Mathilde Borg Dahl

Mathilde Borg Dahl is a researcher in the Department of Bacterial Physiology at the University of Greifswald, Germany. She serves as a corresponding author on significant research in molecular ecology and metatranscriptomics, focusing on quantifying soil microbial communities using internal RNA extraction standards and complementary molecular techniques. Her work bridges environmental microbiology and biogeochemistry, with applications in climate change and soil carbon cycling.

Research Interests: Her primary research areas include soil microbiome analysis, metatranscriptomics, quantitative microbial biomass estimation, RNA extraction standardization, and the integration of molecular data with biogeochemical models. She investigates how microbial community size and activity relate to soil carbon mineralization, particularly under warming conditions.

The recent articles led or co-authored by Mathilde Borg Dahl demonstrate a strong trend in developing and validating quantitative methods for soil metatranscriptomics. Her work emphasizes cross-validation using qRT-PCR, internal standards (e.g., Saccharolobus solfataricus RNA), and biogeochemical measurements (MBC, MBN). The focus is on overcoming biases in RNA extraction and library preparation to achieve reliable estimates of microbial abundance and activity in complex soil environments.

Scientific Contributions:

• Lead researcher and manuscript author on a 2025 Molecular Ecology Resources study on quantifying soil microbiome abundance.
• Co-author on multiple high-impact publications in microbial ecology and soil science (2015–2024).
• Active participant in the ForHot geothermal warming experiment in Iceland.
• Recipient of funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Advising and Grants: While no formal students are listed, her leadership in study design and data analysis suggests a mentoring role. She has secured research funding from the DFG (BO 5559/1-1) and collaborated on projects funded by the Research Council of Norway and the Czech Science Foundation. Her work also benefited from EU Horizon 2020 support via the FutureArctic Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.

Laboratories and Collaborations: She works within the Department of Bacterial Physiology at the University of Greifswald and collaborates with teams at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, University of Vienna, and the Biology Centre CAS in the Czech Republic. She utilizes the CAPUT server hosted by Prof. Lars Kaderali’s lab for bioinformatics and benefits from technical support across departments.