The BioIntegrity Podcast

We are rebooting The Value of Biosphere Earth podcast series, starting with a focus on the meaning of the word, biosphere. In this episode, author/researcher Chris Searles reads an extremely-well cited synopsis of the academic research on why other-Life, Earth’s biodiversity of plants, animals, fungi, microbes, etc., is the most valuable and intelligent thing in the known universe. (Citations below.)  A STACK… all of the elements of a system, creates our ability to live in the universe. More on this in podcast #3 in this series, Ecosystem Services.

Defining the "Software Stack" analogy
The Human Life-Support System is essentially (top down): 
    a) Stuff we need: Food, Clothes, Fuel, Atmosphere, Freshwater, etc., generated by:
    b) Other macro life: Plants, Animals, Wilderness Ecosystems, and
    c) Micro life: Protista, Soils, Fungi, Microbes, Microbiomes, and their interactions with
    d) The geosphere: Rocks, Minerals, Chemicals, Climate Conditions (non-living elements). 

Read The Value of Biosphere Earth, A Self-Generating Stack: 

About Chris Searles
 
Program
0:00  Welcome  
1:30  Paragraph 1, Biosphere Earth  
3:00  Paragraph 2, Smarter than our Computers (the software stack analogy)
          "Stack" visual: https://tinyurl.com/VOBE2-stack
5:00  Life itself is miraculous. The life-support system built itself over the last 4 billions of years
6:25  Chris goes through the diagram in paper. Our life-support system = inanimate elements of Earth (minerals & climate conditions) + interactive, intelligent, relational life-layers, which ultimately led to and presently create our everyday life-support system, (aka. Nature, as we know it).
7:45 This planetary life-support system is EXCEPTIONALLY RESOURCEFUL: self-integrating, adaptive, self-healing, self-correcting. It appears to always be going towards more diversity of life (more biodiversity) when climate conditions are favorable. 

Citations
Images and Oxford
 • “The Pale Orange Dot” (Microbial Earth circa three billion years ago) – Zubritsky. NASA Team Looks to Ancient Earth First to Study Hazy Exoplanets. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. (2017) https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-team-looks-to-ancient-earth-first-to-study-hazy-exoplanets 
•  “The Blue Marble” (Biosphere Earth today) -- Stockli, Nelson. Earth The Blue Marble. NASA Visible Earth. (2000) https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/54388/earth-the-blue-marble
• “Definition of biosphere”. Oxford University Press. Lexico.com. 30 September 2021. https://www.lexico.com/definition/biosphere

No other planet known to contain organisms after thousands surveyed
• NASA Exoplanet Archive. Infrared Analysis and Processing Center, California Institute of Technology. [Retrieved 20 August 2021.] https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu
• University of Puerto Rico, Arecibo. Habitable Exoplanets Catalog. Planetary Habitability Catalog, University of Puerto Rico, Arecibo. [Retrieved 29 September 2021.] http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog.
• Kaufman, M. Life, Here and Beyond. Astrobiology at NASA. [Retrieved 17 August 2020.] https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/about/

Science has established that the foundation for human existence is simple and complex life
• Chimeleski, Kolter. Microbes gave us life. Stat. (2017) https://www.statnews.com/2017/12/21/microbes-human-life/
• Ellison, et al. Trees, forests, water: Cool insights for a hot world. Global Environmental Change 43: 51-61. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.01.002
• Malmstrom, C. Ecologists Study the Interactions of Organisms and Their Environment. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):88. (2010) https://nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/ecologists-study-the-interactions-of-organisms-and-13235586/
• Gilbert & Neufeld. Life in a world without Microbes. PLoS Biol. 12(12):e1002020. (2014) doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002020
• European Commission publication. Ecosystem Goods and Services. European Commission
Publications Office. (2009) https://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/info/pubs/docs/ecosystem.pdf
• Convention on Biological Diversity. Sustaining Life on Earth. CBD. (2009) https://www.cbd.int/convention/guide/
• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Ecosystems and human well-being: Biodiversity synthesis. World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C. (2005) http://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.354.aspx.pdf

Everything we have is a result of living inside of Biosphere Earth
• Isbell, et al. Linking the influence and dependence of people on biodiversity across scales. Nature 546, 65–72. (2017)  https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22899
• Rojstaczer, Sterling, Moore. Human appropriation of photosynthesis products. Science Vol 294, Issue 555, 2549-2552 (2001) https://science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.1064375
• Williams. A modern Earth Narrative: what will be the fate of the biosphere? Technology in Society 22, Issue 3, 303-339. (2000) https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-791X(00)00012-9
• Daily, G., editor. Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. Island Press. (1997) https://islandpress.org/books/natures-services

Definition of “software stack”
• “Definition of software stack”. Semilof, S. Tech Target: SearchApp Architecture. Searchapparchitecture.techtarget.com. [Retrieved 29 September 2021.] https://searchapparchitecture.techtarget.com/definition/software-stack

Biosphere Earth is self-creating, self-organizing, more complex and varied than we can visualize.
> Self-creating and self-organizing
• Morozov, et al. New paradigm of state policy in the field of ecology and environment climate protection. Energy: Economics, Technology, Ecology. Vol. 8, 7-14. (2019) https://www.bioticregulation.ru/life/paradigm.php
• Ellison, et al. Trees, forests, water: Cool insights for a hot world. Global Environmental Change 43: 51-61. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.01.002
• Brose, Hillebrand. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in dynamic landscapes. The Royal Society 371, 1694. (2016) https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0267
• Rutledge, et al. Biosphere. National Geographic: Resource Library. (2011) https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/biosphere/
• Stachowiz, Bruno, Duffy. Understanding the Effects of Marine Biodiversity on Communities and Ecosystems. Annual Review of Ecol, Evol and Sys 38: 739-766. (2007) https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.38.091206.095659

> Ocean life integration
• Friendlingstein, et al. Global Carbon Budget 2020. Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3269–3340. (2020) https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3269-2020
• Rasher, et al. Keystone predators govern the pathway and pace of climate impacts in a subarctic marine ecosystem. Science Vol. 369, 6509, 1351-1354. (2020) https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6509/1351
• Behrenfeld, et al. Global satellite-observed daily vertical migrations of ocean animals. Nature 576, 257–261. (2019)  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1796-9
• Basu, Mackey. Phytoplankton as Key Mediators of the Biological Carbon Pump. Sustainability, 10, 869. (2018) https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030869
• Delevaux, et al. Scenario planning with linked land-sea models inform where forest conservation actions will promote coral reef resilience. Sci Rep 8, 12465. (2018) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29951-0
• Graham, et al. Seabirds enhance coral reef productivity and functioning in the absence of invasive rats. Nature 559, 250–253. (2018) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0202-3
• Barbier. Marine Ecosystem Services. Current Biology, Vol. 27, Issue 11, R507-R510. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.03.020
• Howard, et al. Clarifying the role of coastal and marine systems in climate mitigation. Frontiers in Ecology 15 (1), 42-50. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.1451
• Leigh, et al. Seagrass digestion by a notorious carnivore. The Royal Society 285, 1886. (2018) https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.1583

> Atmospheric life integration
• Hayden. The role of the biosphere in the Earth-atmosphere system. Encyclopedia Britannica online. [Retrieved 1 January 2021] https://www.britannica.com/science/climate-meteorology/The-role-of-the-biosphere-in-the-Earthatmosphere-system
• Green, et al. Regionally strong feedbacks between the atmosphere and terrestrial biosphere. Nature Geoscience 10(6):410-414. (2017) https://nature.com/articles/ngeo2957
• Wilson, et al. A marine biogenic source of atmospheric ice-nucleating particles. Nature 525, 234–238. (2015) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14986
• Katul, et al. Evapotranspiration: A process driving mass transport and energy exchange in the soil-plant-atmosphere-climate system. Reviews of Geophysics, Vol. 50, Issue 3. (2012) https://doi.org/10.1029/2011RG000366
• Lelieveld, et al. Atmospheric oxidation capacity sustained by a tropical forest. Nature 452, 737–740. (2008) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06870

> Freshwater life integration
• Migliorini, Romero. Warming and leaf litter functional diversity, not litter quality, drive decomposition in a freshwater ecosystem. Sci Rep 10, 20333. (2020) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77382-7
• Silknetter, et al. Positive biotic interactions in freshwaters: A review and research directive. FreshwaterBiology 65, 4: 811-832. (2020) https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13476
• Grossart, et al. Fungi in aquatic ecosystems. Nat Rev Microbiol 17, 339–354. (2019) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-019-0175-8
• National Research Council. Valuing Ecosystem Services: Toward Better Environmental Decision-Making. National Academies Press. ISBN: 978-0-309-09318-7. (2005) https://doi.org/10.17226/11139
• Ushio, et al. Fluctuating interaction network and time-varying stability of a natural fish community. Nature 554, 360–363. (2018) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature25504

> Landscape life integration
• Liu, et al. A latitudinal gradient of plant–insect interactions during the late Permian in terrestrial ecosystems? Global and Planetary Change Vol. 192, 103248. (2020) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2020.103248
• Watson, et al. The exceptional value of intact forest ecosystems. Nature Ecol & Evol 2, 599-610. (2018) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0490-x
• Ellison, et al. Trees, forests, water: Cool insights for a hot world. Global Environmental Change 43: 51-61. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.01.002
• Keys, et al. Approaching Moisture Recycling Governance. Global Environmental Change 45: 15-23. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.04.007
• Tecon, Or. Biophysical processes supporting the diversity of microbial life in soil. FEMS Microbiology Reviews, Vol. 41, 599–623. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1093/femsre/fux039
• Alkama, Cescatti. Biophysical climate impacts of recent changes in global forest cover. Science Vol. 351, Issue 6273, pp. 600-604. (2016) h Poorter, et al. Diversity enhances carbon storage in tropical forests. Global Ecology and Biogeography 14, 11, 1313-1328. (2015) https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12364
• Bauer, Hoye. Migratory Animals Couple Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning Worldwide. Science 344 Issue 6179. (2014) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1242552
• Soulé, et al. The role of connectivity in Australian conservation. Pacific Conservation Biology 10(4) 266–279. (2004) https://doi.org/10.1071/PC040266
• Wetzel, et al. Variability in plant nutrients reduces insect herbivore performance. Nature 539, 425–427. (2016) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20140

> Subterranean & Microbial life integration:
• West, et al. Under the karst: detecting hidden subterranean assemblages using eDNA metabarcoding in the caves of Christmas Island, Australia. Sci Rep 10, 21479. (2020) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78525-6
• Sar, et al. Deep Biosphere: Microbiome of the Deep Terrestrial Subsurface. Microbial Diversity in Ecosystem Sustainability and Biotechnological Applications. Vol. 1, pp 225-265. Springer Singapore. ISBN: 978-981-13-8315-1. (2019) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8315-1_8
• Gabbatiss. Massive ‘deep life’ study reveals billions of tonnes of microbes living far beneath Earth’s surface. The Independent. (2018) https://independent.co.uk/news/science/deep-life-microbesunderground-bacteria-earth-surface-carbon-observatory-science-study-a8677521.html
• Orsi, et al. Gene expression in the deep biosphere. Nature 499, 205–208 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12230
• Nealson, Ghiorse, Strauss. Geobiology: Exploring the Interface Between the Biosphere and the Geosphere. American Society for Microbiology. (2001) https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559441/ Micro to Macro Organisms integration:
• Eisenstein. Microbial matters: modeling the complex web of host-microbiome interactions. Nature 581, 489-490. (2020) https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01472-9
• Enquist, et al. The megabiota are disproportionately important for biosphere functioning. Nature Communications 11, 699. (2020) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14369-y
• Cernansky. The biodiversity revolution. Nature Vol 546. (2017) http://www.askforce.org/web/biodiversity/Cernansky%20Biodiversity-Revolution-2017.pdf
• Duffy, et al. Biodiversity effects in the wild are common and as strong as key drivers of productivity. Nature 549, 261–264. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature23886
• Guimarães, et al. Indirect effects drive coevolution in mutualistic networks. Nature 550, 511–514. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24273
• Laforest-Lapointe, et al. Leaf bacterial diversity mediates plant diversity and ecosystem functio relationships. Nature 546, 145–147. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22399
• Moyroud, et al. Disorder in convergent floral nanostructures enhances signalling to bees. Nature 550, 469–474. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24285

> Big picture life integrations
• Hutton. The predator-prey power law: Biomass scaling across terrestrial and aquatic biomes. Science Vol. 349, Issue 6252. (2015)  https://science.sciencemag.org/content/349/6252/aac6284
• Bauer, Hoye. Migratory Animals Couple Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning Worldwide. Science 344(6179):1242552. (2014) https://science.sciencemag.org/content/344/6179/1242552
• Block, et al. Tracking apex marine predator movements in a dynamic ocean. Nature 475, 86–90. (2011) https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10082  
• Malmstrom. Ecologists Study the Interactions of Organisms and Their Environment. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):88. (2010) https://nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/ecologists-study-the-interactions-oforganisms-and-13235586/ 
• Hutchinson, et al. the Biosphere. Scientific American / W.H. Freeman & Company. ISBN: 9780716709459. (1970) https://scientificamerican.com/magazine/sa/1970/09-01




################

Thanks for listening!
Sign up for this weekly email series here.
Follow Chris on Medium to see the essays as soon as they're available.
Visit biointegrity.net or our podcast page for more. 

What is The BioIntegrity Podcast?

biointegrity.net

This unproofed, unedited transcript was auto-generated by otter.ai.

We will update for clarity, asap. Thanks!

#######################

CHRIS SEARLES is author / reader / host.
Read the full paper on Google docs: https://tinyurl.com/VOBE2-stack

0:02
(INTRO) Hi, Chris Searles here from bio integrity. And I am rebooting the series of podcasts on the value of biosphere Earth.

0:13
This research actually was completed about a year and a half ago about setting a new basis for the way we understand our relationship with this planet, and with our own bodies and our own lives.

0:27
And so this series, the value of biosphere Earth, I think, stands and will stay on for a very long time. Meanwhile, the recording I made a year and a half ago was not very good and incomplete. The third reason we are re recording this is simply because the way I've organized the series parts one through eight, is really how it makes sense linearly from a scientific perspective. But I think what we're gonna do is change the order. So we are all on the same page, those listening to this series.

0:59
And what we're talking about here is the biosphere. What it is this life support system that we are dependent on, that is comprised of other life.

1:12
So in other words, the premise of this whole series is that the most important thing to us in the entire universe is the other life on this planet. Because it comprises the only known human life support system in the universe. So here we go.

1:32
(READING THE PAPER) The value of biosphere Earth, a self generating stack, paragraph number one:

1:41
(READING THE PAPER) How do the clothes you're wearing right now relate to quote, the biosphere. The Oxford English Dictionary defines biosphere as, quote, the regions of a planet occupied by organisms. But this definition is misleading. Earth's biosphere is far more significant. There is no other planet known to contain organisms at this time, after 1000s surveyed. In fact, NASA has now surveyed over 4000 planets. More importantly, while science doesn't fully understand how our only life support system works, it has established that the rich foundation for human existence, and our way of life is Earth's simple and complex life. Earth's biosphere if the clothes you're wearing right now, are made of cotton, or leather, or wool, or bamboo, or silk, or even synthetic fibers. They come from one of Earth's other organisms. Everything we have, from thoughts and feelings, to clothes, and the internet is a result of living inside of this biosphere, biosphere Earth.

3:05
(READING THE PAPER) Paragraph number two: smarter than our computers.

3:11
(READING THE PAPER) How does your phone do all of those amazing things. It's a stack. It's a quote software stack, an architecture of components, operating systems, databases, protocols and so on. Which work together to run a program or application originated by humans. Software depends on our ability to power it. There's no mystery there. But by contrast, the occurrence, architecture and generation of biosphere Earth is scientifically speaking, miraculous. Biosphere Earth builds itself, organism by organism, resulting in a system more complex, intelligent, varied and integrated, that our brains can conceive. As of this writing, not even one organisms animation, identity, ability to self compose, ability to adapt to changing circumstances, ability to interact with other organisms, or total contribution to our planetary life support system. None of these things have been mapped or explained by civilization or the developed world's science, religion or philosophies or knowledge traditions have yet to base themselves in recognition of our only life support systems, self generating stack

5:03
(COMMENTS) So the analogy I'm trying to draw here, if it's not clear, is that what is miraculous about our life support system is that it exists at all. From a scientific level, we don't understand why life comes into being where it comes from what this life force that animates matter into physical bodies. What that is. We all know that we experience life inside our bodies, but we're also more of a passenger in our bodies, then a pilot at the end of the life experience. Same thing with this sort of culmination of life support system, integrated aspects, which have now over billions of years, which we'll learn about in the next podcast, the timeline of life development on Earth, over billions of years created conditions that ultimately lead to a planetary life support system that looks to us like everyday normal life where there's oxygen and relatively good climate up until recently.

6:17
And so the real historical picture is that that's a pretty recent and short term occurrence. And that the overall structure of the life support system is analogous to a software stack, in that you've got at its basis. And this is in the paper, if you click on the link and look at the diagram and the paper, at its basis, are the inanimate pieces, the sort of hardware pieces, the rocks, the minerals, the chemicals, and then the climate conditions themselves on this particular planet, the amount or the temperature, rather, the amount of moisture.

6:56
And on top of that microbes developed microbes we believe now through the science developed at least 4 billion years ago. And it wasn't until 600 million years ago, that the first sort of macro life began to appear. And so we know of that as plants and animals, but proceeding and occurring sort of simultaneously with that is soils and fungi. And proceeding that is the Protista. And so this, if you think vertically, this integration of rocks, minerals, chemicals, climate conditions, microbes, and then plants, animals, on top of Protista, soils, and fungi, this led to the current day, food, atmosphere, and freshwater, and so on, and so forth, products that we kind of rely on.

7:44
All of these things are part of this larger system that is self healing. It's self correcting, it seems to go in the direction of over the long term, more abundance, more prolific diversity. And human beings of late have really drastically interrupted that. Partly, I think, because we don't understand its history, and what it is. And so I'll leave you with this last thought. Again, if you click on the link and look at the paper, there's a simple image that shows at the top of the paper, biosphere Earth 3 billion years ago created by NASA and it's basically a pink planet or salmon colored planet. Because there's only microbial life at that time, 3 billion years ago. And then right next to that, a picture of Earth today, the blue green home that we have.

8:48
Just consider everything that has occurred to create that blue green infrastructure. The only non life support system in the visually accessible universe, much less the actually accessible universe. So thank you for listening. And please check out part two. Thanks again.