The Dialectics of Biospheric
Evolution
David Schwartzman Professor Emeritus Department of Biology, Howard University
[email protected]
Dick Levins Festscrift
May 23, 2015
Temperature
History
of
Biosphere
Abio%c
BR=100
Explosion
of
Biodiversity
From the origin of life some 4 billion years ago to now:
The diversity of habitats increase, new habitats emerge while old ones continue (e.g., thermophilic,
anoxic), both external and internal to the biota, leading to the explosion of biodiversity. McShea, D.W. and R.N. Brandon.
2010. Biology’s First Law: The Tendency for Diversity and Complexity to Increase in Evolutionary Systems. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
Evidence
for
a
temperature
constraint
on
evolu9on:
Upper
temperature
limits
for
growth
of
living
organisms,
approximate
9mes
of
their
emergence
Group
Approximate
upper
Time
of
temperature
limit*
Emergence
(deg
C)
(billion
years
ago)
“Higher”
kingdoms:
Plants
50
0.5‐1.5
Metazoa
(Animals)
50
0.6‐1.5
Fungi
60
0.6‐1.5
Eucaryotes
60
2.1‐2.8
Procaryotes
Phototrophs
70
>3.5
Hyperthermophiles
>100
>3.8
(*Temperatures
from
Brock
&
Madigan,
1991)
Prime
Evidence
for
Hot
Early
Earth
Climate:
(
Source:
L.
Paul
Knauth
Phylogeny
and
Temperature
Note
the
apparent
absence
on
molecular
phylogeneWc
trees
of
deeply‐rooted
mesophiles/
psychrophiles.
If
Archean
temperatures
were
similar
to
the
Phanerozoic,
then
some
of
the
low‐temperature
prokaryotes
should
be
grouped
near
the
root
with
the
hyperthermophiles/thermophiles.
PhylogeneWc
tree
based
on
rRNA
sequences
(Lineweaver
&
Schwartzman
2004,
Cosmic
Thermobiology,
based
on
Pace
(1997)
Science,
276:
734‐740.)
Inferred
paleotemperatures
from
resurrected
(elonga3on)
proteins
(Gaucher
et
al.,
2008,
Nature
451:
704‐707.)
Consistent
with
hot
Archean,
e.g.,
cyanobacteria
emerging
at
about
60
deg
C
at
2.8
Ga.
(Schwartzman,
D.,
Caldeira,
K.,
and
A.
Pavlov,
2008,
Astrobiology
8
(1):
187‐203.)
More
support
for
hot
Archean
temperatures
from
molecular
studies:
Boussau
et
al.,
2008,
Parallel
adaptaWons
to
high
temperatures
in
the
Archaean
eon.
Nature
456:
942
–
945.
Perez‐Jimenez
et
al.,
2011,
Single‐molecule
paleoenzymology
probes
the
chemistry
of
resurrected
enzymes.
Nature
Structural
&
Molecular
Biology
18:
592–596.
Long‐term
Carbon
Cycle
With
respect
to
atmosphere/ocean:
Source:
Volcanic
CO2
outgassing
Sinks:
CaMg
(Fe)
silicate
weathering,
deposi%on
of
CaMg
(Fe)
carbonates
in
ocean
(F1
–
F2)
Net
burial
of
reduced
organic
C
(F3
–
F4)
Steady‐State:
V
=
(F1
–
F2)
+
(F3
–
F4)
BIOSPHERE
Conventional
“Gaian”
BIOTA
The
highest
level
of
niche‐construc9on
is
the
biosphere
(see
John
Odling‐Smee,
2007,
Niche
inheritance:
a
possible
basis
for
classifying
mulWple
inheritance
systems
in
evoluWon.
Biological
Theory
2(3)
276–289.)
Biotic Enhancement of Weathering
How much faster is the chemical weathering rate
contributing to the carbon sink from the atmosphere/ocean
with life on land compared to an abiotic surface at the same
atmospheric pCO2 level and climatic temperature Processes include: Soil pCO2 elevation and stabilization,
water retention, organic acids, oxidation (free O2),
biophysical weathering, chelation of Ca, Fe, earthworm and
ant turnover of soil mixing mineral particles with organic
matter….
“Gaian” Feedback: The progressive increase of the Biotic Enhancement of Weathering has cooled the biosphere over geologic time.
“But temperature is not simply given to the organisms. The organisms change the temperature around them: there is a layer of warmer air at the surfaces of mammals;…
(Biology Under the Influence, Lewontin and Levins, 2009, MRP, p.109.) Temperature
History
of
Biosphere
Abio%c
BR=100
Explosion
of
Biodiversity
For the strict NeoDarwinian the biosphere
cannot evolve in the sense that the biota
evolves. But lets explore the consequences of
considering the analogues of genotype and
phenotype in the biosphere itself. My six theses on biospheric evolution:
1. The biosphere is a "complex adaptive system",
adapting to changing external abiotic constraints
(e.g., solar luminosity, volcanic outgassing rate)
but also self-adapting (e.g., creating new steadystates) and self-selecting (e.g., the thermophile
and oxygen catastrophes of surface ecosystems).
2. The biosphere is a self-organizing complex whole. The interpenetration of its parts and its whole includes the nonlinear interaction of the parts, its network of positive and negative feedbacks, the continual reshaping of the parts by the whole, the history of the whole recorded in its parts, transients and steady-states etc. The whole: biosphere; the parts: ocean, upper crust, clouds, surface ecosystems, etc. The failure to recognize the dialectical interaction of the whole and parts leads to the errors of "holism" and reductionism, holism: the biosphere itself is a living organism; reductionism: there are no emergent properties of the biosphere.
3. The genotype of the biosphere: its material inheritance, the sum total of all its parts, embodying its history (genetically coded or preserved).
The phenotype of the biosphere:
its activity, its metabolism, its biogeochemical cycles. The genotype of the biosphere is the cumulative product of
its phenotypes since the origin of life.
4. The history of the phenotypes of the biosphere is
recorded in its parts, e.g., paleobiology and geochemistry of sedimentary rocks,
and genome of the biota. 5. The Gaian character of biospheric evolution: the tight coupling of the abiotic and biotic components, its self-regulation Vernadskian character: progressive changes in
biospheric history, "life as a geological force".
6. The evolution of the biosphere self-selects a pattern of biotic evolution that is quasi-deterministic.
My Provocation:
The evolution of Earth’s biosphere is close to being deterministic, i.e., its origin and history and the general pattern of biotic evolution are very probable, given the same initial conditions. The general pattern of the tightly coupled evolution of
biota and climate on Earth has been the very probable outcome from a relatively small number of possible histories at the
macroscale, given the same initial conditions. Likewise the origin and evolution of biospheres on Earth-like Planets around Sun-like stars is deterministic. Quasi‐determinism
Mul9ple
outcomes
from
the
same
ini9al
condi9ons
?
Randomness
in
impact
history,
mulWple
aeractor
states
in
Mantle
convecWon
and
steady‐state
climate
regimes.
Vary
ini9al
condi9ons:
Will
different
geochemical
environments
(e.g.,trace
element
concentraWons)
generate
different
biochemistries,
hence
different
temperature
limits
to
phototrophy,
oxygenic
photo‐
synthesis,
“complex”
life?
Since
a
variety
of
geochemical
environments
likely
existed
on
early
Earth,
were
other
biochemistries
lost?
Future:
Compute,
create
and
observe
alternaWve
biochemistries
Critical constraints on this deterministic aspect
of biotic evolution have likely included:
1) Surface temperature
2) Free oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in surface environments.
Thus, we should expect a variety of alien biospheric histories because of the variability in abiotic influences. The observational search for alien biospheres, for example, looking for
the possible presence of oxygen and water in the atmospheres of Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars in the coming decades will provide empirical tests of this theory. Major events in biotic evolution were likely
forced by environmental physics and chemistry,
including:
1) Photosynthesis, and oxygenic photosynthesis 2) Emergence of new cell types (eukaryotes) from the merging of complementary metabolisms
3) Multicellularity and even encephalization. Determinism almost certainly breaks down at finer levels.
(But if intelligence emerges on alien biospheres are “humanoids” expected, as argued by Robert Bieri (1964) and Simon Conway Morris (2002) ?)
“Gaian”
Implica9ons
to
bio9c
and
biospheric
evolu9on:
1)
Temperature
constraint
on
emergence
of
major
organismal
groups.
2)
Atmospheric
pO2
constraint
on
macroeucaryotes,
including
metazoa
in
the
Phanerozoic
(Berner
et
al.,
2007,
Science
316:
557‐558).
3)
Atmospheric
pCO2
constraint
on
emergence
of
lichens
and
leaves
(megaphylls)
in
Devonian.
4)
A
geophysiology
of
biospheric
evolu9on,
likewise
on
Earth‐like
planets
around
Sun‐like
stars.
The challenge: develop a theory of the biosphere from raw material of research on epigenetics with Lamarckian-like inheritance in ecosystems, niche construction, higher level natural selection, and the metatheories of emergence, self-organization, complexity and systems.
Now on the astrobiological agenda: explore and create the theory of comparative biospheres.
However one defines the onset of the Anthropocene, we are now in that epoch. Humanity now faces the threat of radical changes in biodiversity as well as the collapse of civilization from catastrophic climate change (C3) and the ongoing threat of nuclear war. Nuclear war is not inevitable even if these weapons are not abolished, but C3 is inevitable without very timely and radical cuts in carbon emissions. On a positive note, we should recognize that confronting the twin threats of C3 and nuclear war is an unprecedented opportunity to end the rule of capital on our planet, precisely because the main obstacle to elimination of these threats is the Military Industrial (Fossil Fuel, Nuclear, State Terror and Surveillance) Complex (“MIC”). Its dissolution will open up a path of ecosocialist transition to a global civilization where the principle “From each according to her ability, to each according to her needs”, her referring to humans and nature (ecosystems), can be realized, Solar Communism.
References
Levins, R. and R. Lewontin, 1985. The Dialectical Biologist, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Schwartzman, D. 1996. Solar Communism, Science
&
Society
60
(3):
307‐331.
Online
at:
hep://www.redandgreen.org
/Documents/Solar_Communism.htm.
... 1999, 2002. Life, Temperature, and the Earth: The Self-Organizing Biosphere. New York: Columbia University Press.
…2008. Coevolution of the Biosphere and Climate, In: Encyclopedia of Ecology (S.E. Jorgensen and B. Fath, eds), pp. 648-658, 1st Edition, Elsevier B.V., Oxford. …2015. From the Gaia hypothesis to a theory of the evolving self-
organizing biosphere. Metascience DOI 10.1007/s11016-014-9979-3. ... 2015. The case for a hot Archean climate and its implications to the history of the biosphere. Arxiv.org
Want
More?
Lineweaver, C.H. and D. Schwartzman, 2004, Cosmic Thermobiology. In: Origins (ed. J. Seckbach), 233-248, Kluwer.
Schwartzman, D., 1999, 2002 (updated paperback), Life, Temperature and the Earth: The Self-Organizing Biosphere. Columbia Univ. Press.
Schwartzman, D.W., 2008, Coevolution of the Biosphere and Climate, In: Encyclopedia of Ecology (S.E. Jorgensen and B.
Fath, eds), pp. 648-658, 1st Edition, Elsevier B.V., Oxford.
Schwartzman, D.W., 2010, Was the origin of the lichen symbiosis triggered by declining atmospheric carbon dioxide levels?,
In: T.H. Nash III et al. (eds.) Biology of Lichens, Bibliotheca Lichenologica Volume 105, J.Cramer, Stuttgart, pp. 191-196.
Schwartzman D., 2010,
Is
Gaia
a
theory,
hypothesis
or
a
vision
?,
an
essay
review
of
Gaia
in
Turmoil,
Climate
Change,
Biodeple3on,
and
Earth
Ethics
in
an
Age
of
Crisis,
edited
by
Eileen
Crist
and
H.
Bruce
Rinker,
foreword
by
Bill
McKibben,
The
MIT
Press,
2010.
Cultural
Logic
2009,
1‐8.
hep://clogic.eserver.org/2009/2009.html
Schwartzman, D.W. and L. P. Knauth, 2009, A hot climate on early Earth: implications to biospheric evolution. In: K.J. Meech
et al. (eds.) Bioastronomy 2007: Molecules, Microbes, and Extraterrestrial Life, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series Vol. 420, San Francisco, pp. 221-228.
Schwartzman, D. and C.H. Lineweaver, 2004, Temperature, Biogenesis and Biospheric Self-Organization. In: Non-Equilibrium
Thermodynamics and the Production of Entropy:Life, Earth, and Beyond (eds. A. Kleidon and R. Lorenz), chapter 16, Springer
Verlag.
Schwartzman D., Middendorf, G., and M. Armour-Chelu, 2009, Was climate the prime releaser for encephalization? Climatic
Change 95, Issue 3: 439-447.
Schwartzman D., and G. Middendorf, 2011, Multiple paths to encephalization and technical civilizations. Orig Life Evol
Biosph 41: 581-585. Radical
and
Radish
have
the
Same
Root
Be
as
Radical
as
Reality
Itself!