Dr. Katja Schmidt (PostDoc until 2017)

Picture by Thomas Aigner

Dr. Katja Schmidt is a marine geochemist who has been a Ph.D. student and PostDoc at Jacobs University Bremen from 2004 to 2017. At present, she works at the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Resources (BGR), where she is the Head of the Marine Geology Laboratory in the Department of Marine Resource Exploration. She is still a close collaborator of the workgroup and often meets her former colleagues on research expeditions, in which both JUB and the BGR are involved. Examples include the JPI-Oceans project “MiningImpact” or the recent TRAM project, led by Andrea Koschinsky.

Research foci and interests

  • Trace element and radiogenic isotope geochemistry, aqueous geochemistry, igneous geochemistry, trace element cycling in aqueous systems, biogeochemical behavior, and fate of trace metals at ocean interfaces (land-sea, sediment-water, hydrothermal vent sites)
  • Trace metal speciation and role of nanoparticles and colloids in controlling trace metal fluxes and bioavailability, trace metal uptake at biological interfaces
  • marine mineral deposits: formation, resource potential, and archive applications
  • Fate and impact of technology-critical elements and anthropogenic micropollutants in the environment, metal ecotoxicology
  • Early diagenetic processes in deep-sea sediments, impacts of deep-sea mining activities on biogeochemical processes in surface sediments, benthic layer, and the water column
  • High-temperature fluid geochemistry of active hydrothermal systems, fingerprinting of host rocks and water-rock-ore interaction, hydrothermal export fluxes
  • Application and development of innovative, new methodological and analytical approaches for trace metal studies and monitoring purposes

Marine research expeditions (selection)

  • 2001   RV SONNE cruise SO154, CARIBFLUX, submarine hydrothermal mineralizations and fluids off the Lesser Antilles Island Arc. Caribbean Sea: Hydroacoustic mapping, Geochemistry of rocks
  • 2005   RV METEOR cruise M64/2, HYDROMAR II, Long term study of hydrothermalism and biology at the Logatchev field, MAR. Atlantic Ocean: fluid geochemistry
  • 2007   RV M.S.MERIAN cruise MSM04/3, HYDROMAR III, Temporal and spatial variability of hydrothermal, geochemical and biological systems at the Logatchev hydrothermal vent field. MAR, Atlantic Ocean: fluid geochemistry (Lead PI)
  • 2008   RV L’ATALANTE cruise Ata2, MARSUED IV, hydrothermal activity southern MAR 4°48’S, lower crust inside corner high 5°S. Atlantic Ocean: fluid geochemistry (Co PI)
  • 2018   RV SONNE cruise SO262, BGR exploration cruise MANGAN2018, CCZ/German manganese nodule contact area. Pacific Ocean: water and sediment geochemistry (Lead PI)
  • 2018   RV SONNE cruise SO262, BGR exploration cruise MANGAN2018, CCZ/German manganese nodule contact area. Pacific Ocean: water and sediment geochemistry (Lead PI)
  • 2019   RV SONNE cruise SO268/2, NODULEMONITORING – MININGIMPACT research project, environmental baseline investigations CCZ/German and Belgian manganese nodule contract areas. Pacific Ocean: water and sediment geochemistry (Co-PI). Blog: https://www.oceanblogs.org/eadsm
  • 2020   RV METEOR cruise M169, TRAM, input of critical high-technology metals in the southern North Sea. North Sea and Elbe, Weser, Ems river estuaries: trace metal geochemistry (Co-PI)
  • Blog: https://www.jacobs-university.de/blog-post-m169
  • 2021   MV ISLAND PRIDE cruise IP21, BGR and MININGIMPACT, environmental monitoring of collector test, CCZ/German and Belgian nodule contract area. Pacific Ocean: water and sediment geochemistry (Lead PI)
  • Blog:https://www.bgr.bund.de/EN/Themen/MarineRohstoffforschung/MiningImpact-Logbuch/aktuelles_inhaltsverzeichnis_node_en.html

Land-based fieldwork

  • Riverine and estuarine water sampling campaigns in Greenland, Sweden, Iceland, Brazil, Germany

Publications in cooperation with Andrea Koschinsky

  • Koschinsky, A.; Schmidt, K., Garbe-Schönberg, D. (2020): Geochemical time series of hydrothermal fluids from the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge: Implications of medium-term stability. Chemical Geology 552, 119760.
  • Schmidt, K., Garbe-Schönberg, D., Hannington, M., Anderson, M., Bühring, B., Haase, K., Haruel, C., Lupton, J., Koschinsky, A. (2017): Boiling vapour-type fluids from the Nifonea vent field (New Hebrides Island Arc, Vanuatu, SW Pacific): Geochemistry of an early-stage hydrothermal system. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 207, 185–209.
  • Pöhle, S., Schmidt, K., Koschinsky, A. (2014): Determination of Ti, Zr, Nb, V, W and Mo in seawater by a new online-preconcentration method and subsequent ICP–MS analysis, Deep Sea Research Part I Oceanographic Research Papers, 98, 83-93.
  • Bau, M., Schmidt, K., Koschinsky, A., Hein, J., Kuhn, T., Usui, A. (2014): Discriminating between different genetic types of marine ferro-manganese crusts and nodules based on rare earth elements and yttrium, Chemical Geology, 381, 1-9.
  • Schmidt, K., Bau, M., Hein, J., Koschinsky, A. (2014): Fractionation of Zr-Hf and Nb-Ta during scavenging from seawater by hydrogenetic ferromanganese crusts. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 140. 468-487.
  • Klevenz, V., Bach, W., Schmidt, K., Hentscher, M., Koschinsky, A., Petersen, S. (2012): Geochemistry of vent fluid particles formed during initial hydrothermal fluid-seawater mixing along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 12 (10).
  • Schmidt, K., Garbe-Schönberg, D., Koschinsky, A., Strauss, H., Jost, C.L., Klevenz, V., Königer, P. (2011): Fluid elemental and stable isotope composition of the Nibelungen hydrothermal field (8°18’S, Mid-Atlantic Ridge): Constraints on fluid-rock interaction in heterogeneous lithosphere. Chemical Geology 280, 1-18.
  • Marbler, H., Koschinsky, A., Pape, T., Seifert, R., Weber, S., Baker, E. T., Carvalho, L.M. de, Schmidt.K. (2010): Geochemical and physical structure of the hydrothermal plume at the ultramafic-hosted Logatchev hydrothermal field at 14°45′N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Marine Geology271 (3-4)
  • Koschinsky, A., Bau, M., Marbler, H., Schmidt, K. (2010): Rare valuable metals in marine ferromanganese nod-ules – contents and accumulation processes. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Geologie 51 (2).
  • Bau, M., Balan, S., Schmidt, K., Koschinsky, A. (2010): Rare earth elements in mussel shells of the Mytilidae family as tracers for hidden and fossil high-temperature hydrothermal systems, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 299, 310-316.
  • Schmidt, K., Garbe-Schönberg, D., Bau, M., Koschinsky, A. (2010): Rare earth element distribution in >400 C hot hydrothermal fluids from 5°S, MAR: The role of anhydrite in controlling highly variable distribution patterns. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 74, 4058-4077.
  • Koschinsky, A., Garbe-Schönberg, D., Sander, S., Schmidt, K., Gennerich, H.-H., Strauss, H. (2008): Hydrothermal venting at p-T conditions above the critical point of seawater, 5°S on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Geology 36, 615-618.
  • Perner, M., Kuever, J.; Seifert, R., Pape, T., Koschinsky, A, Schmidt, K. Strauss, H., Imhoff, J.F. (2007): The influence of ultramafic rocks on microbial communities at the Logatchev hydrothermal field, located 15°N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 61 (1).
  • Schmidt, K., Koschinsky, A., Garbe-Schönberg, D., de Carvalho, L.M. Seifert, R. (2007): Geochemistry of hydrothermal fluids from the Logatchev hydrothermal field, 15°N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge: Temporal and spatial investigation. Chemical Geology 242, 1-21.