News
Read more updates here.
November 15, 2025
My warmest congratulations on a successful PhD defence by amazing Melanie Münch at the Utrecht University
Congratulations to the supervisors Thilo Behrends, Caroline Slomp, the collaborators Andreas Voegelin Ville Nenonen the committee members @ Søndergaard Martin Bernhard Wehrli, Michael Hupfer and many more supporters and scientists, Joëlle Kubeneck
October 31, 2025
The International Society of Environmental Biogeochemistry (ISEB) conference has already become a part of history! It was held at Trinity College in Dublin from October 27 to 31, 2025. We enjoyed the Guinness, the beautiful autumn weather, the company of friends and colleagues, and the scientific discussions. Thank you to everyone for sharing your time, insights, and positive energy, even in the slightly undercooling auditorium. Vernon Ernest Chi Fru Mayumi Seto, Christopher Weisener Annette Engel, Ville Nenonen, KArim BENZERARA, Lotta Purkamo, Jonathan Lloyd Shane O’Reilly
September 23, 2025
Our amazing study site, Lake Huron, Georgian Bay.
Thanks to this fantastic team: David Sweetnam from Georgian Bay Forever, Khoren Avetisyan, and Xiaoqing Shao. One month brings two papers: Methane in oxic water & Methane-Iron-Phosphorus Interactions in Sediments.
For more details, check out the publications here and here.
August 25, 2025
Extremely proud of our new Dr. David Aceituno-Caicedo on successfully defending his PhD!! Way to go!!!
August 13, 2025
2025 research day at the Centre for Global Change Science, University of Toronto Centre for Climate Change Research
I am proud of undergraduate student Masae Kiki Ko presenting her findings about “Nanoplastics impact of cyanobacterial Photosynthesis”. Thanks to my group members Nigarsan Kokilathasan, Valentyna Kundas, Benjamin Lei, and Khoren Avetisyan who support Kiki.
Ayesha Usman UofT Scarborough Undergraduate Research Students’ Association (URSA UTSC)
July 16, 2025
Back from Goldschmidt 2025 in Prague! A workshop before the conference, a lot of exciting talks and posters, presentations of our group Khoren Avetisyan, Sara Zaferani, Xiaoqing Shao, meeting old friends and making new connections. Thanks a lot for everyone for being there, having discussions Thilo Behrends Dr Navdeep Dhami Neha Mehta Liane G. Benning Bert-Jan Groenenberg Jon Petter Gustafsson Steeve Bonneville Julie Cosmidis Sergei Katsev, Ekaterina Markelova, Ph.D. Yoshio Takahashi and many many others!
See you in Montreal 2026!
July 2, 2025
Happy to see my graduate student, Valentyna Kundas, in the Biominerals Workshop at the University of Tübingen. Thanks, Andreas Kappler, for leading this workshop!
May 5, 2025
Exciting news! The second paper 1st authored by talented graduate student in my group, Nigarsan Kokalithasan, is published! This study examines the impacts of polystyrene nanoplastics at environmentally relevant concentrations on the physiology and cell surface properties of freshwater and marine cyanobacteria. The research sheds light on how cyanobacteria utilize extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) secretion and cell surface modifications as adaptive strategies to counter the potential adverse effects of polystyrene nanoplastics.
For more details, check out the publication.
April 17, 2025
Proud of my grad students, David and Nigarsan, on their success at the 2025 DESC VIII – 8th Doctoral Environmental Science Colloquium!
March 31, 2025
Thanks to Professor Ueli Angst for an inspiring seminar at the University of Toronto!
January 20, 2025
Congrats to Hadil for her first paper, “Do coastal salt mudflats (sabkhas) contribute to the blue carbon sequestration?”. I am proud of her success!
October 24, 2024
I am very proud to see my former graduate student Carlos Paulo, a talented and emerging geochemist being successful in industrial research! Way to go!
October 21, 2024
Thanks to ETH Zurich’s Durability of Engineering Materials Lab for hosting my seminar, “Biomineralisation in Microbial Mats: From Dolomite to Bio-cements”. Great discussion!
September 23, 2024
Arrived to Ulm, for the Raman Imaging Symposium! Looking forward for next three days!
August 23, 2024
What a wonderful experience to be back at the GoldschmidtConference in person, watching the presentation of my current Nigarsan Kokilathasan, and future graduate students, meeting former group member Carlos Paulo, reuniting with colleagues Janice Kenney Jeremy Fein Jeremiah Shuster, Daniel Alessi, Professor Yoshio Takahashi, Dr. Jutta Meier, and enjoyed the vibrant city of Chicago!
September 15, 2020
A publication based on the study of phosphorus cycling at the sediment-water interface in the Lake of the Woods by a postdoctoral fellows in our group, Dr. M.S. Alam, Dr. J. Li and master student B. Barthod “Geochemical controls on internal phosphorus loading in Lake of the Woods” is available now online in Chemical Geology.
June 24, 2020
Zach Diloreto and Maria Dittrich are giving the talks at the Goldschmidt and are the co-authors at the third presentation
Dittrich, M, DiLoreto, Z. A., Bontognali,T.R. R, Liu, H., Lu, X. (2020). Variances in proto-dolomite formation by exopolymers from oxygenic, and anoxygenic microbial mats and clays.
DiLoreto, Z. A., Dittrich, M, Bontognali,T.R. R 2020, Signaficance of Oxygenic and Anoxygenic Photosynthesizers for Dolomite Formation in Modern hypersaline Environments.
Tatzel M, Paytan A, *DiLoreto Z, Dittrich M, Bontognali TRR. Sánchez-Román M, (2020). Magnesium and strontium stable isotopes fractionation during microbial dolomite formation. June 18-23, Honolulu, Hawai USA, Goldschmidt Conference.
June 18-23, 2020
Adina Paytan and Maria Dittrich are hosting the Theme15c “Diversity and Inclusion in the Geosciences” at the Goldschmidt 2020.
Read more here.
May 26, 2020
Maria Dittrich is a co-author at the strategic paper “Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: Rapid degradation of the world’s large lakes”. in the Great Lakes Research Journal
Read more here.
May 2020
Our presentations at the EGU 2020
Zach Diloreto and Maria Dittrich gave the talks at the EGU 2020, virtually:)See the presentation by Diloreto et al. “Linking decay of microbial mats and dolomite formation in the sabkhas of Qatar” at the session BG5.3 Extreme environments, mud volcanoes and hydrothermal systems on Earth and planetary analogues: biology, stratigraphy, structure, evolution and monitoring of active and fossils settings, follow the link
April 2020
The paper by S. Markovic, A. Richards and M. Dittrich “Speciation and bioavailability of particulate phosphorus in forested karst watersheds of Southern Ontario during extreme rain events” has been accepted for Journal of Great Lakes Research.
January 2020
A new project funded by the Qatar Foundation
Our proposal in cooperation with Qatar University and Nanjing University on “Understanding carbon mineralization in sabkhas: microbial mats, minerals and carbon sequestration” was successful and will be funded by Qatar Foundation for next three years.
We are looking for a motivated PhD student.
Apply by sending your CV and a motivation letter as one PDF-file to mdittrich@utsc.utoronto.ca
January 2020
New publication on impact of temperature and extracellular polysaccharides from hypersaline mats on crystal size of dolomite formation
A new paper by a PhD student Carlos Paulo from our group and collaborators at UofT and ETH Zurich assess proto-dolomite formation by EPS extracted from the phototrophic microbial mat. Both the temperature and the presence of EPS impact the size and morphology of minerals, promoting spherulitic and dumbbell growth in sulfate free solutions. The formation of proto-dolomite was enhanced by the abundance of carboxylated molecules in EPS which controlled the polymorphism of carbonates. Paulo etal 2020, Organomineralization of proto-dolomite in sabkhas by Geitlerinema sp cyanobacterial extracellular polymeric substances: temperature control of crystal size and its implication for geological record, 2019, American Journal of Science, 320, 72–95
Read more here.
Akos T. Kovacs @EvolvedBiofilm
Multiple stressors determine community structure and estimated function of river biofilm bacteria
-in @AppEnvMicro link
We are delighted that the @CarbonateForum will be held online on 12th – 13th May. If you submitted an abstract you should have received an email update. We are currently finalising plans and will provide registration details soon. Watch this space! #carbonate @sedimentology
Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings @lindaunobel
660 young scientists from about 100 countries experience their first Lindau Moment today: They are invited to the 70th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. Congratulations! They will meet around 70 Nobel Laureates at #LINO70 link.
PACYC184 @pacyc1841
Picoplankton accumulate and recycle polyphosphate to support high primary productivity in coastal Lake Ontario | Scientific Reports here.
Lukas VF Novak @animalculum
Biomineralization and Successive Regeneration of Engineered Living Building Materials: #Cyanobacteria Biomineralized Hydrogel-Sand Scaffolds link by Chelsea Heveran et al.
link view image on Twitter
paper publication based on the study of phosphorus cycling at the sediment-water interface in the Lake of the Woods by a postdoctoral fellows in our group, Dr. M.S. Alam, Dr. J. Li and master student B. Barthod “Geochemical controls on internal phosphorus loading in Lake of the Woods” is available now online in Chemical Geology