BB830: Geobiology (5 ECTS)

STADS: 04008701

Level
Master's level course

Teaching period
The course is offered in the spring semester.
4th quater

Teacher responsible
Email: khabicht@biology.sdu.dk

Additional teachers
dec@biology.sdu.dk
bot@bmb.sdu.dk
loretodb@biology.sdu.dk

Timetable
Show entire timetable
Show personal time table for this course.

Prerequisites:
None

Academic preconditions:
Bachelor degree in biology, chemistry, or geology.

Course introduction
To provide an in-depth and quantitative understanding of the interaction between life and the solid Earth, and the evolution of these interactions through geologic time.

Expected learning outcome
At the end of the course the students should be able to:
• Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different evidence for early life on Earth.
• Critically evaluate the chemical conditions on the early Earth and the possibilities for life under these conditions.
• Discuss how organisms influence concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide and oxygen on annual to decadal timescales.
• Explain the geological and biological processes influencing the carbon cycle over long geological timescales.
• Explain the geological and biological processes influencing atmospheric oxygen concentrations over long geological timescales.
• Discuss how organisms cope with very low oxygen levels.
• Explain the various lines of evidence used to reconstruct oxygen levels through geologic time.
• Describe the history of atmospheric oxygen through time and apply simple models to explore this history
• Apply simple quantitative models to hindcast the evolution of the biogeochemical carbon cycle through time.
• Discuss how the concentrations of iron and sulfide have varied in the deep oceans through time and explain the main processes influencing this history.
• Describe the history of sulfate concentrations in the oceans and explain the controlling factors.
• Discuss the processes controlling the concentrations of phosphorus in the oceans, now, and in the geologic past.
• Discuss the processes controlling the concentrations of nitrogen in the oceans, now and in the geologic past.
• Evaluate the role of anoxygenic photosynthesis in modern anoxic marine and freshwater basins, and discuss the role of anoxygenic photosynthesis in the marine carbon cycle in the geologic past.


Subject overview
a) life before oxygen.
b) the role of organisms in chemical weathering.
c) Biomineralization.
d) the stable isotope geochemistry of carbon, sulfur and nitrogen.
e) the influence of ocean anoxia on the marine carbon cycle.
f) box models and more complex 1-D models of the marine carbon cycle.
g) the history of the global carbon cycle and atmospheric oxygen.

Literature

• Kurt Konhauser: Introduction to Geomicrobiology, Blackwell Publishing, 2007..
• Relevante artikler, som udleveres i kurset..

Syllabus
See syllabus.

Website
This course uses e-learn (blackboard).

Prerequisites for participating in the exam
None

Assessment and marking:
a) Mandatory assignments Pass/fail and internal evaluation by teacher
b) Written exam. Danish 7 mark scale, external examiner

Expected working hours
The teaching method is based on three phase model.

Forelæsninger: 21 timer
Eksaminatorietimer/opgaveregning: 22 timer
Educational activities

Language
This course is taught in English.

Course enrollment
See deadline of enrolment.

Tuition fees for single courses
See fees for single courses.