The advent of high-throughput sequencing has revealed both visible and previously invisible biodiversity, which in turn has revolutionized our understanding of micro- and macro-organismal community assemblages across temporal and spatial dimensions. In marine environments, environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has provided insights into the biodiversity of metazoans at resolutions that can be much higher than conventional sampling and analysis methods for morphological identification. The increasing use of eDNA metabarcoding has also spurred the barcoding of reference databases across the Tree of Life.
This enables the use of eDNA metabarcoding as an efficient tool for biomonitoring of aquatic and especially marine organisms.
A prerequisite for interpreting eDNA signals deriving from different organismal types is an understanding of how those species are represented in different environmental samples. Bacteria are at the base of every ecosystem and they respond rapidly to environmental changes, making them ideal barometers of both organismal and ecosystem health. Metazoans participate in the vertical transport of carbon from surface to bottom water. The diversity of pelagic bacteria and metazoans is well studied, yet little attention has been paid to the diversity of their bottom water dwelling counterparts.
To close this research gap and to assess the suitability of eDNA metabarcoding for the habitat characterization, we identify the communities of bottom-associated bacteria and metazoans in selected regions of the south-eastern North Sea. To this end, we have taken water samples from 5 m above a seafloor that is primarily covered by muddy sediments. In the proposed study, both bacterial and metazoan communities will be characterized based on 16S rRNA and COI metabarcoding in order to answer the following questions: 1) What communities do we find in these specific habitats? 2) Are there regional patterns of community assembly determined by the mud content of the sediment? 3) What are the indicator species in each organismal group? 4) How do those species shape network structure within bacterial and metazoan communities? 
By providing insights into the linkage between eDNA taxonomic profiles and organismal interaction networks, the results will support management efforts aimed at biodiversity risk assessments in the context of biodiversity conservation in the German North Sea.

What are we looking for?
A Master’ student with a strong interest in uncovering biodiversity of microorganisms and benthic communities in marine ecosystems by analysing eDNA metabarcoding data. The use of appropriate software for data analysis, experience in analysing sequence data and an understanding of microbial and/or animal communities are an advantage.