Earth, Life and Climate through time

Course goals

Understanding the complex interactions between the solid Earth, life, and climate throughout geological time is essential for interpreting the dynamics of our planet and predicting its future. This course provides an integrated introduction to the fields of stratigraphy, sedimentology, paleobiology, and paleoclimatology, forming the scientific foundation of the Master’s program Earth, Life and Climate.

Content

We begin with a broad perspective on past, present and future life, by exploring how the big turning points in the history of life (origination, evolution, extinction) were connected to changes in Earth’s surface environments and climate.

This is followed by a treatment of the sedimentary record as the primary archive of environmental and climatic change. We start from the principle that sediments reflect the combined physical, chemical, and biological processes in depositional environments. This fundamental remise allows us to invert conditions of system earth from sdeimentary characteristics. The students will learn to apply this scientific approach to Holocene/modern and ancient (Jurassic) shallow marine and coastal deposits. A fieldwork component provides hands-on experience in recognizing sedimentary facies, stratigraphic successions, and interpreting past depositional conditions.

The course then progresses to an introduction of paleoclimate dynamics, focusing on the mechanisms that drive climate variability on different time scales. Particular attention will be given to astronomical climate forcing, the foundation of long-term cyclic changes in the Earth system. Students will gain insight into how orbital variations modulate insolation, influence sedimentary and biotic cycles, and are recorded in stratigraphic archives.

Throughout the course, we emphasize the big scientific questions that currently drive research in the Earth, Life and Climate sciences. Students will be introduced to recent breakthroughs and ongoing debates in each sub-discipline—ranging from new dating techniques and climate proxies to advances in numerical modeling and stratigraphic analysis. Dedicated discussion sessions will encourage students to reflect on the future of these fields, exploring how emerging technologies and interdisciplinary approaches can address the grand challenges in Earth system science.