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Author: Valeria Souza
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030460878
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237
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Book Description
Astrobiology not only investigates how early life took hold of our planet but also life on other planets – both in our Solar System and beyond – and their potential for habitability. The book take readers from the scars on planetary surfaces made by space rocks to the history of the Solar System narrated by those space rocks as well as exoplanets in other planetary systems. But the true question is how life arose here or elsewhere. Modern comparative genomics has revealed that Darwin was correct; a set of highly conserved genes and cellular functions indicate that all life is related by common ancestry. The Last Universal Common Ancestor or LUCA sits at the base of the Tree of Life. However, once that life took hold, it started to diversify and form complex microbial communities that are known as microbial mats and stromatolites. Due to their long evolutionary history and abundance on modern Earth, research on the biological, chemical and geological processes of stromatolite formation has provided important insights into the field of astrobiology. Many of these microbialite-containing ecosystems have been used as models for astrobiology, and NASA mission analogs including Shark Bay, Pavilion and Kelly Lakes. Modern microbialites represent natural laboratories to study primordial ecosystems and provide proxies for how life could evolve on other planets. However, few viral metagenomic studies (i.e., viromes) have been conducted in microbialites, which are not only an important part of the community but also mirror its biodiversity. This book focuses on particularly interesting sites such as Andean lake microbialites, a proxy of early life since they are characterized by very high UV light, while Alchichica and Bacalar lakes are characterized by high-salt and oligotrophic waters that nurture stromatolites. However, it is only the oasis of Cuatro Ciénegas Basin in México that stored past life in its marine sediments of the Sierra de San Marcos. This particular Sierra has a magmatic pouch that moves the deep aquifer to the surface in a cycle of sun drenched life and back to the depths of the magmatic life in an ancient cycle that now is broken by the overexploitation of the surface water as well as the deep aquifer in order to irrigate alfalfa in the desert. The anthropocene, the era of human folly, is killing this unique time machine and with it the memory of the planet.
Author: Valeria Souza
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030460878
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237
Get Book Here
Book Description
Astrobiology not only investigates how early life took hold of our planet but also life on other planets – both in our Solar System and beyond – and their potential for habitability. The book take readers from the scars on planetary surfaces made by space rocks to the history of the Solar System narrated by those space rocks as well as exoplanets in other planetary systems. But the true question is how life arose here or elsewhere. Modern comparative genomics has revealed that Darwin was correct; a set of highly conserved genes and cellular functions indicate that all life is related by common ancestry. The Last Universal Common Ancestor or LUCA sits at the base of the Tree of Life. However, once that life took hold, it started to diversify and form complex microbial communities that are known as microbial mats and stromatolites. Due to their long evolutionary history and abundance on modern Earth, research on the biological, chemical and geological processes of stromatolite formation has provided important insights into the field of astrobiology. Many of these microbialite-containing ecosystems have been used as models for astrobiology, and NASA mission analogs including Shark Bay, Pavilion and Kelly Lakes. Modern microbialites represent natural laboratories to study primordial ecosystems and provide proxies for how life could evolve on other planets. However, few viral metagenomic studies (i.e., viromes) have been conducted in microbialites, which are not only an important part of the community but also mirror its biodiversity. This book focuses on particularly interesting sites such as Andean lake microbialites, a proxy of early life since they are characterized by very high UV light, while Alchichica and Bacalar lakes are characterized by high-salt and oligotrophic waters that nurture stromatolites. However, it is only the oasis of Cuatro Ciénegas Basin in México that stored past life in its marine sediments of the Sierra de San Marcos. This particular Sierra has a magmatic pouch that moves the deep aquifer to the surface in a cycle of sun drenched life and back to the depths of the magmatic life in an ancient cycle that now is broken by the overexploitation of the surface water as well as the deep aquifer in order to irrigate alfalfa in the desert. The anthropocene, the era of human folly, is killing this unique time machine and with it the memory of the planet.
Author: Vera M. Kolb
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 100382370X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 406
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Book Description
This book addresses the timely subject of systems applications in astrobiology. It demonstrates how astrobiology – a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary field of science – can benefit from adopting the systems approach. Astrobiology draws upon its founding sciences, such as astronomy, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, geology, and planetary sciences. However, astrobiologists can encounter difficulties working across these fields. The systems approach, we believe, is the best contemporary approach to consider astrobiology holistically. The approach is currently used in other fields, such as engineering, which uses systems analysis routinely. Such an approach needs to be learned, both in principle and through examples, from the field. This book features chapters from experts across the field of astrobiology who have applied the systems approach. It will be a valuable guide for astrobiology students at the advanced undergraduate and graduate levels, in addition to researchers in the field, both in academia and the space industry. Key Features: Offers a unique and novel approach to studying and understanding astrobiology Encourages astrobiologists to apply a holistic systems approach to their work, rather than being bogged down in details Imparts practical knowledge to readers which can be adopted in different research and job opportunities in the field of astrobiology Vera M. Kolb obtained degrees in chemical engineering and organic chemistry from Belgrade University, Serbia, and earned her PhD in organic chemistry from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, United States. Following a 30-year career, she is Professor Emerita of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha, Wisconsin. During her first sabbatical leave with the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) in Astrobiology, she conducted research with Dr. Leslie Orgel at the Salk Institute and Prof. Stanley Miller at UC San Diego. Her second sabbatical was with Prof. Joseph Lambert at Northwestern University, where she studied sugar silicates and their potential astrobiological relevance. She is credited for authoring over 160 publications, in the fields of organic and medicinal chemistry, green chemistry, and astrobiology, including several books. Recently, she authored Green Organic Chemistry and Its Interdisciplinary Applications (CRC 2016). In the astrobiology field, she edited Astrobiology: An Evolutionary Approach (CRC 2015) and Handbook of Astrobiology (CRC 2019). She co-authored (with Benton C. Clark) Astrobiology for a General Reader: A Questions and Answers Approach (CSP 2020) and Systems Approach to Astrobiology (CRC 2023).
Author: Valeria Souza
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030832708
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 201
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Book Description
This book takes readers on a journey through the history of water in the Coahuila desert. It starts by describing the beauty and mysteries of the landscape, and then explores the rock art of the original desert cultures in Coahuila, offering readers a glimpse of the sacred nature of water in the desert, as well as the rituals surrounding it. Moving on to the colonial times and the post- independence development of the region, it discusses early water management, and explores how water is managed in modern times, as well as the legal complications of the law, and how these faulty laws, designed for less arid regions, have affected a highly diverse wetland, the Cuatro Ciénegas oasis. The book then examines the biological consequences of the water loss for the aquatic plants and animals in Churince – a now extinct system within Cuatro Ciénegas. Further, it addresses how even bacteria can become extinct in this hyper-diverse microbial oasis. Lastly, after this despair and sense of loss, the book provides hope, offering suggestions for how we can transform the future, from a social and educational point of view as well as through good science and changes in policy.
Author: Javier Alcocer
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030790967
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 444
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Book Description
The book provides a comprehensive account of a tropical lake, Alchichica, considering that tropical limnology is by far less known and well-understood than temperate. Many of the well-known temperate limnology paradigms do not apply in tropical limnology, such as the ≥ 1oC/m thermocline concept, or the role of phosphorous as a limiting nutrient. Lake Alchichica is - most likely – the best limnologically known Mexican lake up to date. Twenty years of continuous monitoring has led us to understand this deep, warm monomictic lake. The peculiar chemical composition of this saline lake – sodium-alkaline with a high concentration in magnesium waters, and groundwater-fed – led to the formation of its unique stromatolite ring that has become world-famous, studied by scientists from various countries. From a biological point of view, this relatively small maar lake displays a comparatively low species richness but surprisingly is plentiful in microendemic species for a recently-formed lake (13,000-6,300 years old, at the Late Pleistocene/Holocene Epoch), eleven of which already described, with more to come. Researchers and students interested in tropical limnology, extreme ecosystems, evolutionary biology, astrobiology, and microbiology will find this book a must-read.
Author: Alexandra Anh-Thu Weber
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832540236
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 381
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Book Description
The 16th Deep-Sea Biology Symposium was held in Brest, France, and online from the 12th to the 17th of September 2021. The first DSBS hybrid symposium brought together scientists, students, managers, policymakers, and industry specialists who presented advances in deep-sea research. Themes of the symposium, and of this Research Topic, include: - Conservation and stewardship: natural/anthropogenic impacts, conservation, governance. This includes but it is not limited to: deep-seabed mining, pollutants and debris, climate change impacts; marine spatial planning; stewardship of the deep ocean; - Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: biodiversity patterns, species distribution, function; from polar to temperate regions, mesopelagic to hadal, microbes to large pelagic; - Life-history traits and population connectivity: reproductive ecology, larval development and dispersal, and population connectivity; - Adaptations of deep-sea organisms: from molecules to organisms: how life adapts to extreme conditions, including for instance bioluminescence and vision in the deep-sea; - Access to the deep sea: technological and methodological advances to access and investigate deep-sea life, including observatories and cutting edge technologies –e.g. A.I. and omics; - Deep-sea biomimicry: discovery of new technologies inspired by deep-sea biological solutions; - Science communication in the deep including innovative approaches to increase ocean literacy (merging “arts & sciences”).
Author: Valeria Souza
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319934236
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 144
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Book Description
The aim of this first book is to introduce the readers of the series to why Cuatro Ciénegas Basin (CCB) is so unique, starting with the reason why astrobiologists became interested in this oasis in the first place; namely, the high diversity and abundance of stromatolites and microbial mats in continental waters to be found in the desert oasis. As NASA has long since discovered, the basin may offer the best analog of early Earth. In essence, CCB is a time machine that can take us far back and forth in time. In the respective chapters, the contributing authors explain the extraordinary microbial diversity of Cuatro Ciénegas Basin from various perspectives. In order to do so, they explain their journey as well as the different tools used to unravel the basin’s mysteries, such as: Why are there so many species in a place without food? How has life there survived the enormity of tectonic shifts through the ages, maintaining its ancient marine heritage?
Author: Joseph Seckbach
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119640938
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354
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Book Description
An in-depth view of the panspermia hypothesis examined against the latest knowledge of planetary formation and related processes. Panspermia is the concept that life can be passively transported through space on various bodies and seed, habitable planets and moons, which we are beginning to learn may exist in large numbers. It is an old idea, but not popular with those who prefer that life on Earth started on Earth, an alternative, also unproven hypothesis. This book updates the concept of panspermia in the light of new evidence on planet formation, molecular clouds, solar system motions, supernovae ejection mechanisms, etc. Thus, it is to be a book about newly understood prospects for the movement of life through space. The novel approach presented in this book gives new insights into the panspermia theory and its connection with planetary formation and the evolution of galaxies. This offers a good starting point for future research proposals about exolife and a better perspective for empirical scrutiny of panspermia theory. Also, the key to understanding life in the universe is to understand that the planetary formation process is convolved with the evolution of stellar systems in their galactic environment. The book provides the synthesis of all these elements and gives the readers an up-to-date insight on how panspermia might fit into the big picture. Audience Given the intrinsic interdisciplinary nature of the panspermia hypothesis the book will have a wide audience across various scientific disciplines covering astronomy, biology, physics and chemistry. Apart from scientists, the book will appeal to engineers who are involved in planning and realization of future space missions.
Author: Yiliang Li
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832526527
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 145
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Book Description
Martian surface contains diverse lithologies (from sedimentary rocks to mafic-ultramafic igneous rocks) and ground patterns. These rocks record the late-stage evolution on the Martian surface from a temperate environment with bodies of liquid water to the current cold and hyper-arid environment. The constraints on the key parameters and processes for water-rock interaction, sedimentation of materials, and geomorphological development can provide important insights into the environmental change and habitability on the Martian surface. However, due to the difficulty in accessing Martian samples and limited remote-sensing data available from the Martian surface, most of the mysteries on Mars remain unraveled. In this proposed research topic we will focus on geological settings on Earth that are similar to the conditions on Mars. These Mars analogs are employed to infer possible processes on Mars and their impact on habitability and the search for life. The Mars analogs on Earth span a variety of environments, such as the super-arid sedimentary plains (e.g., the Qaidam Basin in the north of the Tibetan Plateau, the Mojave Basin in the USA, and the Atacama Desert in South America), the subsurface fracture waters in Precambrian cratons (e.g., the Canadian Shield, the Fennoscandian Shield, and the Kaapvaal Craton), high salinity localities (e.g. Laguna de Tírez, salt mines, and deep-sea brines) as well as extremely cold and highly radiative environments (e.g., polar regions, thin atmosphere). These settings on Earth are more accessible for collecting high-quality mineralogical, geochemical, geochronological, and microbiological data by the state-of-the-art facilities. These data can provide a solid cornerstone for us to understand the cycles of water and other life-essential elements, and their impact on habitability and biodiversity in extreme environments on Earth as well as the limits of life and the detection of biosignatures. Such research can also provide vital insights on the search for life on other planets and moons.
Author: Felipe García-Oliva
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319958550
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169
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Book Description
Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) are three of the most important elements used to build living beings, and their uptake from the environment is consequently essential for all organisms. Photosynthesis is the process in which plants absorb atmospheric C as they grow and convert it to biomass. However, plants acquire N and P only when these are available in the soil solution, which makes these elements the most limiting nutrients in plant growth and productivity in most ecosystems. When plant residues and roots decompose, the C, N and P they contain is transformed primarily into soil organic matter (SOM) or C and N can release to the atmosphere. Recent interest on the global C, N and P cycles has focused attention on the different proportion of terrestrial C, N and P stored in different ecosystem pools. Cuatro Cienegas represents an exceptional place, since the plants are not the base of the food web, they are the microbial community, that recycle the elements essential for life. In this book we describe how this is an analog of early Earth.
Author: Joachim Reitner
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642104142
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 553
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Book Description
Stromatolites are the most intriguing geobiological structures of the entire earth history since the beginning of the fossil record in the Archaean. Stromatolites and microbialites are interpreted as biosedimentological remains of biofilms and microbial mats. These structures are important environmental and evolutionary archives which give us information about ancient habitats, biodiversity, and evolution of complex benthic ecosystems. However, many geobiological aspects of these structures are still unknown or only poorly understood. The present proceedings highlight the new ideas and information on the formation and environmental setting of stromatolites presented at the occasion of the Kalkowsky Symposium 2008, held in Göttingen, Germany.
