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Course BS313: Environmental Microbiology
Aims:
To provide an understanding of the current view of microbial evolution and the continuing
roles played by microbes in the environment.
Objectives:
At the end of the course, students are expected to:
- be able to critically assess current views on the origins of life and the
evolution of the major microbial taxa, drawing on evidence from the fossil
record, abiogenic syntheses experiments and molecular evidence in gene sequences.
- understand the key roles played by microbes in the aquatic and terrestrial
environment including soil structure, element cycles, genesis and breakdown
of fossil fuels and contribution to geological processes.
- be able to evaluate important plant-microbe interactions such as the Rhizobium-legume
symbiosis and the possibilities for manipulating such systems to agronomic
advantage.
- understand detrimental roles played by microbes in pollution and the beneficial
roles played by microbes in waste water treatment and bioremediation.
- have gained, in the context of the above areas of environmental microbiology,
experience of accessing information from the scientIfic literature in electronic
and written form, and its organisation through oral and written presentation.
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Biology
of Micro-organisms. Brock TD, Madigan MT. Martinko JM & Parker J. (Eds.) Prentice
Hall International, 8th Ed, 1996 (ISBN 0135712254).
Microbial
Ecology: Fundamentals and Applications, 4th Edition, R.M.Atlas & R.Bartha, Benjamin
Cumming, 1997.