In this project the nature, occurrence, distribution and processes of microbial communities, associated with pockmark structures on the seabed of the south-western Barents Sea will be investigated. Furthermore, the composition and source of seeping fossil hydrocarbons, forming a potential feedstock for the microbial communities, will be a topic of our investigations. The applied methodology includes geochemical, biogeochemical and microbiological approaches. Characteristic microbial biomarkers and their compound specific carbon isotope signatures as well as the investigation of the most important carbon turnover processes and microbial cell abundances will help to characterise the pockmark-related microbial communities and to monitor present and paleo-seep structures. Data on the seeping hydrocarbons will be used to model hydrocarbon generation, migration and sequestration dynamics through geologic time in the Barents Sea. Results will be integrated into the MOM (Methane on the Move) project. The project will be conducted within the scope of two PhD thesis and in close cooperation with the Swedish oil company Lundin, being the initiator of the current sampling campaign in the SW Barents Sea.

Participants

• Kai Mangelsdorf
• Jens Kallmeyer
• Rolando di Primio
• Julia Nickel

Partners
Lundin Petroleum

Funding
Lundin Petroleum