Syllabus
* Ecology of size: What and why are microorganisms? What is a microorganism? How big is it? Limits of size and their causes and consequences. How did microorganisms arise? Through downsizing of the big or growing of ‚nothing‘? Evolution and history of microorganisms.
Tree of life vs. Web of life: Specialties of microbial genetics. Does microbial phylogenetics exist? Transposable and stable elements in microbial genomes. Horizontal transfer of genetic information. Does biological species exist in prokaryotes? Speciation as a response to existence of multiple stable life strategies.
Ecology in miniature: Are general ecological principles valid for microorganisms? Microbial niche: can a ‘suitable’ microbe be missing somewhere? Pros and cons of a prokaryotic cell: bite in if you can. Competition through physiology vs. shape, size, and behaviour.
Ecology on a large scale: microbial macroecology. Are macroecological principles valid for the microbes? Does a latitudinal gradient exist for microbial diversity? Does microbial biogeography exist or is ‘everything everywhere’? How do microorganisms respond to climate change?
Microorganisms as machines: How energy available in ecosystems drives the production of replicators. Is life just a redox reaction? What can be a source of energy? Is there an unused geochemical source of energy in Earth‘s habitable zone? Microbial metabolisms. Sources of carbon. Sources and significance of macro- and micronutrients.
* Microbial ecosystems: From fighting the elements to civil wars. Where can only microorganisms live? How can they live together? Ecosystem development from a redox couple to a highly structured environment.
Microorganisms in global biogeochemical cycles. How many microbes are there? Where are they? Global microbial biomass and production. Which ones are significant and which ones are just a curiosity? Which chemical processes would proceed differently without microbes (or wouldn’t proceed at all)?
* Methods of analysis of microbial communities and ecosystems. Measuring abundance and biomass. Population and community structure analysis. Activity determinations. The greatest challenge of microbiology: how do we tell a microbial process from an abiotic one? What processes can and cannot be inferred from microbial community structure? Fallacies of sequencing microbiology.
* Practical:
Visiting a real-world locality, sampling, field measurements, analysis of sequencing data and their interpretation.
Annotation
Without microorganisms the biosphere would perish – but not vice versa. This course aims to introduce the microbial world and its ecological principles that may – or may not – be the same as in the more familiar macroworld.