�The Dialectics of Biospheric

Evolution�

David Schwartzman �Professor Emeritus �

Department of Biology, Howard University�dschwartzman@gmail.com�

Dick Levins Festscrift�May 23, 2015

TemperatureHistoryofBiosphere

ExplosionofBiodiversity

Abio%cBR=100

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.

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.

Evidenceforatemperatureconstraintonevolu9on:Uppertemperaturelimitsforgrowthoflivingorganisms,

approximate9mesoftheiremergenceGroupApproximateupperTimeoftemperaturelimit*Emergence(degC)(billionyearsago)“Higher”kingdoms:Plants 500.5‐1.5Metazoa(Animals)500.6‐1.5Fungi600.6‐1.5

Eucaryotes602.1‐2.8Procaryotes Phototrophs70>3.5 Hyperthermophiles>100>3.8(*TemperaturesfromBrock&Madigan,1991)

(

Source:L.PaulKnauth

PrimeEvidenceforHotEarlyEarthClimate:

PhylogenyandTemperature

PhylogeneWctreebasedonrRNAsequences

(Lineweaver&Schwartzman2004,CosmicThermobiology,basedonPace(1997)Science,276:734‐740.)

NotetheapparentabsenceonmolecularphylogeneWctreesofdeeply‐rootedmesophiles/psychrophiles.

IfArcheantemperaturesweresimilartothePhanerozoic,thensomeofthelow‐temperatureprokaryotesshouldbegroupedneartherootwiththehyperthermophiles/thermophiles.

Inferredpaleotemperaturesfromresurrected(elonga3on)proteins(Gaucheretal.,2008,Nature451:704‐707.)

ConsistentwithhotArchean,e.g.,cyanobacteriaemergingatabout60degCat2.8Ga.(Schwartzman,D.,Caldeira,K.,andA.Pavlov,2008,Astrobiology8(1):187‐203.)

MoresupportforhotArcheantemperaturesfrommolecularstudies:Boussauetal.,2008,ParalleladaptaWonstohightemperaturesintheArchaeaneon.Nature456:942–945.

Perez‐Jimenezetal.,2011,Single‐moleculepaleoenzymologyprobesthechemistryofresurrectedenzymes.NatureStructural&MolecularBiology18:592–596.

Long‐termCarbonCycle

Withrespecttoatmosphere/ocean:

Source:VolcanicCO2outgassing

Sinks:

CaMg(Fe)silicateweathering,deposi%onofCaMg(Fe)carbonatesinocean

(F1–F2)

NetburialofreducedorganicC(F3–F4)

Steady‐State:

V=(F1–F2)+(F3–F4)

BIOSPHERE

BIOTA

Conventional “Gaian”

Thehighestlevelofniche‐construc9onisthebiosphere(seeJohnOdling‐Smee,2007,Nicheinheritance:apossiblebasisforclassifyingmulWpleinheritancesystemsinevoluWon.BiologicalTheory2(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.)

TemperatureHistoryofBiosphere

ExplosionofBiodiversity

Abio%cBR=100

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 steady-states) 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‐determinismMul9pleoutcomesfromthesameini9alcondi9ons?Randomnessinimpacthistory,mulWpleaeractorstatesinMantleconvecWonandsteady‐stateclimateregimes.

Varyini9alcondi9ons:Willdifferentgeochemicalenvironments(e.g.,traceelementconcentraWons)generatedifferentbiochemistries,hencedifferenttemperaturelimitstophototrophy,oxygenicphoto‐synthesis,“complex”life?SinceavarietyofgeochemicalenvironmentslikelyexistedonearlyEarth,wereotherbiochemistrieslost?

Future:Compute,createandobservealternaWvebiochemistries

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) ?)

1)Temperatureconstraintonemergenceofmajororganismalgroups.

2)AtmosphericpO2constraintonmacroeucaryotes,includingmetazoainthePhanerozoic(Berneretal.,2007,Science316:557‐558).

3)AtmosphericpCO2constraintonemergenceoflichensandleaves(megaphylls)inDevonian.

4)Ageophysiologyofbiosphericevolu9on,likewiseonEarth‐likeplanetsaroundSun‐likestars.

“Gaian”Implica9onstobio9candbiosphericevolu9on:

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&Society60(3):307‐331.Onlineat: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

WantMore?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,IsGaiaatheory,hypothesisoravision?,anessayreviewofGaiainTurmoil,ClimateChange, Biodeple3on,andEarthEthicsinanAgeofCrisis,editedbyEileenCristandH.BruceRinker,forewordbyBillMcKibben,TheMITPress,2010.CulturalLogic2009,1‐8.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.

RadicalandRadishhavetheSameRoot

BeasRadicalasRealityItself!