Study Contents MSc Geoökologie / Geoecology

Scientific practice is a research-oriented internship within the work groups of the Department of Geosciences. The key objective is to participate in research projects and to formulate a research agenda for the Master thesis, which takes place at the end of the MSc program. Integral part of the scientific practice program is the presentation of the thesis results in a seminar in the fourth semester (scientific presentation).

All work groups contribute to the supervision within scientific practice.

The global loss of biodiversity continues at an alarming rate and is of concern for researchers of different disciplines. Whether a reduced bio­diversity indeed compromises the functioning of ecosystems is contro­ver­sially discussed. The course „Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning” will shed light on this issue based on the state-of-the-art of literature. Theoretical basics will be put into practice during a field trip and a laboratory exercise.

Taught by: Yvonne Oelmann

This course discusses the degradation of organic pollutants as well as the consequences of different biogeochemical processes on the fate of inorganic pollutants including bioremediation processes. These topics are discussed in the context of redox zonation, thermodynamics and kinetics of microbial processes. A second focus is on microbe-mineral interactions including biomineralization processes. Lectures as well as students presentations based on recent scientific articles are part of the course.

Taught by: Andreas Kappler

This module teaches basic concepts, processes and methods of soil science, geomorphology and soil landscape modelling. Based on interactions between soil and relief, soil genesis, soil distribution and soil functions and their analysis are studied with machine learning methods.
The morning lecture covers advanced soil science and geomorphology basics. The seminar will present and discuss recent scientific developments in soil science, geomorphology, pedometrics, soil landscape modelling and machine learning. The afternoon exercise addresses the function of soils and their distribution with modern statistical methods of machine learning and spatial interpolation using the open access software R. This course thus combines an in-depth soil science-geomorphology process understanding with applied statistical methodology.

Taught by: Thomas Scholten, Steffen Seitz, Ruhollah Taghizadeh-Mehrjardi

This module gives an introduction into the physics of Earth’s surface, with emphasis on processes shaping the Earth’s surface on human and geological timescales. Most importantly an overview of the relevant cycles (energy, water, relevant elements/gases) acting on Earth’s surface will be given. Specific topics addressed in the lecture include: Earth’s surface energy balance, carbon and hydrological cycle and mass balance, how and why tectonics, topography, and climate interact over short and long (million year) timescales, physical and mathematical approaches for understanding erosion and sedimentation by rivers, hillslopes, glacial, and biotic processes. The course combines lectures and computer exercises.

Taught by: Todd Ehlers

The Earth system has a constrained capacity to buffer forces and maintain a steady state. The thresholds which indicate an irreversible state change are coined ”planetary boundaries“. In the course “Planetary Boundaries”, students use the state-of-the-art of literature to characterize the situation for the single forces (biosphere integrity, land use, biogeochemical cycles, atmospheric aerosol loading, novel entities) and to infer and discuss the resulting risks concerning an irreversible state change. Based on this, the students write an extensive term paper.

Taught by: Yvonne Oelmann

The diversity of plants’ shapes, sizes, odors and colors is enormous. Many of these characteristics are the results of their long co-evolutionary history with animals.
The objective of this course is to explore key interactions between plants and animals including herbivory, pollination, seed dispersal, and carnivorous plants as well as their evolutionary and ecological implications at the individual, population, community and ecosystem levels.

Thaught by: Maria Majekova, Sara Tomiolo

Conservation Paleoecology aims at providing relevant environmental and biological data from the past to design efficient conservation strategies. In addition, studying the past provides time-depth and range of case studies not any more available in a human-dominated biosphere. Therefore, this course will use the archeological and fossil record to study the character­istics of past ecological communities and the ecological and phylogenetic history of endangered species to preserve and restore ecological health on the planet.
This course will describe the main approaches (paleo­biogeography, paleo­genetics, geochemical tracers, niche construction) used to reconstruct the fundamental niche of endangered species. It will evaluate the potential of using Holocene and Pleistocene rewilding to establish sustainable future ecosystems, and it will draw lessons from deep-time ecosystems to under­stand how ecosystems can function in a greenhouse Earth and recover from the current mass extinction.

Taught by: Hervé Bocherens, Dorothée Drucker, Martin Ebner, Márton Rabi

Neither ecology, i.e. the study of the interactions of organisms with their environment, nor Nature Conservation can be understood without hands-on experience with organisms in nature. Therefore, the main goal of this module is to expose the students to the diversity of life on earth and the ecological interactions among organisms under 'real life conditions' in the field. Students taking this module should deepen their knowledge of species, i.e. plants, animals, and/or microorganisms, as well as of the ecological interactions among species and of organisms with their abiotic environment.
The module is composed of module(s) that can be selected from the wide array of field excursions and field sampling courses offered by the departments of Biology (mostly the Institute of Evolution and Ecology) and the Geosciences. The selection should be approved by the module coordinator, but a list of possible field courses is also available with the study programme coordinator.

Coordinated by: Katja Tielbörger

The course will introduce the concepts and strategies important in addressing biological conservation and sustainable management of natural and managed ecosystems. The main course elements and objectives are:

• to provide a basic understanding of the ecological, evolutionary, and genetic principles necessary to understand biological diversity,
• to describe and evaluate the threats to natural habitats, and
• to explore integrative approaches for addressing solutions to the conservation of biodiversity.

Ecological concepts and recent research results are discussed in a sociopolitical, economic, and policy context.

Taught by: Hendrik Thomassen

This course couple advanced ecological concepts and theories with hands-on mini-research projects. The student research projects play a pivotal role in this course and will train students to ask timely questions in plant ecology, build relevant hypotheses, and adopt appropriate experimental and analytical designs.
Students will be given plenty of opportunities to collect vegetation and plant functional traits data in the field, as well as to analyze their collected data and interpret and discuss their obtained results. They will work in small teams with ample mentoring but will be encouraged to think independently, creatively, and critically to solve both theoretical and methodological questions with their peers. Two rounds of presentations are planned to secure sufficient feedback between students and lecturers. Participants have the unique opportunity to participate in a long-term grassland experiment in the beautiful setting of dry grasslands on Spitzberg near the University, focusing on community, functional and global-change ecology.

Taught by: Maria Majekova, Sara Tomiolo, Madalin Parepa, Katja Tielborger, Oliver Bossdorf

The course focuses on the application of ecotoxicology in practice. It is a 4 weeks block course, either focused on OECD standard toxiocity testing (designated as „Ecotoxicology II“) or on sublethal markers of toxicity (designated as „Ecotoxicology III“). These two variations are offered alter­nately every 2nd year at the end of every winter semester.
Either samples taken from an exposure experiment will be analysed for selected biomarkers (Ecotoxicology III) or standard toxicity tests will be conducted following international guidelines (Ecotoxicology II). The theoretical background, respectively, will be summarized by the students. Students will give a congress style presentation. The course also involves excursions to institutions (regulation authorities/academia/industry).

Taught by: Rita Triebskorn, Heinz Köhler

This module covers the environmental and human health risk assessment of chemicals according to the European regulation REACH. It will provide the scientific underpinning of chemical risk assessment but also practical experiences with the regulatory process.
Groups of three students will conduct a comprehensive risk assessment for one selected chemical according to the European regulation for industrial chemicals. The risk assessment is performed stepwise in the exercises and then compiled into a written technical report that will be graded. In addition, each student presents a paper in the seminar on a specialized topic in environmental risk assessment. Finally we learn scientific methods for risk assessment that are not in regulation yet but might make it there one day.

Taught by: Beate Escher

This course covers chemical thermodynamics in aqueous systems, sorption and partitioning processes of organic and inorganic compounds in the hydrosphere and practical case studies. The objective is to gain quantitative evaluation and prediction capabilities for important hydrogeochemical parameters based on sound thermodynamic concepts. By this, fate and behavior of chemicals in the environment can be predicted.

Taught by: Christiane Zarfl, Stefan Haderlein

Lab experiments in small teams; mini-research project, seminar

Content & Objectives:

• Knowledge and application of key instrumental techniques in environmental chemistry (Sampling, extraction- & enrichment techniques, chromatography (IC, GC, HPLC); mass spectrometry; stable isotope analyses)
• Experimental design; hands-on laboratory skills; evaluation and interpretation of experimental data and their uncertainty
• Knowledge of current research topics in environmental chemistry & microbiology

Taught by: Philipp Martin, Stefan Haderlein

The course strongly concentrates on practical skills. Experimental and analytical methods currently applied in ecotoxicology and/or environmental chemistry will be taught, both theoretically and, predominantly, practically.
Within the scope of this module, practical courses from the fields of eco­toxi­cology and/or environmental chemistry, also from external teaching and research institutions, can be chosen in consultation with the module coordinator. The work conducted in this course needs to focus on an experimental task which will be processed and/or sampled and/or analysed.

Coordinated by: Heinz Köhler