In the first year, students with 'Biogeosciences and Evolution' specialization should choose four courses out of these five specialization courses offered.
The main aim of this course is to illustrate how large scale abiotic processes reshaped the evolutionary history of biota and their communities and how, in turn, the changes in biota (as evidenced by the fossil record) inform us about past environmental changes. We will focus in the course on several key transitions in earths climate and biota, in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic.
The students will learn:
To work with (large) dataset for qualitative and quantitative paleo-reconstructions, decide the best strategy to simplify complex the data and validate data by means of statistical analyses;
To integrate multi-proxies data providing the student with a broad vision on time scales and simultaneous changes in different environments (terrestrial and marine);
To think critically about the potentials and pitfalls of the various methods used and decide which method is most suitable to find the adequate solution
Written and verbal communication skills by means of presenting data as written reports and oral presentations
To work individually and in teams (leadership skills)
Technical skills (e.g., microscope, computer software)
To critically analyze literature as presented in scientific papers and reported in the media (social media and/or press, etc.) thereby learning how reliably (and how ethically) scientific information are presented to a wide audience
Content
The course deals with the morphology, ecology and evolution of selected marine microorganisms and terrestrial vegetation and the use of their fossil remains (foraminifers, dinoflagellates, pollen and spores) as proxies for the reconstruction of environmental/climatic/ecological changes during the mosty extreme climate disruptions during the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic. The course will focus on organic and calcareous microscopic remains/fossils. Besides the use of microfossil assemblages as proxy for environmental/ecological/climate change, the course also deals with the (biologically-mediated) process of incorporation of chemical elements into foraminifer shells and thus shells’ chemical composition as proxy for reconstructions of past water column properties. We do this by focusing on the strongest climate transitions in the past 250 million years: Mesozoic mass extinctions, rapid climate warming and glaciations in the Cenozoic. Much attention will be given to inking changes that occurred simultaneously in the marine and terrestrial environment. Next to fundamental knowledge on evolution, paleoecology, and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, the course will train the students’ taxonomical, statistical and data visualization skills. Students will learn to work with complex data, to perform quantitative and statistical analyses, to think critically, and to present their results orally. All these skills are desired and/or required for successful job applications.
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