On Monday, March 30, from 1 to 2 pm in the Aula Ghigi (Via San Giacomo 9), Professor Rosalina Stancheva Christova, of the Environmental Science & Policy Department, George Mason University, Virginia, USA, and Visiting Professor at BiGeA UniBO, will hold a seminar on the importance of cyanobacteria. These organisms were the first to utilize oxygenic photosynthesis and characterized an entire eon (the Proterozoic, or "Era" of cyanobacteria). They were key players in the Great Oxygenation Event, increasing atmospheric oxygen through photosynthesis. They play a key role in nitrogen fixation. They are among the oldest and most abundant organisms in the planet's geological history, as demonstrated by stromatolites, but they can also produce cyanotoxins with negative effects on ecosystems.
