Teaching
Our teaching covers organic geochemistry, environmental geochemistry, palaeoclimatology and palaeoceanography. The modules combine theory with practical work in the field, the laboratory and data analysis. Students learn how soils, sediments, organic matter and environmental archives can be studied to better understand present and past environmental processes. We also present possible topics for Bachelor’s and Master’s theses, as well as a list of completed theses.
Impressions from Field and Laboratory Courses
Organic and Environmental Geochemistry
This Bachelor’s module gives students an introduction to organic and environmental geochemistry, combining theory with practical training. The module explores how organic substances and pollutants are formed, transformed and transported in soils, sediments and the wider environment, and how they can be analysed. Students learn how geochemical data help us interpret environmental processes and reconstruct environmental conditions in the past.
The organic geochemistry section of the module introduces key aspects of the carbon cycle and shows how organic matter is produced, altered, preserved or degraded in soils and sediments. Students are familiarised with important analytical approaches and learn which environmental information can be derived from different geochemical parameters and indicators. These tools can be used, for example, to reconstruct past environmental conditions or to investigate carbon and nutrient cycling in modern ecosystems.
The environmental geochemistry section focuses on organic pollutants. Students learn where anthropogenic pollutants originate, how they enter the environment and what controls their behaviour after release. Using selected case studies, the module shows how contaminated soils, sediments and legacy pollution sites can be assessed, with attention to both the chemical properties of pollutants and their environmental significance.
Practicals and a short field trip complement the lectures and provide hands-on experience in fieldwork, laboratory procedures and data analysis. Students learn basic sampling techniques, prepare samples for organic geochemical analyses and gain first insights into instrumental analysis. They then process, visualise and interpret their own data. The aim is to enable students not only to produce analytical results, but also to critically assess them and place them in the broader context of geoscientific questions.
SM9: Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoceanography
This Master’s module provides an in-depth introduction to palaeoclimatology and palaeoceanography. It examines how Earth’s climate system changed over time, which processes have driven these changes, and how palaeoclimatic and palaeoceanographic knowledge can help us better understand and interpret current global climate change.
The module provides an overview of key components of the modern climate system, including the atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere, biosphere and carbon cycle, and explores how these components interact. Building on this foundation, students examine natural climate variability across different timescales, from tectonically driven changes and orbitally forced climate cycles to shorter-term climate and environmental changes. Topics include warm periods in Earth history, Neogene cooling, changes in monsoon systems and key processes in the global carbon cycle.
The module also focuses on the causes and consequences of climate and environmental changes during the more recent geological past, as well as on changes in ocean circulation. This includes, for example, the Last Glacial Maximum, deglaciation and the Holocene. Students learn how ocean circulation, water-mass distribution, sea-ice cover, temperature, sea level and environmental conditions are connected. The module also introduces geological archives that can be used to reconstruct past environmental and climatic changes.
Organic geochemical proxies are also covered as important tools in palaeoenvironmental research. Students learn how organic molecules preserved in sediments can provide information about past environmental conditions, and how these proxies are analysed and interpreted. Basic organic geochemical methods are introduced and applied in laboratory practicals. The analytical skills gained in this part of the module are also relevant beyond palaeoclimatological research questions, for example for geological surveys and in industry.
In addition to the lectures, students work with selected topics based on current literature and recent research findings. Students are expected to research these topics independently, present them in short talks and discuss them together. The aim is to help students engage with scientific texts, summarise research findings clearly and evaluate them critically. In this way, students become familiar with key aspects of scientific work and practice developing and justifying their own subject-specific assessments.
Theses
Doctoral Theses
Jan Melchert (2022)
Establishing and improving AMS 14C analysis of greenhouse gases.
Anja Wotte (2018)
Purification of CO2 for AMS 14C analysis: Method development and application to permafrost deposits.
Matthias Thienemann (2017)
Environmental reconstruction from lacustrine deposits using organic geochemical and isotopic proxies.
Silke Höfle (2015)
Organic matter composition and dynamics in polygonal tundra soils.
Diploma, MSc and BSc Theses
We offer Bachelor’s and Master’s thesis projects in organic geochemistry, radiocarbon analysis and palaeoclimate research. Possible topics include carbon cycling in permafrost regions, geochemical studies of soils, sediments and other environmental archives, as well as the reconstruction of past environmental and climate changes.
Depending on the research question, projects may involve lipid biomarker analyses, ¹⁴C dating, XRF measurements and other biogeochemical or sedimentological laboratory methods. The specific thesis topic is defined individually in a personal discussion between the student and the supervisor.
2026
Janis Martin (M.Sc.) - ENSO-Like Evolution of the Eastern Tropical Pacific during the Late Pleistocene Inferred from Lipid-Based Temperature Reconstructions.
Felix Jasper (M.Sc.) - Arctic greening: Influence of vegetation changes on carbon cycling in Pleistocene Yedoma.
2025
Simon Kempf (M.Sc.) - Changes in microbial activity in permafrost soils of the high Arctic, Svalbard.
Daniele Bevilacqua (M.Sc.) - Comparative studies on water surface temperature reconstruction off the coast of Brazil using alkenones and GDGTs.
Jerome Wolff (M.Sc.) - “ENSO-Modoki” on the rise under global warming conditions? in den letzten 60.000 Jahren im Bereich des westlichen subtropischen Atlantik.
2024
Christian Schmidt (B.Sc.) - Intensified vegetation growth in the Arctic and its effect on C-dynamics in permafrost soils in East Siberia.
2023
André Faust (M.Sc.) - Reconstruction of Pliocene environmental conditions in the subantarctic central South Pacific Ocean based on biomarker, sedimentological and XRF data from IODP Expedition 383, Site U1541.
Kerstin Schröder (B.Sc.) - Reconstruction of climate changes off Chile during the last 19,000 years.
2022
Janis Martin (B.Sc.) - Rekonstruktion von Klimaschwankungen in den letzten 60.000 Jahren im Bereich des westlichen subtropischen Atlantik.
2021
Vincent Wall (M.Sc.) - Lipid- und XRF-Untersuchungen des Kerns M125-35-3 vom südostbrasilianischen Kontinentalrand zur Rekonstruktion von Änderungen in der atmosphärischen und ozeanischen Zirkulation im späten Pleistozän und Holozän.
2019
Lajia Oberholz (M.Sc.) - Climate dynamics during the Panama Isthmus closing, a multiproxy approach.
Johannis Pfennig (B.Sc.) - Compositional differences of organic matter in Yedoma permafrost: a lipid biomarker study.
2018
Simon Bernhard (B.Sc.) -Analyse der Kohlenstoffdynamik in permafrostbeeinflussten Böden und Sedimenten des Lena Deltas anhand von 14C-Messungen.
Reaz Hossain (M.Sc.) - Leben unter extremen Bedingungen - Eine Biomarker Studie der Atacama-Wüste in Nordchile.
2017
Kevin Rieger (B.Sc.) - Lipidbiomarker-basierte Temperaturrekonstruktion am Baikalsee.
Miriam Wiedenhöfer (M.Sc.) - Kohlenstoffinventar und Stabilisierung in Permafrostgebieten der Arktis und Antarktis.
2016
Jan Feder (B.Sc.) - Radiokohlenstoffdatierung organikarmer (<0.2% TOC) Sedimente: Welche Alter liefern organikreichere Unterfraktionen?
Jannik Martens (M.Sc.) - A biomarker and radiocarbon based paleoclimatic reconstruction of MIS1, MIS3 and MIS5e using permafrost deposits from NE-Siberia.
2014
Andrea Lauss (Diplomarbeit) - Reconstruction of hydrological and vegetation changes in continental Africa during the Holocene: compound-specific δD and δ13C analysis of plant-derived lipids from Lake Yoa sediments (Ounianga Kebir, Chad).
Sven Gelking (Diplomarbeit) - Rekonstruktion von holozänen Umweltveränderungen seit dem Ancylus-Stadium im östlichen Gotlandbecken (Ostsee) anhand von XRF-Daten und Lipidbiomarkern.
2013
Sophia Burghardt (Diplomarbeit) - Composition of the organic substance and biogeochemical processes in permafrost soil of the polygonal tundra in the Arctic Lena Delta, Siberia.
Anuschka Buter (B.Sc.-Arbeit) - Eintrag von gelöstem organischen Kohlenstoff in die Rappbodetalsperre.
Stephan John (Diplomarbeit) - Verteilung und Stabilisierung von organischem Kohlenstoff in sibirischen Permafrostböden.
Tobias Hagemann (Diplomarbeit) - Paläoumweltveränderungen in der Ostsahara am Beispiel des Lake Yoa.
Sandra Petersen (B.Sc.-Arbeit) - Evaluierung verschiedener Analysemethoden zur Bestimmung von Kohlenstoff in Sedimenten.
2010
Torben Bahnsen (Diplomarbeit) - Analyse der Matrixabhängigkeit quellendiagnostischer PAK-Ratios an Standorten unterschiedlicher Emissionscharakteristik.
Sina Grewe (Diplomarbeit) - Changes of the environmental conditions in La Bédoule (SE France) - a high resolution study of the OAE 1a with carbon isotope stratigraphy and biomarker analysis.
Michael Lappé (Diplomarbeit) - Influence of vegetation, land use and climate on hydrogen isotope compositions of long-chain n-alkanes and distribution of tetraether membrane lipids in Ethiopian soils.
Wolfgang Rübsam (Diplomarbeit) - Organic facies development during the Toarcian Ocean Anoxic Event in Luxembourg.
Alexander Wagner (Diplomarbeit) - Organofazies und Reiferekonstruktion des Toarc-Bitumenschiefers in Luxembourg.
Sarah Wurth (Diplomarbeit) - PAK Belastung in Böden und Sandfallen der Stadt Trondheim, Norwegen.