Giant deer: Origin, evolution, role in the biosphere

This monograph is devoted to the study of the giant deer or megacerines (tribe Megacerini, family Cervidae, order Artiodactyla) of the Late Cenozoic of Eurasia. Special attention is paid to megacerines of Inner Asia. This region, which is connected with the origin and early stages of historical development of megacerines, is key to gaining an insight into their evolution and phylogeny, place in the food chain, and effect on the biogeocoenoses. Based on the revision of fossil materials from the Upper Miocene-Lower Pleistocene of Russia, Mongolia, and Tajikistan, new data from Tuva, and analysis of an evolution, phylogeny, ecogenesis, diversity dynamics, stages of historical development, and place of megacerines in biogeocoenoses, their role in the maintenance of homeostasis of the biosphere and changes in environments are shown and certain basic principles of macroevolution and evolution of the biosphere are discussed.     

Prokaryotic biosphere

The life philosophy aspects of natural sciences are discussed. The key role of prokaryotes in the origin, development, and existence of the biosphere is considered. It helps to understand how the penetration in the world of prokaryotes changes our notions of the place of biology in natural sciences.     

The science of the biosphere

This paper considers the needs and potentials for the development of the biosphere. An emphasis is placed on the unusual qualities of the biosphere, such as important time lags, interactions between life and its environment at large scales, and biological evolution, which has led to large scale changes in the environment during the Earth's history. These qualities require a different approach to the development of a theory for this large scale system than has been used in the past, when the biosphere was treated as a steady-state, quasilinear system. Other aspects of the development of the science of the biosphere, including the use of remote sensing, are reviewed, and the application of these techniques to the estimation of certain biological variables is discussed.     

Upper boundary of the biosphere.

By using meterological rockets fitted with specially designed analyzers, samples for microbiological investigation have been taken. The analyzer design prevented extraneous microorganisms from penetrating into the analyzer. Before being used, the analyzers were sterilized with high gamma-ray doses. For the first time microorganisms have been detected in the mesosphere at an altitude of 48 to 77 km. The microorganisms are microscopic fungi having black conidia or spores (Circinella muscae, Aspergillus niger, Papulaspora anomala) and one species forming green conidia (Penicillium notatum). Colonies of Mycobacterium luteum and Micrococcus albus have also grown. Five of the six species have synthesized pigments. The presence of pigmented microbial forms leads us to believe that natural selection is occurring in the mesosphere because cells possessing chromogenous pigments (carotenoids, melanins) are more resistant to ultraviolet-ray action. A greater number of microorganisms have been registered in the mesosphere during dust storms than in the absence of strong winds.     

Water: the bloodstream of the biosphere

Water, the bloodstream of the biosphere, determines the sustainability of living systems. The essential role of water is expanded in a conceptual model of energy dissipation, based on the water balance of whole landscapes. In this model, the underlying role of water phase changes--and their energy-dissipative properties--in the function and the self-organized development of natural systems is explicitly recognized. The energy-dissipating processes regulate the ecological dynamics within the Earth's biosphere, in such a way that the development of natural systems is never allowed to proceed in an undirected or random way. A fundamental characteristic of self-organized development in natural systems is the increasing role of cyclic processes while loss processes are correspondingly reduced. This gives a coincidental increase in system efficiency, which is the basis of growing stability and sustainability. Growing sustainability can be seen as an increase of ecological efficiency, which is applicable at all levels up to whole landscapes. Criteria for necessary changes in society and for the design of the measures that are necessary to restore sustainable landscapes and waters are derived.     

Review: from chemosphere to biosphere

An understanding of how the Earth's chemosphere was transformed to a biosphere is central to our understanding of the origin of life and the search for extraterrestrial life or life signatures. Once early prokaryotic life originated and colonized the Earth, the biosphere was well on its way to being formed. In this paper, information and knowledge is integrated to examine the possibility how life first self-assembled and transformed a lifeless chemosphere into a complex biosphere that we still do not understand today.     

Humic substances in the early biosphere

Humic substances and their organic-mineral compounds are the first stage in transformation of biotic residues into stable geopolymers, which comprise the main reservoir of organic C in the biosphere. Early appearance of HS in the Earth’s history is of principal importance for the understanding of geo-biological processes on land in the past. However, there is no fossil record of HS before land colonization by lignified vegetation (400 Ma). When the first soil HS were formed? Could HS be synthesized in the Precambrian before plants and mosses terrestrialization? The formation of HS occurs in mesophilic aerobic conditions and requires presence of oxidative catalysts and production of aromatic (phenolic) precursors by biota. In this paper, humification processes in algo-myco-bacterial and lichen communities are discussed from actualistic point of view. These communities are considered as a relict ecosystem, which could dominate on land during the Neoproterozoic-Early Paleozoic (1–0.5 Ga).     

Microbes on the edge of global biosphere]

The search for life on the edge of global biosphere is a frontier to bridge conventional bio/ecology and exo/astrobiology. This communication reviews the foci of microbiological studies on the inhabitants of the selected edges, i.e., deep-sea, deep subsurface and Antarctic habitats. The deep-sea is characterized as the no-light (non-photosynthetic) habitat, and the primary production is mostly due to the chemosynthetic autotrophy at the hydrothermal vents and methane-rich seeps. Formation of the chemosynthesis-dependent animal communities in the deep leads to the idea that such communities may be found in ocean of the Jovian satellite, Europa. The oxygen minimal layer (OML) in mid-water provides another field of deep-sea research. Modern OML is a relatively thin layer, found between the water depth of 200 and 1000 m, but was much thicker during the periods of oceanic anoxia events (OAEs) in the past. The history of oceanic biosphere is regarded as the cycle of OAE and non-OAE periods, and the remnants of the past OAEs may be seen in the modem OML. Anoxic (no-O2) condition is also characteristic of deep subsurface biosphere. Microorganisms in deep subsurface biosphere exploit every available oxidant, or terminal electron acceptor (TEA), for anaerobic respiration. Sulfate, nitrate, iron (III) and CO2 are the representative TEAs in the deep subsurface. Subsurface of hydrothermal vents, or sub-vent biosphere, may house brine (high salt) habitats and halophilic microorganisms. Some sub-vent halophiles were phylogenetically closely similar to the ones found in the Antarctic habitats which are extremely dry by the liophilizing climate. Below the 3000-4000 m-thick glacier on Antarctica, there have been >70 lakes with liquid water located. One of such sub-glacial lakes, Lake Vostok, has been a target of life in extreme environments and is about to be drill-penetrated for microbiological studies. These 'microbiological platforms' will provide new knowledge about the diversity and potential of the Earth's life and facilitate the capability of astrobiologial exploration.     

Culturing captures members of the soil rare biosphere

The ecological significance of rare microorganisms within microbial communities remains an important, unanswered question. Microorganisms of extremely low abundance (the 'rare biosphere') are believed to be largely inaccessible and unknown. To understand the structure of complex environmental microbial communities, including the representation of rare and prevalent community members, we coupled traditional cultivation with pyrosequencing. We compared cultured and uncultured bacterial members of the same agricultural soil, including eight locations within one apple orchard and four time points. Our analysis revealed that soil bacteria captured by culturing were in very low abundance or absent in the culture-independent community, demonstrating unexpected accessibility of the rare biosphere by culturing.