Geobiology
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Lichen on calcium sulfate crust, Atacama Desert, Chile.
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Fungal hyphae with particles of a calcium sulfate crust, Atacama Desert, Chile.
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Sampling of a manganese crust in the Kilianstollen copper mine, Marsberg, Germany.
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Microbial mat samples from the Kilianstollen copper mine, Marsberg, Germany.
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Sampling at lake Liblar during the limnology field course.
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Drawing of a pottery vessel and photo of a shard as part of archeological investigations.
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Paleoclimate reconstructions in East Antarctica – evidence from fossil stomach oil deposits of snow petrels.
Geobiological research explores the interplay of the biosphere and the geosphere and their co-evolution through space and time.
Geobiology aims to fundamentally understand recent biogeochemical processes in order to reconstruct ancient life and changes of environment conditions. Since the Precambrian microorganisms shape the earth by inducing mineral precipitation forming geological structures but also destroying them via biocorrosion.
To study such processes we combine methods from various natural sciences like palaeontology, geochemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, ecology and biogeochemistry. Information from organic molecules, rock fabrics, minerals, fossils, isotopes and other tracers helps to deduce the ancient life conditions and adaptation mechanisms of life in the present and in the past.