Course Description
The interactive Earth system: biology in geologic, environmental and climate change throughout Earth history. Since life began it has continually shaped and re-shaped the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and the solid earth. This course introduces the concept of 'life as a geological agent' and examines the interaction between biology and the earth system during the roughly 4 billion years since life first appeared.
Course Topics
- Overview of Course; Time Scales; The Big Bang; Origin and Compositions of the Solar System, Earth and Moon; Creation and Distribution of the Chemical Elements
- Earth Segregation; Formation and Composition of Early Atmosphere; Characteristics of the 'Habitable Zone'
- Geologic Evidence for Antiquity of Life
- Theories about the Origin of Life
- Anaerobic Metabolism, Energy Yields, Deep Biosphere
- Oxygenic Photosynthesis; The Rise of Atmospheric O2
- Life's Three Domains; Evolution of Algae; Fossil and Biogeochemical Evidence for their Presence and Evolution through Geological Time
- Biogeochemical Carbon Cycle
- Proterozoic Ocean Chemistry
- The Cambrian Explosion and the Evolution and Radiation of Metazoans
- Long-Term Climate Cycles #1
- Long-Term Climate Cycles #2
- Mass Extinctions #1
- Mass Extinctions and Re-radiation #2
- Biogeochemical Tracers #1
- Biogeochemical Tracers #2
- Biogeochemical Tracers #3
- The Fate of Buried Organic Carbon; Petroleum and Natural Gas Occurrence and Distribution
- Biogeomorphology: Plants and the Landscape
- Long-term Climate Cycles
- Methane Hydrates; Formation, Distribution, Potential Role in C-cylce and Subsurface Ecosystems Dependent upon Them
- Pleistocene Glaciations, Holocene Climate; Abrupt Climate Change; Anthropogenic Forcing of Climate
Grading
| Problem Sets |
15% |
| Final Paper and Oral Presentation |
20% |
| Midterm Exam |
25% |
| Final Exam |
40% |
|
Textbook
Stanley, Steven M. Earth System History. New York: W. H. Freeman & Co., 1999. (On reserve in Lindgren Library.)
Recommended Texts
Wills, Christopher, and Jeffrey Bada. The Spark of Life. Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2000.
Kump, Lee R., James F. Kasting, and Robert G. Crane. The Earth System. Upper Saddle River, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1999.