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Gaia philosophy is a broadly inclusive term for relating concepts about, humanity as an effect of the life of this planet.
Termites are a group of detritophagous eusocial insects which consume a wide variety of decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, and soil humus. They are distinguished by their moniliform antennae and the soft-bodied and often unpigmented worker caste for which they have been commonly termed "white ants"; however, they are not ants, to which they are distantly related. About 2,972 extant species are currently described, 2,105 of which are members of the family Termitidae.
In biology, a colony is composed of two or more conspecific individuals living in close association with, or connected to, one another. This association is usually for mutual benefit such as stronger defense or the ability to attack bigger prey.
A superorganism, or supraorganism, is a group of synergetically-interacting organisms of the same species. A community of synergetically-interacting organisms of different species is called a holobiont.
The Gaia hypothesis, also known as the Gaia theory, Gaia paradigm, or the Gaia principle, proposes that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic and self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet.
Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature as its own body temperature, thus avoiding the need for internal thermoregulation. The internal thermoregulation process is one aspect of homeostasis: a state of dynamic stability in an organism's internal conditions, maintained far from thermal equilibrium with its environment. If the body is unable to maintain a normal temperature and it increases significantly above normal, a condition known as hyperthermia occurs. Humans may also experience lethal hyperthermia when the wet bulb temperature is sustained above 35 °C (95 °F) for six hours. Work in 2022 established by experiment that a wet-bulb temperature exceeding 30.55°C caused uncompensable heat stress in young, healthy adult humans. The opposite condition, when body temperature decreases below normal levels, is known as hypothermia. It results when the homeostatic control mechanisms of heat within the body malfunction, causing the body to lose heat faster than producing it. Normal body temperature is around 37°C(98.6°F), and hypothermia sets in when the core body temperature gets lower than 35 °C (95 °F). Usually caused by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures, hypothermia is usually treated by methods that attempt to raise the body temperature back to a normal range. It was not until the introduction of thermometers that any exact data on the temperature of animals could be obtained. It was then found that local differences were present, since heat production and heat loss vary considerably in different parts of the body, although the circulation of the blood tends to bring about a mean temperature of the internal parts. Hence it is important to identify the parts of the body that most closely reflect the temperature of the internal organs. Also, for such results to be comparable, the measurements must be conducted under comparable conditions. The rectum has traditionally been considered to reflect most accurately the temperature of internal parts, or in some cases of sex or species, the vagina, uterus or bladder.
Egg incubation is the process by which an egg, of oviparous (egg-laying) animals, develops an embryo within the egg, after the egg's formation and ovipositional release. Egg incubation is done under favorable environmental conditions, possibly by brooding and hatching the egg.
Mound-building termites are a group of termite species that live in mounds which are made of a combination of soil, termite saliva and dung. These termites live in Africa, Australia and South America. The mounds sometimes have a diameter of 30 metres (98 ft). Most of the mounds are in well-drained areas. Termite mounds usually outlive the colonies themselves. If the inner tunnels of the nest are exposed it is usually dead. Sometimes other colonies, of the same or different species, occupy a mound after the original builders' deaths.
A poikilotherm is an animal whose internal temperature varies considerably. Poikilotherms have to survive and adapt to environmental stress. One of the most important stressors is temperature change, which can lead to alterations in membrane lipid order and can cause protein unfolding and denaturation at elevated temperatures. It is the opposite of a homeotherm, an animal which maintains thermal homeostasis. While the term in principle can apply to all organisms, it is generally only applied to animals, and mostly to vertebrates. Usually the fluctuations are consequence of variation in the ambient environmental temperature. Many terrestrial ectotherms are poikilothermic. However some ectotherms remain in temperature-constant environments to the point that they are actually able to maintain a constant internal temperature and are considered homeothermic. It is this distinction that often makes the term "poikilotherm" more useful than the vernacular "cold-blooded", which is sometimes used to refer to ectotherms more generally.
Ecological stoichiometry considers how the balance of energy and elements influences living systems. Similar to chemical stoichiometry, ecological stoichiometry is founded on constraints of mass balance as they apply to organisms and their interactions in ecosystems. Specifically, how does the balance of energy and elements affect and how is this balance affected by organisms and their interactions. Concepts of ecological stoichiometry have a long history in ecology with early references to the constraints of mass balance made by Liebig, Lotka, and Redfield. These earlier concepts have been extended to explicitly link the elemental physiology of organisms to their food web interactions and ecosystem function.
Biological organisation is the organisation of complex biological structures and systems that define life using a reductionistic approach. The traditional hierarchy, as detailed below, extends from atoms to biospheres. The higher levels of this scheme are often referred to as an ecological organisation concept, or as the field, hierarchical ecology.
Evolutionary physiology is the study of the biological evolution of physiological structures and processes; that is, the manner in which the functional characteristics of individuals in a population of organisms have responded to natural selection across multiple generations during the history of the population. It is a sub-discipline of both physiology and evolutionary biology. Practitioners in the field come from a variety of backgrounds, including physiology, evolutionary biology, ecology, and genetics.
A brood patch is a patch of featherless skin on the underside of birds during the nesting season. Feathers act as inherent insulators and prevent efficient incubation, which brood patches are the solution to. This patch of skin is well supplied with blood vessels at the surface, enabling heat transfer to the eggs when incubating. In most species, the feathers in the region shed automatically, but ducks and geese may pluck and use their feathers to line the nest. Feathers regrow sooner after hatching in precocial birds than for those that have altricial young.
The Macrotermitinae, the fungus-growing termites, constitute a subfamily of the family Termitidae that is only found within the Old World tropics.
Eusociality, the highest level of organization of sociality, is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care, overlapping generations within a colony of adults, and a division of labor into reproductive and non-reproductive groups. The division of labor creates specialized behavioral groups within an animal society which are sometimes referred to as 'castes'. Eusociality is distinguished from all other social systems because individuals of at least one caste usually lose the ability to perform at least one behavior characteristic of individuals in another caste. Eusocial colonies can be viewed as superorganisms.
In biology, kleptothermy is any form of thermoregulation by which an animal shares in the metabolic thermogenesis of another animal. It may or may not be reciprocal, and occurs in both endotherms and ectotherms. One of its forms is huddling. However, kleptothermy can happen between different species that share the same habitat, and can also happen in pre-hatching life where embryos are able to detect thermal changes in the environment.
Termitomyces schimperi is a large mushroom associated with the termite species Macrotermes michaelseni. It grows in the northern part of Southern Africa, from northern Namibia up to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), eastwards to Malawi and Mozambique, and westwards to Ivory Coast.
Macrotermes michaelseni is a species of termite in the family Termitidae, found in sub-Saharan Africa. It is associated with the fungus Termitomyces schimperi.
Macrotermes is a genus of termites belonging to the subfamily Macrotermitinae and widely distributed throughout Africa and South-East Asia. Well-studied species include Macrotermes natalensis and M. bellicosus.
Macrotermes carbonarius, also known as Kongkiak in Malay, is a large black species of fungus-growing termite in the genus Macrotermes. It is one of the most conspicuous species of Macrotermes found in the Indomalayan tropics, forming large foraging trails in the open that can extend several metres in distance. M. carbonarius is a highly aggressive species with the soldiers possessing large curving mandibles that easily break skin. It is found in Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
References
- ↑ Turner, J. S. 2002. The Extended Organism: The Physiology of Animal-Built Structures. Harvard University Press.
- ↑ Turner, J. Scott 2016. Semiotics of a superorganism. Biosemiotics 9: 85–102.
- ↑ Laland, K. Review of The Extended Organism in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
- ↑ Schwenk, K. (2000) The Apian Way From beehives to burrows, animal building sheds new light on biology. A Review of J. Scott Turner's book, The Extended Organism. New York Times Book Review Dec 10.
- ↑ Tautz, J. (2000) Helpful extensions, a Review of J. Scott Turner The Extended Organism. EMBO Reports 1, 6, 468. doi : 10.1093/embo-reports/kvd112
- ↑ Palumbi, S. (2001) Amazing Tales of Electric Lugworms: Metabolic Physiology Reaches Out. Review of J. Scott Turner. The Extended Organism. American Scientist . May–June.
- ↑ Turner, J.S. 2007. The Tinkerer’s Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself. Harvard University Press.
- ↑ Wedekind, C. Can the physiological agents of homeostasis create the appearance of design in nature? Review of J. Scott Turner The Tinkerer's Accomplice. Nature 446, 375 (22 March 2007) | doi : 10.1038/446375a
- ↑ Turner, J. S. 2001. On the mound of Macrotermes michaelseni as an organ of respiratory gas exchange. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 74(6): 798-822.
- ↑ Turner, J. S. 2000. "Architecture and morphogenesis in the mound of Macrotermes michaelseni (Sjöstedt) (Isoptera: Termitidae, Macrotermitinae)" in northern Namibia. Cimbebasia 16: 143-175.
- ↑ Turner, J. S. 1997. On the thermal capacity of a bird’s egg warmed by a brood patch. Physiological Zoology 70: 470-480.
- ↑ Turner, J. S. 1994. Transient thermal properties of contact-incubated chicken eggs. Physiological Zoology 67: 1426-1447.
- ↑ Turner, J. S. 1994. Thermal impedance of a contact-incubated bird’s egg. Journal of Thermal Biology 19: 237-243.
- ↑ Harvard University Press Author Forum
- ↑ Turner, J. S. 2008. Gaia, Extended Organisms, and Emergent Homeostasis. In: Scientists debate Gaia: the next century. Edited by Stephen H. Schneider, James R. Miller, Eileen Crist and Penelope J. Boston. Cambridge: The MIT Press. p.57-71, ISBN 978-0-2621-9498-3.
- ↑ "Purpose and Desire". Kirkus Reviews .
- ↑ Pross, Addy. (2018). Purpose & Desire: What Makes Something “Alive” and Why Modern Darwinism Has Failed to Explain It by J. Scott Turner. The Quarterly Review of Biology 93 (1): 18-19.
- ↑ "The Tinkerer's Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself". Publishers Weekly .
- ↑ Saffo, Mary Beth. (2007). Review: Design Problem: Does the internal physiology of animals imply a harmony of structure and functio? Reviewed Work: THE TINKERER'S ACCOMPLICE How Design Emerges from Life Itself by J. Scott Turner. The American Scholar 76 (2): 132-134.
- ↑ Bejan, Adrian. (2008). Review: Design in Nature: Tinkering and the Constructal Law. Reviewed Work: The Tinkerer's Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself by J Scott Turner . The Quarterly Review of Biology 83 (1): 91-94.
