Encyclopedia of Geobiology

The interplay between Geology and Biology has shaped the Earth from the early Precambrian, 4 billion years ago. Moving beyond the borders of the classical core disciplines, Geobiology strives to identify chains of cause-and-effect and synergisms between the geo- and the biospheres that have been driving the evolution of life in modern and ancient environments. Combining modern methods, geobiological information can be extracted not only from visible remains of organisms, but also from organic molecules, rock fabrics, minerals, isotopes and other tracers. An understanding of these processes and their signatures reveals enormous applied potentials with respect to issues of environment protection, public health, energy and resource management. The Encyclopedia of Geobiology has been designed to act as a key reference for students, researchers, teachers, and the informed public and to provide basic, but comprehensible knowledge on this rapidly expanding discipline that sits at the interface between modern geo- and biosciences.

Dr. Joachim Reitner is Professor of Paleontology, Head of the Department of Geobiology, and Managing Director of the Museum, Collections and Geopark, at the University of Göttingen, Germany. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences (Springer), Co-Editor of Facies (Springer), and Associate Editor of the Geomicrobiology Journal (Taylor & Francis).

Dr. Reitner’s research focuses on the interplay between organisms and their metabolic processes with various abiotic parameters. Many geological processes can be understood as geo-physiological processes, allowing chemical reactions that would never run under standard thermodynamic conditions. Therefore, a major thrust of Dr. Reitner’s research activities is the investigation of the evolution of these processes, visible in biosignatures and biomineralization patterns and their interaction with biogeochemical cycles.

Among his many honors and accolades, Dr. Reitner is the recipient of the G. W. Leibniz Award from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Dr. Volker Thiel is Professor of Organic Geochemistry in the Geoscience Center at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Dr. Thiel has been involved in geobiological research for some 15 years, with a focus on the use of organic molecules as chemical tracers (biomarkers) for biogeochemical pathways.

His research interests include lipid biomarkers as indicators for biogeochemical processes; molecular fossils, biological formation, and turnover of methane; and microbial control on mineral formation. The results of his studies have significantly contributed to identifying the microbial processes associated with methane turnover in modern and ancient environments. Much of Dr. Thiel’s current work is devoted to new approaches to enhance the spatial resolution of biomarker analysis in geobiological systems.