Tim Lenton and Andrew Watson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- December 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199587049
- eISBN:
- 9780191775031
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587049.001.0001
- Subject:
- Physics, Geophysics, Atmospheric and Environmental Physics
The Earth that sustains us today was born out of a few remarkable, near-catastrophic revolutions, started by biological innovations and marked by global environmental consequences. The revolutions ...
More
The Earth that sustains us today was born out of a few remarkable, near-catastrophic revolutions, started by biological innovations and marked by global environmental consequences. The revolutions have certain features in common, such as an increase in complexity, energy utilisation, and information processing by life. This book describes these revolutions, showing the fundamental interdependence of the evolution of life and its non-living environment. We would not exist unless these upheavals had led eventually to ‘successful’ outcomes – meaning that after each one, at length, a new stable world emerged. The current planet-reshaping activities of our species may be the start of another great Earth system revolution, but there is no guarantee that this one will be successful. The book explains what a successful transition through it might look like, and whether we are wise enough to steer such a course. It places humanity in context as part of the Earth system, using a new scientific synthesis to illustrate our debt to the deep past and our potential for the future.Less
The Earth that sustains us today was born out of a few remarkable, near-catastrophic revolutions, started by biological innovations and marked by global environmental consequences. The revolutions have certain features in common, such as an increase in complexity, energy utilisation, and information processing by life. This book describes these revolutions, showing the fundamental interdependence of the evolution of life and its non-living environment. We would not exist unless these upheavals had led eventually to ‘successful’ outcomes – meaning that after each one, at length, a new stable world emerged. The current planet-reshaping activities of our species may be the start of another great Earth system revolution, but there is no guarantee that this one will be successful. The book explains what a successful transition through it might look like, and whether we are wise enough to steer such a course. It places humanity in context as part of the Earth system, using a new scientific synthesis to illustrate our debt to the deep past and our potential for the future.
Raymond Neubauer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231150705
- eISBN:
- 9780231521680
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231150705.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
This book explores how the human species emerged from the cosmic dust. It describes the rising complexity of life in terms of increasing information content, first in genes and then in brains. It ...
More
This book explores how the human species emerged from the cosmic dust. It describes the rising complexity of life in terms of increasing information content, first in genes and then in brains. It portrays four species with high brain:body ratios—chimpanzees, elephants, ravens, and dolphins—and shows how each species shares with humans the capacity for complex communication, elaborate social relationships, flexible behavior, tool use, and powers of abstraction. The book describes this constellation of qualities as an emergent self, arguing that self-awareness is nascent in several species besides humans and that potential human characteristics are embedded in the evolutionary process and have emerged repeatedly in a variety of lineages on our planet. It demonstrates that human culture is not a unique offshoot of a language-specialized primate, but an analogue of fundamental mechanisms that organisms have used since the beginning of life on Earth to gather and process information in order to buffer themselves from fluctuations in the environment. The book also views these developments in a cosmic setting, detailing open thermodynamic systems that grow more complex as the energy flowing through them increases. Similar processes can be found in the “self-organizing” structures of both living and nonliving forms. Recent evidence indicates that planet formation may be nearly as frequent as star formation. Since life makes use of the elements commonly seeded into space by burning and expiring stars, it is reasonable to speculate that the evolution of life and intelligence that happened on our planet may be found across the universe.Less
This book explores how the human species emerged from the cosmic dust. It describes the rising complexity of life in terms of increasing information content, first in genes and then in brains. It portrays four species with high brain:body ratios—chimpanzees, elephants, ravens, and dolphins—and shows how each species shares with humans the capacity for complex communication, elaborate social relationships, flexible behavior, tool use, and powers of abstraction. The book describes this constellation of qualities as an emergent self, arguing that self-awareness is nascent in several species besides humans and that potential human characteristics are embedded in the evolutionary process and have emerged repeatedly in a variety of lineages on our planet. It demonstrates that human culture is not a unique offshoot of a language-specialized primate, but an analogue of fundamental mechanisms that organisms have used since the beginning of life on Earth to gather and process information in order to buffer themselves from fluctuations in the environment. The book also views these developments in a cosmic setting, detailing open thermodynamic systems that grow more complex as the energy flowing through them increases. Similar processes can be found in the “self-organizing” structures of both living and nonliving forms. Recent evidence indicates that planet formation may be nearly as frequent as star formation. Since life makes use of the elements commonly seeded into space by burning and expiring stars, it is reasonable to speculate that the evolution of life and intelligence that happened on our planet may be found across the universe.
Jon F. Harrison, H. Arthur Woods, and Stephen P. Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- December 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199225941
- eISBN:
- 9780191774607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199225941.003.0008
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology, Ecology
This chapter consolidates the conclusions arrived at through the studies and cases tackled throughout the book. Insect environmental physiology is seen to have an extraordinarily bright and ...
More
This chapter consolidates the conclusions arrived at through the studies and cases tackled throughout the book. Insect environmental physiology is seen to have an extraordinarily bright and interesting future, one that could provide a key interface between genetics and molecular biology, and even the evolution of life. The chapter outlines a series of major problems and questions in insect biology that deserve attention if this field is to move forward, among which is how climate change will inevitably affect and cause major changes in the environments of insects. How will such changes affect the insects in terms of their growth, abundance, behaviour, and other aspects of their lives? Another area that deserves attention is the lifecycle approach. How do the different stages of insect growth and maturity respond to environmental variation? These and much more issues are discussed in the chapter in order to provide a brief outlook on the field in general and how it can further progress.Less
This chapter consolidates the conclusions arrived at through the studies and cases tackled throughout the book. Insect environmental physiology is seen to have an extraordinarily bright and interesting future, one that could provide a key interface between genetics and molecular biology, and even the evolution of life. The chapter outlines a series of major problems and questions in insect biology that deserve attention if this field is to move forward, among which is how climate change will inevitably affect and cause major changes in the environments of insects. How will such changes affect the insects in terms of their growth, abundance, behaviour, and other aspects of their lives? Another area that deserves attention is the lifecycle approach. How do the different stages of insect growth and maturity respond to environmental variation? These and much more issues are discussed in the chapter in order to provide a brief outlook on the field in general and how it can further progress.
David Rickard
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190203672
- eISBN:
- 9780197559482
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190203672.003.0012
- Subject:
- Chemistry, Mineralogy and Gems
The two basic processes concerning pyrite in the environment are the formation of pyrite, which usually involves reduction of sulfate to sulfide, and the destruction ...
More
The two basic processes concerning pyrite in the environment are the formation of pyrite, which usually involves reduction of sulfate to sulfide, and the destruction of pyrite, which usually involves oxidation of sulfide to sulfate. On an ideal planet these two processes might be exactly balanced. But pyrite is buried in sediments sometimes for hundreds of millions of years, and the sulfur in this buried pyrite is removed from the system, so the balance is disturbed. The lack of balance between sulfide oxidation and sulfate reduction powers a global dynamic cycle for sulfur. This would be complex enough if this were the whole story. However, as we have seen, both the reduction and oxidation arms of the global cycle are essentially biological—specifically microbiological—processes. This means that there is an intrinsic link between the sulfur cycle and life on Earth. In this chapter, we examine the central role that pyrite plays, and has played, in determining the surface environment of the planet. In doing so we reveal how pyrite, the humble iron sulfide mineral, is a key component of maintaining and developing life on Earth. In Chapter 4 we concluded that Mother Nature must be particularly fond of pyrite framboids: a thousand billion of these microscopic raspberry-like spheres are formed in sediments every second. If we translate this into sulfur production, some 60 million tons of sulfur is buried as pyrite in sediments each year. But this is only a fraction of the total amount of sulfide produced every year by sulfate-reducing bacteria. In 1982 the Danish geomicrobiologist Bo Barker Jørgensen discovered that as much as 90% of the sulfide produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria was rapidly reoxidized by sulfur-oxidizing microorganisms. Sulfate-reducing microorganisms actually produce about 300 million tons of sulfur each year, but about 240 million tons is reoxidized. The magnitude of the sulfide production by sulfate-reducing bacteria can be appreciated by comparison with the sulfur produced by volcanoes. As discussed in Chapter 5, it was previously supposed that all sulfur, and thus pyrite, had a volcanic origin. In fact volcanoes produce just 10 million tons of sulfur each year.
Less
The two basic processes concerning pyrite in the environment are the formation of pyrite, which usually involves reduction of sulfate to sulfide, and the destruction of pyrite, which usually involves oxidation of sulfide to sulfate. On an ideal planet these two processes might be exactly balanced. But pyrite is buried in sediments sometimes for hundreds of millions of years, and the sulfur in this buried pyrite is removed from the system, so the balance is disturbed. The lack of balance between sulfide oxidation and sulfate reduction powers a global dynamic cycle for sulfur. This would be complex enough if this were the whole story. However, as we have seen, both the reduction and oxidation arms of the global cycle are essentially biological—specifically microbiological—processes. This means that there is an intrinsic link between the sulfur cycle and life on Earth. In this chapter, we examine the central role that pyrite plays, and has played, in determining the surface environment of the planet. In doing so we reveal how pyrite, the humble iron sulfide mineral, is a key component of maintaining and developing life on Earth. In Chapter 4 we concluded that Mother Nature must be particularly fond of pyrite framboids: a thousand billion of these microscopic raspberry-like spheres are formed in sediments every second. If we translate this into sulfur production, some 60 million tons of sulfur is buried as pyrite in sediments each year. But this is only a fraction of the total amount of sulfide produced every year by sulfate-reducing bacteria. In 1982 the Danish geomicrobiologist Bo Barker Jørgensen discovered that as much as 90% of the sulfide produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria was rapidly reoxidized by sulfur-oxidizing microorganisms. Sulfate-reducing microorganisms actually produce about 300 million tons of sulfur each year, but about 240 million tons is reoxidized. The magnitude of the sulfide production by sulfate-reducing bacteria can be appreciated by comparison with the sulfur produced by volcanoes. As discussed in Chapter 5, it was previously supposed that all sulfur, and thus pyrite, had a volcanic origin. In fact volcanoes produce just 10 million tons of sulfur each year.