Staatsexamen in biology and arts, 2001
Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Fellowships:

2005
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD): Fellowship for Ph.D.-research studies at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, USA; (4 months)

2004
The Womens Board of the Field Museum, Chicago: travel Fellowship to the high Andes of Peru to investigate the vegetation history and phylogeography of Antarctic and bipolar Usnea species

Research Interests:

Phylogeography and vegetation history of lichenized ascomycetes in extreme habitats (Arctic and Antarctic regions)

Systematics and phylogeny of lichenized ascomycetes in general

Lichensymbioses

Current Research:

I am working with lichens, which are symbiotic organisms consisting of a fungal and an algal or bacterial partner. My main focus is on Antarctic and Arctic lichens which are restricted to cold and harsh environments. Few species occur in both polar regions and some spots in the high Andes of Ecuador and Peru. This distribution pattern is called bipolar. The vegetation history of bipolar species is exciting and in most of the cases unresolved. Using molecular techniques, I am trying to reveal the genetic structure of populations of one of these bipolar species (Usnea sphacelata) and the relationships to further Usnea species restricted to Antarctica and South America.

Publications:

Ott, S., M. Brinkmann, N. Wirtz, H. T. Lumbsch (2004) Mitochondrial and nuclear ribosomal DNA data do not support the separation of the Antarctic lichens Umbilicaria kappenii and Umbilicaria antarctica as distinct species. Lichenologist 36: 227-234.

Wirtz, N., H.T. Lumbsch, T.G.A. Green, R. Tuerk, A. Pintado, L. Sancho, B. Schroeter (2003): Lichen fungi have low cyanobiont selectivity in maritime Antarctica. New Phytologist 160:177-183.

Lumbsch, H.T., N. Wirtz, R. Lindemuth & I. Schmitt (2002): Higher level phylogenetic relationships of euascomycetes (Pezizomycotina) inferred from a combined analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial sequence data. Mycol. Progress 1: 57-70.

Lindemuth, R., N. Wirtz & H.T. Lumbsch (2001): Phylogenetic analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial sequence data supports that loculoascomycetes (Ascomycota) are not monophyletic. Mycol. Res. 105: 1176-1181.