Junior Professor Dr. Sinikka Lennartz - Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prizewinner 2025
Marine Biogeochemistry, University of Oldenburg
Carbon is constantly cycling through the Earth system, and the ocean plays a central role in this process – absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, transforming it through biological processes and storing it in other forms. At the same time, it also releases climate-relevant substances such as trace gases back into the atmosphere. Marine biogeochemist Sinikka Lennartz studies these reciprocal processes and has already made significant contributions to our understanding of the global carbon cycle. She has shown that the pool of dissolved organic carbon in the ocean – previously thought to be stable – is actually much more responsive to environmental changes than previously assumed.
Her research combines Earth system models with laboratory and field work at sea, allowing her to examine biogeochemical processes from the molecular and cellular level up to entire ocean basins and on a full global scale. Her findings are crucial when it comes to modelling future climate scenarios.