| LIFE SEMINAR SERIES: SESSION 1 |
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| From Early Cells to Multicellularity |
LIFE is a NASA Research Coordination Network, dedicated to understanding life from early cells to multicellularity. The LIFE Research Coordination Network (RCN) is pleased to host a virtual seminar series that will showcase the research of leaders and emerging leaders in the field of astrobiology.
The LIFE RCN Seminar Series will be held the first Monday of every month from 1-2 pm EST and will consist of live-streamed short (30-40 min) talks followed by Q&A and discussion. This seminar series is open to all who share an interest in the co-evolution of life and the Earth from the appearance of the earliest cells to the advent of multicellularity.
Click here to join the LIFE mailing list. Connect on Twitter @LIFE_RCN. |
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| Monday, May 1st at 1PM EDT/5PM UTC |
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| Dr. Tori Hoehler Research Scientist NASA Ames Research Center Exobiology Branch |
| Energy is required by all life to fuel growth and activity, including the maintenance of viability in existing biomass. Accordingly, the availability of energy constrains the potential abundance, distribution, and productivity of life. Assessing the relationship between energy flux and the quantity of biomass it sustains offers the potential to understand the biological “carrying capacity” for ecosystems on Earth and beyond, with implications for the “detectability” of life on other worlds.
To help develop this understanding, we quantified the energy-biomass relationship for Earth’s biosphere as a whole and for an environmentally diverse range of its components. Results are interpreted in the context of (i) the apparent range of physiological potential (requirements and capabilities) for energy transduction, as reflected in a database of >10,000 metabolic rate measurements made on >2,900 species; and (ii) the environmental and ecological factors that influence how that physiological potential is expressed at an ecosystem or biosphere level. |
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