Lee Kerkhof Associate Professor Rutgers University School of Env & Biol Sciences Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences 71 Dudley Road New Brunswick. NJ 08901-8521 (732) 932-6555. ext. 335 FAX - 6520 kerkhof@imcs.rutgers.edu

Marine microbiology. molecular ecology. microbial population dynamics

Dr. Kerkhof's expertise is using molecular approaches to study the microbial ecology in a variety of systems. His interests include the development of new techniques for genetic analysis of marine and non-marine bacteria. The particular microbial groups he is studying include denitrifiers. nitrifiers. sulfate reducers. and Archaea. Dr. Kerkhof has recently been working at the Long-term Ecosystem Observatory (LEO-15) site off the New Jersey coast to elucidate specific linkages between bacteria and specific phytoplankton during blooms in the coastal ocean. Furthermore. he is currently establishing a microbial observatory in the Mid-Atlantic Bight system including quantitative information on the specific bacteria and phytoplankton which are active and relevant in the LEO-15 study area.

Selected Publications

Ahn YB, Häggblom MM, Kerkhof LJ. (2007) Comparison of anaerobic microbial communities from Estuarine sediments amended with halogenated compounds to enhance dechlorination of 1,2,3,4-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 61(2):362-71.

McGuinness LM. Salganik M. Vega L. Pickering KD. Kerkhof LJ. (2006) Replicability of bacterial communities in denitrifying bioreactors as measured by PCR/T-RFLP analysis. Environ Sci Technol. 40(2):509-15.

Wawrik B. Kerkhof L. Kukor J. Zylstra G. (2005) Effect of different carbon sources on community composition of bacterial enrichments from soil. Appl Environ Microbiol. 71(11):6776-83.

Wawrik B. Kerkhof L. Zylstra GJ. Kukor JJ. (2005) Identification of unique type II polyketide synthase genes in soil. Appl Environ Microbiol. 71(5):2232-8.

Corredor JE. Wawrik B. Paul JH. Tran H. Kerkhof L. Lopez JM. Dieppa A. Cardenas O. (2004) Geochemical rate-RNA integration study: ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase gene transcription and photosynthetic capacity of planktonic photoautotrophs. Appl Environ Microbiol. Sep;70(9):5459-68.

Fennell DE. Rhee SK. Ahn YB. Haggblom MM. Kerkhof LJ. (2004) Detection and characterization of a dehalogenating microorganism by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism fingerprinting of 16S rRNA in a sulfidogenic. 2-bromophenol-utilizing enrichment. Appl Environ Microbiol. 70(2):1169-75.

Haggblom MM. Ahn YB. Fennell DE. Kerkhof LJ. Rhee SK. (2003) Anaerobic dehalogenation of organohalide contaminants in the marine environment. Adv Appl Microbiol. 53:61-84.

Vetriani C. Tran HV. Kerkhof LJ. (2003) Fingerprinting microbial assemblages from the oxic/anoxic chemocline of the Black Sea. Appl Environ Microbiol. 69(11):6481-8.

Ahn YB. Rhee SK. Fennell DE. Kerkhof LJ. Hentschel U. Haggblom MM. (2003) Reductive dehalogenation of brominated phenolic compounds by microorganisms associated with the marine sponge Aplysina aerophoba. Appl Environ Microbiol. 69(7):4159-66.

Paerl HW. Dyble J. Twomey L. Pinckney JL. Nelson J. Kerkhof L.(2002) Characterizing man-made and natural modifications of microbial diversity and activity in coastal ecosystems. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek. 81(1-4):487-507.

Song B. Kerkhof LJ. Haggblom MM. (2002) Characterization of bacterial consortia capable of degrading 4-chlorobenzoate and 4-bromobenzoate under denitrifying conditions. FEMS Microbiol Lett. 213(2):183-8.

Sakano Y. Pickering KD. Strom PF. Kerkhof LJ. (2002) Spatial distribution of total. ammonia-oxidizing. and denitrifying bacteria in biological wastewater treatment reactors for bioregenerative life support. Appl Environ Microbiol. 68(5):2285-93.

Perez-Jimenez. J.. Young. L. and Kerkhof. L. (2001) Dissimilatory sulfite reductase genes from novel anaerobic bacteria capable of PAH degradation. FEMS Microbial Ecology. 35:145-150

Kerkhof. L.. Santoro. M.. and J. Garland. (2000). Response of soybean rhizosphere communities to human hygiene water addition as determined by community-level physiological profiling (CLPP) and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) analysis. FEMS Micro. Letters. 184:95-101.

Kerkhof. L.. and D. Scala. (2000). Molecular tools for studying biogeochemical cycling in salt marshes. Invited Book Chapter. In. "Concepts and Controversies in Salt Marsh Ecology". M. Weinstein and D. Kreeger (eds.). Publisher: Kluwer Academic. Publication in May 2000.

M. Haggblom. V. Knight. and L. Kerkhof. (2000). Anaerobic decomposition of halogenated aromatic compounds. Environmental Pollution (Special Issue). 107: 199-207.