In Section 3.2 we study the origin and fate of (mostly) biological organic matter across Earth history and explore new ways to gain unprecedented biological and environmental information from fossil carbon. Using inter- and multidisciplinary approaches, our research straddles the traditional boundaries of geology, biology and chemistry, and attempts to push methodological limits. On scales that range from microbial cultures to global patterns, from days to Eons, our fundamental research lines are focused on the global carbon cycle, lipid biosynthesis, climate change and evolutionary geobiology. In addition we work on more applied topics of current societal concern — amongst others on the future of fossil fuel and metal resources, petroleum contamination and remediation, and the transition to a clean energy society.

Our research groups focus on different aspects of the biological and geological carbon cycle in a holistic Earth system evolution context. These largely include processes of storage, preservation and transformation of biomass and organic matter (OM) in sediments (WG H.M. Schulz), paleoclimatology and the interaction of microbial communities with OM in different ecosystems, especially in extreme habitats (WG K. Mangelsdorf), paleobiology and the study of different biosignatures to trace ecosystem evolution (WG C. Hallmann) and the use of state-of-the-art high-resolution mass spectrometry to investigate detailed lipidomic signatures and intramolecular isotope patterns in lipids (WG S. Pötz).