Research Interests

I am a polar microbial ecologist that uses 'omic techniques to study the diversity and function of the smallest inhabitants of the Arctic - microbes and their viruses. My overarching aim is to contribute to a better understanding of the key microbial players and mechanisms that drive ecosystem functioning in the cryosphere, knowledge needed to better predict the consequences of ongoing environmental changes for the future Arctic Ocean.

Education

2014 - 2018
PhD in Marine Microbiology
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany;
Diversity and function of microbial communities in the Arctic Ocean.

2014 - 2018
MarMic Graduate School for Marine Microbiology
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany.

2012 - 2014
M.Sc. in Marine Microbiology
International Max Planck Research School of Marine Microbiology and University of Bremen, Germany
Bacterial diversity in sea ice, melt ponds, water column, ice algal aggregates and deep-sea sediments of the Central Arctic Ocean.

2009 - 2012
B.Sc. in Biology
Free University of Berlin and Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany
Bacterial diversity patterns in deep-sea sediments at the Arctic long-term observatory HAUSGARTEN.

Research Experience

Postdoctoral fellow (2021 - present)
CFREF Sentinel North project "Last Ice Microbiomes and Arctic Ecosystem Health"
Université Laval, Canada

Scientific consultant (2020)
Matt Sullivan's Virus lab
Ohio State University, USA

Postdoctoral fellow (2018 - 2020)
Jody Deming's group as part of the "Gene Flow" project; School of Oceanography
University of Washington, USA

Research stays (May-June - 2019)
Research stay at the Sullivan lab
Department of Microbiology, Ohio State University, USA.

Research stays (Sep-Oct - 2015)
Research stay at the Joint Genome Institute (JGI)
Walnut Creek, CA, USA.

Research stays (Aug-Oct - 2011)
Research stay at Department of Environmental Engineering
UNESP Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil.

Research stays (Sep-Oct 2010)
Research stay at Sven Lóven Centre for Marine Science
Tjärnö, Sweden.

Awards

2021
2nd place “People's choice”
Centre for Northern Studies photo contest

2019
Winner “Best presentation”
GRC on Polar Marine Science

2019
Next Generation of Polar Researchers (NGPR-3) fellow, NSF funded
Catalina Island, USA

2019
IGS Sea ice Symposium Early Career Researcher travel award ($1000 CAD)

2018 - 2019
Science Communication Fellow, NSF scholarship ($2,500)
Pacific Science Center, Seattle, USA.

2015
Winner “Best oral presentation”
AWI PhD student symposium

Publications

2023

Soltwedel, T., Rapp, J.Z., Hasemann, C. (2023). Impact of local iron enrichment on the small benthic biota in the deep Arctic Ocean. Front. Mar. Sci. 10:1118431. https://doi:10.3389/ fmars.2023.1118431

2022

Cooper, Z.S., Rapp, J.Z., Shoemaker, A.M.D., Anderson, R.E., Zhong, Z. and Deming, J.W. (2022). Evolutionary divergence of Marinobacter strains in cryopeg brines as revealed by pangenomics. Front. Microbiol. 13:879116. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.879116

Culley, A.I., Thaler, M., Kochtitzky, W., Iqaluk, P., Rapp, J.Z., Rautio, M., Kumagai, M., Copland, L., Vincent, W. and Girard, C. (2022). The Thores Lake proglacial system: remnant stability in the rapidly changing Canadian High Arctic. Arctic Science. e-First https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2022-0023

Labbé, M., Thaler, M., Pitot, T.M., Rapp, J.Z., Vincent, W. & Culley, A.I. (2022). Climate-endangered Arctic epishelf lake harbors viral assemblages with distinct genetic repertoires. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.00228-22

2021

Rapp, J.Z., Sullivan, M.B. and Deming, J.W. (2021). Divergent genomic adaptations in the microbiomes of Arctic subzero sea-ice and cryopeg brines. Front. Microbiol. 12, 701186. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.701186

Fadeev, E., Cardozo-Mino, M.G., Rapp, J.Z., Bienhold, C., Salter, I., Salman-Carvalho, V., Molari, M., Tegetmeyer, H.E., Buttigieg, P.L. and Boetius, A. (2021). Comparison of two 16S rRNA primers (v3-v4 and v4-v5) for studies of Arctic microbial communities. Front. Microbiol. 12:637526 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.637526

2020

Zhong, Z., Rapp, J.Z., Wainaina, J.M., Solonenko, N.E., Maughan, H., Carpenter, S.D., Cooper, Z.S., Jang, H.B., Bolduc, B., Deming, J.W. and Sullivan, M.B. (2020). Viral ecogenomics of Arctic cryopeg brine and sea ice. mSystems 5. https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00246-20

Hoffmann, K., Bienhold, C., Buttigieg, P.L., Knittel, K., Laso-Pérez, R., Rapp, J.Z., Boetius, A and Offre, P. (2020). Diversity and metabolism of Woeseiales bacteria, global members of deep-sea sediment communities. ISME J. 14, 1042-1056. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-020-0588-4

2019

Cooper, Z.S., Rapp, J.Z., Carpenter, S.D., Iwahana, G., Eicken, H. and Deming, J.W. (2019). Distinctive microbial communities in subzero hypersaline brines from Arctic coastal sea ice and rarely sampled cryopegs. FEMS Microbiol. Ecol. https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiz166

2018

Rapp, J.Z., Fernández-Méndez, M., Bienhold, C. and Boetius, A. (2018). Effects of ice-algal aggregate export on the connectivity of bacterial communities in the central Arctic Ocean. Front. Microbiol. 9:1035 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01035

2016

Fernández-Méndez, M., Turk-Kubo, K.A., Rapp, J.Z., Buttigieg, P.L., Krumpen, T., Zehr, J.P., et al. (2016). Diazotroph diversity in the sea ice, melt ponds and surface waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean. Front. Microbiol. 7:1884. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01884

Yilmaz, P., Yarza, P., Rapp, J.Z. and Glöckner, F.O. (2016). Expanding the world of marine bacterial and archaeal clades. Front. Microbiol. 6:1524. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2015.01524

2015

Boetius, A., Anesio, A.M., Deming, J.W., Mikucki, J. and Rapp, J.Z. (2015). Microbial ecology of the cryosphere: sea ice and glacial habitats. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 13, 677-690. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3522