School of Geographical & Earth Sciences

Earth-life processes theme

Earth-life processes theme

The focus of this theme is on understanding the web of biotic interactions with the Earth system. Current areas of research include:

Palaeobiosystems

  • The history of life on Earth, how it evolves in response to environmental change and the mechanisms by which modern and ancient organisms can provide evidence for such change

Taxonomic databases

  • Exploring biodiversity patterns in the fossil record and seeking the driving forces for major radiations and extinctions in changes of climate, palaeogeography and palaeoecology

Biomineralisation

  • Use of microfluidic lab-on-a-chip technologies to probe the molecular controls on calcite crystallization. Understanding the controls of CaCO3 secretion in organisms from molecular to environmental scales and from modern-day to deep time

Marine invertebrate and biomarker climate proxies

  • Validation and application of proxies (e.g. calcareous algae, corals, biomarkers) and their use in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction

Microbial Geochemistry

  • The role of bacteria in biogeochemical cycling at the present-day and during their evolution on the early Earth. Our work ranges from the development of microbial technologies for remediation of groundwater contaminants to understanding how where and when microbial life may exist on other planets

 

Theme members
Based in the School of Geographical & Earth Sciences (GES):
Gordon Curry, Maggie Cusack, Susan Fitzer, Nick Kamenos, Alan Owen, Jaime Toney

Based at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Center (SUERC):
Rhona McGill, Jason Newton, Charlotte Bryant

Current postgraduate students
Kirsty Hill, Hazel Long, Jill McColl, Caroline Miller, Crystal Smiley, Nick Thomas.

 

Collaborative projects

 

Facilities and resources