2038 – When microbes rule the Earth

McGenity, Terry J.

doi:10.1111/1462-2920.14449

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…x) (figure 2). While the biosphere captures no more than 1% of solar radiation, and thus can be considered insignificant on the Earth's energy flux balance, from the Archean to the present the atmospheric and lithospheric chemical elements have been continuously metabolically transformed, produced [25,[80][81][82][83][84], mobilized [85], localized [86] and integrated into biogeochemical cycles [87].…”

Section: Internal States (µ): Metabolic Rate Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Future climates: Markov blankets and active inference in the biosphere

Rubin

Parr

Costa

et al. 2020

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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We formalize the Gaia hypothesis about the Earth climate system using advances in theoretical biology based on the minimization of variational free energy. This amounts to the claim that non-equilibrium steady-state dynamics—that underwrite our climate—depend on the Earth system possessing a Markov blanket. Our formalization rests on how the metabolic rates of the biosphere (understood as Markov blanket's internal states) change with respect to solar radiation at the Earth's surface (i.e. external states), through the changes in greenhouse and albedo effects (i.e. active states) and ocean-driven global temperature changes (i.e. sensory states). Describing the interaction between the metabolic rates and solar radiation as climatic states—in a Markov blanket—amounts to describing the dynamics of the internal states as actively inferring external states. This underwrites climatic non-equilibrium steady-state through free energy minimization and thus a form of planetary autopoiesis.

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Section: Internal States (µ): Metabolic Rate Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Future climates: Markov blankets and active inference in the biosphere

Rubin

Parr

Costa

et al. 2020

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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“…As I, the abiotic pre-metabolic-like chemical network, is a physical entity subject to decline, dissipation and disruption, it needs to be effectively repaired and/or replaced. Likewise in an (M,R)-system every efficient cause F must have an associate φ that maintains the concentration of F. On the Earth system, the metabolic enzymatic activity of the biosphere O (from organic) mainly linked to origin and activity of microbes (Cavicchioli et al, 2019;Magnabosco et al, 2018;Margulis and Sagan, 1986;McGenity, 2018;Falkowski et al, 2008;Raoult, 2010;Stolz, 2016) may correspond to φ. The efficient cause O acts as a selector of C, which becomes the material reserve to produce I.…”

Section: Mathematical Biology Of Geophysiology: a Formal Expression Omentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3C). As the metabolic transformation of C into I by O removes, geologically transforms and relocalizes compounds (Atekwana and Slater, 2009;Falkowski et al, 2008;McGenity, 2018;Tornos et al, 2018), it effectively constrains Earth's material dynamics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism and geomorphological structural changes such as the configuration of the continents, tectonic and volcanic activity, ocean salinity, pH, redox potential, ocean circulation, distribution of ice sheets, etc (Hinkle, 1996;Kleidon, 2002;Kump, 2004;Lowman and Lowman, 2002). This can be written as:…”

Section: Mathematical Biology Of Geophysiology: a Formal Expression Omentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Earth's metabolism takes place in the subsurface and surface of the lithosphere and ocean, the atmosphere, the rhizosphere, the gut microbiomes, in the dark, rare and deep biosphere (Cavicchioli et al, 2019;Magnabosco et al, 2018). It is carried out mainly by prokaryotes (Margulis and Sagan, 1986;McGenity, 2018;Falkowski et al, 2008), the so-called 'Gaia microbiome' (Stolz, 2016) and its pangenome (Medini et al, 2005), which comprises autotrophic, heterotrophic, anoxic and oxide activity. It has been suggested that the Earth's prokaryotes constitute along with eukaryotes an interconnected single rhizome of life (Raoult, 2010).…”

Section: The Metabolism and Repair Of Gaian Autopoiesis Implies Consementioning

confidence: 99%

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More than planetary-scale feedback self-regulation: A Biological-centred approach to the Gaia Hypothesis

Rubin¹,

Crucifix²

2019

Preprint

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Recent appraisals of the Gaia theory tend to focus on the claim that planetary life is a cybernetic regulator that would self-regulate Earth’s chemistry composition and climate dynamics, following either a weak (biotic and physical processes create feedback loops), or a strong (biological activity control and regulates the physical processes) interpretation of the Gaia hypothesis. Here, we contrast with the regulator interpretation and return to the initial motivation of the Gaia hypothesis: extending Schrödinger’s question about the nature of life at the planetary scale. To this end, we propose a relational and systemic biological approach using autopoiesis as the realization of the living and the (M,R)-system as the formal theory of biological systems. By applying a minimum of key categories to a set of interacting causal processes operating on a wide range of spatial time scales through the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere of the Earth system, we suggest a one-to-one realization map between the Gaia phenomenon and (M,R)-Autopoiesis. We show that metabolic molecular self-production by closure to efficient causation on a planetary scale is plausible. This suggests that the Gaia phenomenon may be the embodiment of Life itself in the planetary domain, a sui-generis biological unity and thus more fundamental than self-regulation by feedback mechanisms. Formulating the Gaia theory in biological terms provides a formal basis for the claim that planetary biology elsewhere in the universe must involve and have a formal equivalence to a self-referential physical process which cannot be implemented by a Turing machine and, therefore, has a non-computable character.

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