Biogeochemical cycles

The biogeochemical cycling of elemental nutrients controls earth's climate, the health of ecosystems and the sustainability of human societies. This unit explores how environmental cycling of the elements (1) shapes the nature of earth's surface (2) sustains our living planet and (3) may be managed to solve environmental and industrial challenges. Topics including earth's major nutrient cycles, anthropogenic cycling of commodity elements, and the influence of mineral-microbe interactions on environmental cycles will be covered in detail and applied to pressing, real world problems in contaminant mitigation and sustainable stewardship of natural systems.