On the Quantification of Habitability: Current Approaches

Cárdenas, Rolando; Nodarse-Zulueta, Rosmery; Perez, Noel; Avila-Alonso, Dailé; Martín, Osmel

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-04233-2_1

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…In this work, we use the general formalism for devising habitability indexes described in Cardenas et al (2014;2017), which concludes that a primary aquatic habitability index for a photosynthetically dominated ecosystem in principle can be formulated as:…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All these functions can be normalized to be in the range {0 − 1}. In Cardenas et al (2014;2017) two particular versions of this index were devised and applied. However, those versions were applied to oceanic and coastal environments.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The quantification of habitability is an open and active area of research. Currently, three schools can be distinguished: the astrobiological focuses on the most basic premises for abiogenesis (origin of life)-biogenesis (life evolution) to occur anywhere in the universe, the biogeochemical pays more attention at biogeochemical cycles and the availability of physical magnitudes such as energy or power, while the ecological (biological) is more concerned with the interactions between species in the ecosystem (Shock and Holland, 2007;Cardenas, 2017). These approaches could be seen as complementary, but actually, not much effort is done to enhance feedbacks, although some attempts are underway (Shock and Holland, 2007;Cardenas, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, Quantitative Habitability Theory (QHT), born inside the astrobiological community, is scalable in space and time. In this paper, we use tools of QHT to devise a new version of our Aquatic Primary Habitability (APH) index (Cardenas et al, 2014;Cardenas, 2017) to apply for the first time to freshwater ecosystems under perturbations of their optical quality. Then we embed the index in an ecological model of trophic levels, a phytoplankton-zooplankton dynamics which we modified from Ferrero et al (2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the quantification of habitability: merging the astrobiological and ecological schools

Rodríguez‐López

Cárdenas

Parra

et al. 2018

International Journal of Astrobiology

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In this paper, we connect ideas of the astrobiological and ecological schools to quantify habitability. We show how habitability indexes, devised using the astrobiologically inspired Quantitative Habitability Theory (QHT), can be embedded into ecological models of trophic levels. In particular, we address the problem of spatial-temporal scales. It turns out that the versatility of QHT allows to treat spatial and temporal scales typical of ecological studies. As a habitability index, we propose a new version of our Aquatic Primary Habitability, devised by some of us and formerly applied to saltwater ecosystems (both ocean and coastal) and now applied to freshwater. Although the aim of the paper is to outline the methodology rather than realism, initial steps for parameterization are considered for lakes of South-Central Chile.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the quantification of habitability: merging the astrobiological and ecological schools

Rodríguez‐López

Cárdenas

Parra

et al. 2018

International Journal of Astrobiology

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“…Astrobiologists have been constructing different general definitions of habitability, not necessarily consistent with one another, for some time ( e.g. , Shock & Holland, 2007;Hoehler, 2007;Cardenas et al ., 2014;Cockell et al ., 2016;Cárdenas et al ., 2019;Heller, 2020). Other more specific habitability definitions, such as the canonical Habitable Zone ( i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitability Models for Planetary Sciences

Méndez

Rivera-Valentín

Schulze‐Makuch³

et al. 2021

Bulletin of the AAS

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Habitability has been generally defined as the capability of an environment to support life. Ecologists have been using Habitat Suitability Models (HSMs) for more than four decades to study the habitability of Earth from local to global scales. Astrobiologists have been proposing different habitability models for some time, with little integration and consistency between them and different in function to those used by ecologists. In this white paper, we suggest a mass-energy habitability model as an example of how to adapt and expand the models used by ecologists to the astrobiology field. We propose to implement these models into a NASA Habitability Standard (NHS) to standardize the habitability objectives of planetary missions. These standards will help to compare and characterize potentially habitable environments, prioritize target selections, and study correlations between habitability and biosignatures. Habitability models are the foundation of planetary habitability science. The synergy between the methods used by ecologists and astrobiologists will help to integrate and expand our understanding of the habitability of Earth, the Solar System, and exoplanets.

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