The interdisciplinary laboratory will be dedicated to studying the links between geochemistry and biology over Earth history, as evidenced in modern environments and recorded in the rock record.
In just two weeks’ time, the lab already has in excess of 15 occupants, including post-doctoral researcher Gareth Izon and PhD student Colin Mettam, who are working with the PIs on a NERC-funded project to unravel the interplay between biological forcing and atmospheric chemistry recorded in 2.5 billion year old sediments from South Africa and Western Australia.
It is also supporting a host of undergraduate researchers starting dissertation projects and summer internships on a wide range of cross-disciplinary projects, including:
- geochemistry of Mars analog soils from the Atacama desert (Chile),
- sulfur cycling in Earth’s oldest well-preserved microbial mats,
- nutrient cycling in redox-stratified Lake Kinnert (Israel), and
- paleoenvironmental characterization of the world’s first phosphorite deposits (http://univstandrews-research.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/two-billion-year-old-microbial.html). Exciting stuff!
Nicolette Meyer (Geology undergraduate) distilling sulfur
from 2.6 billion-year-old pyritized microbial mats
Gareth Izon (right) solving the mysteries of the Neoarchean
atmosphere and Mark Claire (left) extracting atmospheric salts in
soils from the driest place on Earth (the Atacama Desert)