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Gerhard J. Herndl

Gerhard J. Herndl

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Ecology and Evolution
Austria
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
98
Citations
34738
World Ranking
310
National Ranking
3

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in Austria Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in Austria Leader Award
  • 2023 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in Austria Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in Austria Leader Award

Overview

Gerhard J. Herndl is affiliated with the University of Vienna in Austria and has contributed extensively to research in environmental and earth sciences. Their work engages deeply with microbial ecology, molecular biology, and oceanography, focusing on key aspects of environmental systems and carbon cycling.

Their recent scholarly output includes papers published in reputable journals with notable citation counts. Some significant recent publications are:

  • The microbial carbon pump and climate change (2024), Nature Reviews Microbiology
  • Linking extracellular enzymes to phylogeny indicates a predominantly particle-associated lifestyle of deep-sea prokaryotes (2020), Science Advances
  • Nitrifier adaptation to low energy flux controls inventory of reduced nitrogen in the dark ocean (2020), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Reviews and syntheses: Heterotrophic fixation of inorganic carbon - significant but invisible flux in environmental carbon cycling (2021), Biogeosciences
  • Correcting a major error in assessing organic carbon pollution in natural waters (2021), Science Advances

Their collaborative network includes frequent co-authors such as Zihao Zhao, Federico Baltar, Chie Amano, Eva Sintes, and Tinkara Tinta, indicating sustained partnerships in microbiology and marine sciences.

Herndl's publication record shows a presence in journals and platforms where environmental and microbial sciences intersect, including:

  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
  • Frontiers in Microbiology
  • Microbiome
  • Science Advances
  • Frontiers in Marine Science

Their research spans several broad fields and specialized subfields. The main fields of study they contribute to are:

  • Environmental Science
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences
  • Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Within those fields, they focus on subfields including:

  • Ecology
  • Oceanography
  • Molecular Biology
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Pollution

Thematic areas that characterize their work encompass:

  • Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
  • Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
  • Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena
  • Marine and coastal ecosystems
  • Protist diversity and phylogeny
  • Marine Biology and Ecology Research
  • Marine Invertebrate Physiology and Ecology

Best Publications

  • Microbial diversity in the deep sea and the underexplored “rare biosphere”

    Mitchell L. Sogin;Hilary G. Morrison;Julie A. Huber;David Mark Welch

  • Microbial production of recalcitrant dissolved organic matter: long-term carbon storage in the global ocean.

    Nianzhi Jiao;Gerhard J. Herndl;Dennis A. Hansell;Ronald Benner

  • Archaeal nitrification in the ocean

    Cornelia Wuchter;Ben Abbas;Marco J. L. Coolen;Lydie Herfort

  • Contribution of Archaea to Total Prokaryotic Production in the Deep Atlantic Ocean

    G.J. Herndl;T. Reinthaler;E. Teira;H.M. van Aken

  • Dissolved organic carbon leaching from plastics stimulates microbial activity in the ocean.

    Cristina Romera-Castillo;Cristina Romera-Castillo;Maria Pinto;Teresa M. Langer;Xosé Antón Álvarez-Salgado

  • Potential for Chemolithoautotrophy Among Ubiquitous Bacteria Lineages in the Dark Ocean

    Brandon K. Swan;Manuel Martinez-Garcia;Christina M. Preston;Alexander Sczyrba

  • Microbial oceanography of the dark ocean's pelagic realm

    Javier Arístegui;Josep M. Gasol;Carlos M. Duarte;Gerhard J. Herndl

  • Optimization of terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis for complex marine bacterioplankton communities and comparison with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis.

    Markus M. Moeseneder;Jesús M. Arrieta;Gerard Muyzer;Christian Winter

  • Deep carbon export from a Southern Ocean iron-fertilized diatom bloom

    Victor Smetacek;Victor Smetacek;Christine Klaas;Volker H. Strass;Philipp Assmy;Philipp Assmy

  • Major role of ultraviolet-B in controlling bacterioplankton growth in the surface layer of the ocean

    Gerhard J. Herndl;Gerald Müller-Niklas;Jürgen Frick

  • Microbial control of the dark end of the biological pump.

    Gerhard J. Herndl;Thomas Reinthaler

  • Combining Catalyzed Reporter Deposition-Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization and Microautoradiography To Detect Substrate Utilization by Bacteria and Archaea in the Deep Ocean

    Eva Teira;Thomas Reinthaler;Annelie Pernthaler;Jakob Pernthaler

  • Phytoplankton extracellular release and bacterial growth: dependence on the inorganic N: P ratio

    Ingrid Obernosterer;Gerhard J. Herndl

  • The microbiome of coral surface mucus has a key role in mediating holobiont health and survival upon disturbance

    Bettina Glasl;Gerhard J Herndl;Pedro R Frade;Pedro R Frade

  • Dilution limits dissolved organic carbon utilization in the deep ocean

    Jesús M. Arrieta;Jesús M. Arrieta;Eva Mayol;Roberta L. Hansman;Gerhard J. Herndl

  • Major gradients in putatively nitrifying and non-nitrifying Archaea in the deep North Atlantic

    Hélène Agogué;Maaike Brink;Julie Dinasquet;Gerhard J. Herndl

  • Major role of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in dark ocean carbon fixation

    Maria G. Pachiadaki;Eva Sintes;Kristin Bergauer;Julia M. Brown

  • Thick-shelled, grazer-protected diatoms decouple ocean carbon and silicon cycles in the iron-limited Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

    Philipp Assmy;Philipp Assmy;Victor Smetacek;Victor Smetacek;Marina Montresor;Christine Klaas

  • Water mass-specificity of bacterial communities in the North Atlantic revealed by massively parallel sequencing.

    Hélène Agogué;Dominique Lamy;Phillip R. Neal;Mitchell L. Sogin

  • The composition of bacterial communities associated with plastic biofilms differs between different polymers and stages of biofilm succession

    Maria Pinto;Teresa M. Langer;Thorsten Hüffer;Thilo Hofmann

  • Extracellular enzymatic activity and secondary production in free-living and marine-snow-associated bacteria

    Markus Karner;Gerhard J. Herndl

Frequent Co-Authors

Eva Sintes
Eva Sintes Spanish Institute of Oceanography
Jesús M. Arrieta
Jesús M. Arrieta Spanish Institute of Oceanography
Markus G. Weinbauer
Markus G. Weinbauer Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS
Josep M. Gasol
Josep M. Gasol Spanish National Research Council
Javier Arístegui
Javier Arístegui University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Carlos M. Duarte
Carlos M. Duarte King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Ingrid Obernosterer
Ingrid Obernosterer Université Paris Cité
Ramunas Stepanauskas
Ramunas Stepanauskas Bigelow Laboratory For Ocean Sciences
Nianzhi Jiao
Nianzhi Jiao Xiamen University
Eva Teira
Eva Teira Universidade de Vigo

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