Are
Parasites Singing Their Own Unceasing Song Of Life?
Post #30
Donald
A. Windsor
Well,
parasites may not be singing, but they sure are showing off their
most visible presence – biodiversity.
James
Lovelock referred to the infrared signal of the oxygen-methane
disequilibrium radiating from Earth's atmosphere as an "unceasing
song of life".
"This unceasing song of
life is audible to anyone with a receiver, even from
outside the Solar System."
(1).
If
Lovelock's statement is correct, then this song would
indicate life on any extraterrestrial entity.
After
such life is found, perhaps it could reveal whether parasitism is, or
is not, a universal property of life. I
suspect that it is.
Here
on Earth, our life exhibits parasitism. But, what would life look
like without parasitism? I suspect that the signature hallmark of
life is biodiversity. But biodiversity can result from life adapting
to environmental forces, such as competition, predation, habitat, and
climate.
Parasites
enhance biodiversity by thwarting monocultures. Therefore, the absence of monocultures on extraterrestrial entities could be a
signature of parasitism.
However,
how would a monoculture be recognized? On Earth we have no naturally
occurring pure
monocultures; they exists only in labs or buildings. Our so-called
monocultures, such as with
agricultural crops like corn
and wheat, always have other species living among them.
Here
is a handy metric that I propose. In a monoculture, the number of
individuals of one species is at
least 1 magnitude
higher than the total number of individuals of all the other species
combined,
in the same area.
For
example, if a bean
field had 10,000
individual bean
plants, then it would be a monoculture if the total number of
individuals of all the other species in that field was
under 1,000, a difference of 1 order of magnitude.
This
metric would not be able to compare macro-species
with microbial species, because the microbes would always outnumber
the macros. However, it may be useful in comparing a monoculture of
a microbe with
other microbial species.
So,
while the unceasing song of parasitism may not be a song, it may be
an image visible
to anyone with a viewer.
Reference
cited:
1.
Lovelock, James. The Ages of Gaia. A Biography of Our Living
Earth. 2nd Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 2000. 268 pages. Quote on page 7 of the Introductory.
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