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Dr. Stefanie Schulz

Deputy of the Research Unit Comparative Microbiome Analysis and Head of the Working Group “Environmental Microbiomes”
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"Microbiomes in the environment are key drivers for Ecosystem Services which promote our health. Therefore we want to develop strategies to protect microbiomes and maintain their functional diversity in the face of climate- and global change."

"Microbiomes in the environment are key drivers for Ecosystem Services which promote our health. Therefore we want to develop strategies to protect microbiomes and maintain their functional diversity in the face of climate- and global change."

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Academic Pathway

Stefanie Schulz holds a diploma in Biology and a PhD in Natural Sciences.

She started her scientific carrier 2011 as PostDoc at the Technical University Munich at the Chair of Soil Ecology. Since 2012 she is working at Helmholtz Munich. Starting as a PostDoc, she became the Head of the Working Group “Soil Microbiomes” at the Research Unit Comparative Microbiome Analysis in 2015 (now: Environmental Microbiomes). Currently Stefanie is doing her habilitation at the TU München and works as lecturer since 2020. Now, she heads the working group “Environmental Microbiomes” and is the deputy of the Research Unit Comparative Microbiome Analysis.

Microbial communities in the environment are key drivers for Ecosystem Services provided by nature and thereby support human health and wellbeing. However climate- and global change has impacted environmental microbiomes in the last decades, resulting in significant losses of diversity and the associated functions as well as the invasion of new species, which might act as pathogens for humans, animals and plants. Therefore environmental- and human health are closely interconnected as summarized also the in the Planetary Health Concept. We want to develop strategies to stabilize microbial diversity in nature and define strategies for the sustainable use of resources in the face of climate and global change and thereby prevent the development of environmental diseases including allergies and infections.

To tackle the different research topics Stefanie’s group combines high end molecular techniques like next generation sequencing with targeted isolation approaches, stable isotope probing and basic characterization methods like quantitative PCR approaches, potential activity measurements and quantification of nutrient pools.

Work and Expertise

Biodiversity Microbial Ecology Metagenomics Microbial Community Composition Global Change

Microbiome intestine factories and microbiota. Gut health 3d render. Microvilli with factories in intestine
troyanphoto - stock.adobe.com

Dr. Stefanie Schulz about Microbiotic Research:

"To learn more about environmental microbiota we need to get hands on new isolates and study their physiological properties."

Professional Background

2022

Deputy of COMI

2015

Head of Working Group “Soil Microbiomes” at COMI

2015

Member of DFG-Young researcher academy “Agricultural ecosystem research: Soil resources and plant production”

2008

Member of the Association for General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM) …scientific exchange and cooperation among microbiologists and improvement of communication to the public

Publications

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2025 Scientific Article in Journal of Visualized Experiments

Madaj, A.M. ; Huang, Y. ; Ebeling, A. ; Ertel, L. ; Gebler, A. ; Gleixner, G. ; Hines, J. ; Roscher, C. ; Weigelt, A. ; Albracht, C. ; Amyntas, A. ; Bassi, L. ; Bonato Asato, A.E. ; Bonkowski, M. ; Bröcher, M. ; Buscot, F. ; De Giorgi, F. ; Pinheiro Alves de Souza, Y. ; Doan, V.C. ; Durka, W. ; Heintz-Buschart, A. ; Hennecke, J. ; Lange, M. ; Medina-van Berkum, P. ; Meyer, S.T. ; Krawczyk, S. ; Rai, A. ; Reitz, T. ; Ristok, C. ; Scheu, S. ; Schloter, M. ; Schulz, S. ; Solbach, M.D. ; Unsicker, S.B. ; Eisenhauer, N.

JenaTron - An experimental approach to study the effects of plant history and soil history on grassland ecosystem functioning.

2024 Scientific Article in Basic and Applied Ecology

Eisenhauer, N. ; Mueller, K. ; Ebeling, A. ; Gleixner, G. ; Huang, Y. ; Madaj, A. ; Roscher, C. ; Weigelt, A. ; Bahn, M. ; Bonkowski, M. ; Brose, U. ; Cesarz, S. ; Feilhauer, H. ; Guimaraes-Steinicke, C. ; Heintz-Buschart, A. ; Hines, J. ; Lange, M. ; Meyer, S.T. ; Mohanbabu, N. ; Mommer, L. ; Neuhauser, S. ; Oelmann, Y. ; Rahmanian, S. ; Sasaki, T. ; Scheu, S. ; Schielzeth, H. ; Schmid, B. ; Schloter, M. ; Schulz, S. ; Unsicker, S.B. ; Vogel, C. ; Weisser, W.W. ; Isbell, F.

The multiple-mechanisms hypothesis of biodiversity-stability relationships.

2024 Review in Biology and Fertility of Soils

Vogel, H.J. ; Amelung, W. ; Baum, C. ; Bonkowski, M. ; Blagodatsky, S. ; Grosch, R. ; Herbst, M. ; Kiese, R. ; Koch, S. ; Kuhwald, M. ; König, S. ; Leinweber, P. ; Lennartz, B. ; Müller, C.W. ; Pagel, H. ; Rillig, M.C. ; Rüschhoff, J. ; Russell, D. ; Schnepf, A. ; Schulz, S. ; Siebers, N. ; Vetterlein, D. ; Wachendorf, C. ; Weller, U. ; Wollschläger, U.

How to adequately represent biological processes in modeling multifunctionality of arable soils.