation to the microrelief of a polygon tundra in Northern Siberia. In: Kassens, H. et al. (eds.): Land-Ocean-Systems in the Siberian Arctic: Dynamics and History. Lecture Notes in the Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, pp. 329-342
• Sommerkorn, M., Gundelwein, A., Pfeiffer, E.-M., Bölter, M., 1999: Carbon dioxide and methane fluxes from arctic tundra sites in North Siberia. In: Kassens, H. et al. (eds.): Land-Ocean-Systems in the Siberian Arctic: Dynamics and History. Lecture Notes in the Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, pp. 343-352
• Scharpenseel, H.-W., E.-M. Pfeiffer & P. Becker-Heidmann, 2000: Ecozone and Soil Profile Screening for C-Residence Time, Rejuvenation, Bomb ¹⁴C Photosynthetic δ¹³C Changes. In: R. Lal, J.M. Kimble, R.F. Follett, B.A. Stewart (eds.): Assessment Methods for Soil Carbon. CRC Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, pp. 207-220
• Pfeiffer, E.-M., D. Wagner, H. Becker, A. Vlasenko, L. Kutzbach, J. Boike, W. Quass, W. Kloss, B. Schulz, A. Kurchatova, V.I. Pozdnyakov & I. Akhmadeeva, 2000: Modern processes in permafrost affected soils. In: Rachold, V. & M.N. Grigoriev (eds.): Russian-German Cooperation System Laptev Sea 2000: The Expedition Lena 1999. Berichte z. Polar- u. Meeresforschung / Reports on Polar and Marine Research 354, pp. 22-54
• Scharpenseel, H.-W., Pfeiffer, E.-M. & Becker-Heidmann, P., 2001: Alter der Humusstoffe. Handbuch der Bodenkunde. Ecomed. 5/02, pp. 1-17
• Wagner, D., Spieck, E., Bock, E. & Pfeiffer, E.-M., 2001: Microbial Life in Terrestrial Permafrost: Methanogenesis and Nitrification in Gelisols as Potentials for Exobiological Processes. In: Horneck, G. & C. Baumstark-Khan (eds.): Astrobiology: The Quest for the Conditions of Life. Springer, Berlin, pp. 143-160
• Broll, G., Merbach, W. & Pfeiffer, E.-M. (Eds.), 2002: Wetlands in Central Europe: Soil Organisms, Soil Ecological Processes and Trace Gas Emissions. Springer, Berlin, 244 pp.
• Pfeiffer, E.-M. & Grigoriev, M.N. (Eds.), 2002: Russian-German Cooperation SYSTEM LAPTEV SEA 2000. The Expedition LENA 2001. Berichte z. Polar- u. Meeresforschung / Reports on Polar and Marine Research 426, 186 pp.
• Wagner D., Wille C., Kobabe S., Pfeiffer E.-M., 2003: Simulation of Freezing-Thawing Cycles in a Permafrost Microcosm for Assessing Microbial Methane Production under Extreme Conditions. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 14, pp. 367-374
• Wagner D., Kobabe S., Pfeiffer E.-M., Hubberten H.-W., 2003: Microbial Controls on Methane Fluxes from a Polygonal Tundra of the Lena Delta, Siberia. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 14, pp. 173-185
• Grigoriev, M.N., V. Rachold, D.Y. Bolshiyanov, E.-M. Pfeiffer, L. Schirrmeister, D. Wagner & H.-W. Hubberten (Eds.), 2003: Russian-German Cooperation SYSTEM LAPTEV SEA. The Expedition LENA 2002. Berichte z. Polar- u. Meeresforschung / Reports on Polar and Marine Research 466, 341 pp.
• Pfeiffer, E.-M., S. Sauer & E. Engel (Hrsg.), 2003: Bodenschätzung und Bodenbewertung. Nutzung und Erhebung von Schätzungsdaten. Verlag Chmielorz, Wiesbaden, 88 S.
• Fiedler, S., Wagner, D., Kutzbach, L. & Pfeiffer, E.-M., 2004: Element redistribution along hydraulic and redox gradients of low-centered polygons, Lena Delta, Northern Siberia. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 68, pp. 1002-1011
• Kutzbach, L., Wagner, D. & Pfeiffer, E.-M., 2004: Effects of microrelief and vegetation on methane emission from wet polygonal tundra, Lena Delta, Northern Siberia. Biogeochem., 69, pp. 341-362
• Kobabe, S., Wagner, D. & Pfeiffer, E.-M., 2004: Characterization of microbial community composition of a Siberian tundra soil by fluorescence in situ hybridization. FEMS Microbiol. Ecol., 50, pp. 13-23