Homeostasis and the physiological dimension of niche construction theory in ecology and evolution

Turner, J. Scott

doi:10.1007/s10682-015-9795-2

Cited by 27 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Homeostatic systems are also inherently ecological systems. Any managed flow of matter across an adaptive boundary will modify both the environment contained within the boundary and the external environment: the principle of conservation of mass demands this [40]. This expands upon Bernard's conception of homeostasis, which can be characterized as intensivethat is to say, that physiology is something that happens within contained environments.…”

Section: Homeostasis Extended Physiology and The Extended Organismmentioning

confidence: 96%

Homeostasis as a fundamental principle for a coherent theory of brains

Turner

2019

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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‘Brains’ may be considered to be computation engines, with neurons and synapses analogized to electronic components wired into networks that process information, learn and evolve. Alternatively, ‘brains’ are cognitive systems, which contain elements of intentionality, purposefulness and creativity that do not fit comfortably into a brain-as-computer metaphor. I address the question of how we may think most constructively about brains in their various forms—solid, liquid or fluid—and whether there is a coherent theory that unites them all. In this essay, I explore cognitive systems in the context of new understanding of life's distinctive nature, in particular the core concept of homeostasis, and how this new understanding lays a sound conceptual foundation for an expansive theory of brains. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Liquid brains, solid brains: How distributed cognitive architectures process information'.

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Section: Homeostasis Extended Physiology and The Extended Organismmentioning

confidence: 96%

Homeostasis as a fundamental principle for a coherent theory of brains

Turner

2019

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…At the same time the pH gradient would have contributed to protonation and deprotonation of green rust, tending to hold the mineral between the bounds of 2Fe 2+ /Fe 3+ and Fe 2+ /2Fe 3+ [167,183,184] The mineral so poised would have remained metastable, i.e., could have been party to an emergent homeostasis. [185] Such metastability may have been strongly supported by orthophosphate (HPO4 2-) which, having a larger ionic diameter of 0.48 nm, tends to be adsorbed on the margins of green rust, and inhibits its oxidation. [170] As we have noted, Gustaf Arrhenius extolled the likely prebiotic virtues of the double layer hydroxides, saying "surface-active DLH minerals expand freely to accommodate molecular complexes of any size.…”

Section: Green Rust -The First Organizing Nanoengine Of Life?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Green Rust: The Simple Organizing ‘Seed’ of All Life?  <strong> </strong>

Russell

2018

Preprint

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The most important problem of synthetic biology is…the reduction of carbonic acid. and Without the idea of spontaneous generation and a physical theory of life, the doctrine of evolution is a mutilated hypothesis without unity or cohesion.[1] Leduc, [1]Abstract: Korenaga and coworkers present evidence to suggest that 4.3 billion years ago the Earth's mantle was dry and water filled the ocean to twice its present volume.[2] CO2 was constantly exhaled during the mafic to ultramafic volcanic activity associated with magmatic plumes that produced the thick, dense and relatively stable oceanic crust. In that setting two distinct major types of sub-marine hydrothermal vents were active: ~400°C acidic springs whose effluents bore vast quantities of iron into the ocean, and ~120°C, highly alkaline and reduced vents exhaling from the cooler, serpentinizing crust at some distance from the heads of the plumes. When encountering the alkaline effluents, the iron from the plume head vents precipitated out forming mounds likely surrounded by voluminous exhalative deposits similar to the banded iron formations known from the Archean. These mounds and the surrounding sediments likely comprising nanocrysts of the variable valence FeII/FeIII oxyhydroxide, green rust. The precipitation of green rust, along with subsidiary iron sulfides and minor concentrations of Ni, Co and Mo in the environment at the alkaline springs may have established both the key bio-syntonic disequilibria, and the means to properly make use of them -those needed to drive the essential inanimate-to-animate transitions that launched life. In the submarine alkaline vent model for the emergence of life specifically it is first suggested that the redox-flexible green rust microcrysts spontaneously formed precipitated barriers to the complete mixing of carbonic ocean and alkaline hydrothermal fluids, barriers that created and maintained steep ionic disequilibria; and second, that the hydrous interlayers of green rust acted as 'engines' that were powered by those ionic disequilibria and drove essential endergonic reactions. There, aided by sulfides and trace elements acting as catalytic promoters and electron transfer agents, nitrate could be reduced to ammonia and carbon dioxide to formate, while methane may have been oxidized to methyl and formyl groups. Acetate and higher carboxylic acids could then have been produced from these C1 molecules and aminated to amino acids, and thence oligomerized to offer peptide nests to phosphate and iron sulfides and secreted to form primitive amyloid-bounded structures, leading conceivably to protocells.

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“…Moreover, this general bias was often related to and/or further influenced by teleological ideas about "progress" or "purpose" in evolution, e.g., toward an increase in "perfection" of the fit between the "design" of organisms and their environments (e.g., Bonner, 1988Bonner, , 2013McShea, 1991McShea, , 1996McShea, , 2012Ruse, 1996Ruse, , 2003Ruse, , 2013Turner, 2000Turner, , 2007Turner, , 2013Turner, , 2016Rosslenbroich, 2006;Omland et al, 2008;Reiss, 2009;McShea and Brandon, 2010;Corning, 2013;Diogo et al, 2015c). Gould (2002) was particularly vocal about the occurrence of mismatches in living organisms, as he used them to emphasize the point that organisms are not designed by a supernatural entity but instead are the result of a complex, constrained, contingent and also random evolutionary history.…”

Section: General Notes On Etho-eco-morphological Mismatchesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Etho-Eco-Morphological Mismatches, an Overlooked Phenomenon in Ecology, Evolution and Evo-Devo That Supports ONCE (Organic Nonoptimal Constrained Evolution) and the Key Evolutionary Role of Organismal Behavior

Diogo

2017

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Since ecomorphologists have started to use explicit and taxonomically-broad frameworks in studies on the relationships between form, behavior, ecology and phylogeny they have consistently reported-often against their expectations-(1) that phylogeny is usually a better predictor of anatomy than ecology is, and (2) many cases of etho-eco-morphological mismatches. It is puzzling that such mismatches occur frequently in an evolutionary process that often leads to macroevolutionary trends and in which organisms are said to be optimally/almost optimally "designed" for the habitats they inhabit. Organic Nonoptimal Constrained Evolution (ONCE), a new perspective on biological evolution that is proposed here, addresses this apparent paradox, based on an extensive compilation of empirical data and broader evolutionary ideas, from Aristotle to current Evo-Devo. According to ONCE, by taking behavioral choices, and subsequently due to their behavioral persistence related to behavioral/ecological inheritance, organisms as diverse as bacteria, plants and animals help to construct their own niches and are thus the central, active players in their evolutionary history. Darwinian (external) natural selection thus plays mainly a secondary -but still crucial -role in biological evolution, for instance helping to direct major evolutionary trends by selecting those random mutations that are advantageous within the context of the new, constructed niches. The highly constrained character of organic evolution, including developmental constraints as well as the crucial role played by behavioral persistence, can dramatically limit the occurrence of new behavioral shifts and thus the responses to external (e.g., environmental) changes, often resulting in etho-eco-morphological mismatches and eventually in evolutionary dead-ends that may lead to extinction.

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Homeostasis and the physiological dimension of niche construction theory in ecology and evolution

Cited by 27 publications

References 46 publications

Homeostasis as a fundamental principle for a coherent theory of brains

Homeostasis as a fundamental principle for a coherent theory of brains

Green Rust: The Simple Organizing ‘Seed’ of All Life?  <strong> </strong>

Etho-Eco-Morphological Mismatches, an Overlooked Phenomenon in Ecology, Evolution and Evo-Devo That Supports ONCE (Organic Nonoptimal Constrained Evolution) and the Key Evolutionary Role of Organismal Behavior

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Homeostasis and the physiological dimension of niche construction theory in ecology and evolution

Cited by 27 publications

References 46 publications

Homeostasis as a fundamental principle for a coherent theory of brains

Homeostasis as a fundamental principle for a coherent theory of brains

Green Rust: The Simple Organizing &lsquo;Seed&rsquo; of All Life?&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong> </strong>

Etho-Eco-Morphological Mismatches, an Overlooked Phenomenon in Ecology, Evolution and Evo-Devo That Supports ONCE (Organic Nonoptimal Constrained Evolution) and the Key Evolutionary Role of Organismal Behavior

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Green Rust: The Simple Organizing ‘Seed’ of All Life? <strong> </strong>