The rise in global temperatures has adversely affected the biotic world, including microbial life, and perhaps we are at the boundary of a sixth mass extinction. Microbes are important entities which have the capacity to tolerate stress if subjected to adverse condition like salinity and temperature. The methods they have adopted to sustain themselves during environmental changes have guided   their evolution and diversity over very long time-scales. These have contributed to metabolic developments that have strongly influenced geochemical transformations in Earth surface environments., which are well documented in the microbial carbonates produced through geological time scales, starting from 3.5 billion years ago.

This course will offer discussion and viewpoints on different facets of microbial carbonate precipitation including genesis, micro and mega morphological changes and biogeochemical variability. As products of bacteria and other microbes, microbial carbonates are found in fossils an sedimentary archives. They are the only macroscopic organic structures product during the first two billion years of life on Earth, and they remain abundant in a wide range of environments today, from  deep sea vents and tropical coral reefs, to lake and hot springs. Realization of their abundance and significance on Earth, and possible presence on Mars, has led a  surge in recent research. The course examines microbial carbonate diversity,  processes of formation, changes  through time, and geologic importance, and it assesses Current challenges and emerging research questions.