Taking a series of environmental problems of current interest as the point of departure, central topics in aquatic and terrestrial microbial ecology are dealt with:

• Microbial biochemistry; key fuctions for the nitrogen, carbon and sulphur cycles in the biosphere.
• Ecology and physiology of functional groups of microbes.
• Interaction in microbial communities; dependencies between functional groups.
• Symbioses between microbes and eukaryotic organisms.
• Regulatory biology; how microbes react to stimuli, and how this affects survival and growth.
• Kinetics of growth, uptake of nutrients; and starvation. Microbes in many environments are starving most of the time, and depend on efficient uptake systems to survive long periods of low/no nutrient input.
• Molecular methods in microbial ecology.

Applied topics: Reduction of microbially produced greenhouse gases (nitrous oxide; methane); Bioreactors (fermentation; methane production); Bioremediation (use of microbes to remove pollutants from soil and water), Biofertilization (eg use of nitrogen fixing bacteria); Modern technologies for wastewater treatment.

The course is based on lectures on selected topics, literature seminars and group discussions related to the curriculum. The lectures cover the most central topics in the textbook. The course also contains exercises in reading scientific literature, which prepare the students for writing their Matser´s or PhD thesis. Primary scientific articles are used for the literature seminars. The students are to comment on these and discuss them in plenary. Each student is also required to deliver a written report on an article discussed during the seminars.

The main aim is to give students:

• A basic insight into microbial processes and interactions that play central roles in the functioning of ecosystems.
• The theoretical foundation necessary for acquiring knowledge in the subject field by reading primary scientific literature.
• An understanding of methods, with main emphasis on the role of molecular biology in microbial ecology.
• Intellectual skills that may be used for solving environmental problems.

The teachers take part in the seminars and are available during the study groups. The teachers can also be contacted via e-mail.

Fronter is used for discussions and questions outside of the study group and seminar/lecture hours.

8 seminars (2 hours each). Must attend at least 7 of the 8 seminars.

Written report from one seminar.

Contribution to seminars is evaluated during the semester. The seminar part must be approved before the student is allowed to take the final, written exam.

Final written exam that has to be graded E or better.

Grade weight for seminars: 3/10. Grade weight for written exam: 7/10. The written exam is 3.5 hours.

Lectures: 40 hours.

Seminars, including preparations: 100 hours.

Study groups and individual study: 160 hours.

Lectures: 2 hours, 2 times per week (40 hours in total).

Study groups where questions related to the course readings will be discussed: at least 2 hours every other week, or more frequently.

Seminars: 2 hours per week.

One visit to relevant company/organisation.

Internal examiners for the seminars.

An external examiner approves the examination questions and corrects all exams (or, if >25 students, the external examiner grades 25 selected exam papers).