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Objectives

How Does Life Begin and Develop?

Objective 1
Sources of 0rganics on Earth

Objective 2
Origin of Life's Cellular Components

Objective 3
Models for Life

Objective 4
Genomic Clues to Evolution

Objective 5
Linking Planetary and Biological Evolution

Objective 6
Microbial Ecology

Does Life Exist Elsewhere in the Universe?

Objective 7
The Extremes of Life

Objective 8
Past and Present Life on Mars

Objective 9
Life's Precursors and Habitats in the Outer Solar System

Objective 10
Natural Migration of Life

Objective 11
Origin of Habitable Planets

Objective 12
Effects of Climate and Geology on Habitability

Objective 13
Extrasolar Biomarkers


What is Life's Future on Earth and Beyond?

Objective 14
Ecosystem Response to Rapid Environmental Change

Objective 15
Earth's Future Habitability

Objective 16
Bringing Life with Us beyond Earth

Objective 17
Planetary Protection


   

Question: How Does Life Begin and Develop?
Microbial Ecology

Objective 6: Define how ecophysiological processes structure microbial communities, influence their adaptation and evolution, and affect their detection on other planets.

 

We must expand studies of microbial ecosystems because the diversification, evolution, and survival of the early biosphere depended upon the efficient coordination of resources and processes by diverse microbial populations. Interdisciplinary studies of microbial communities are required to identify the genetic and environmental factors that influenced the spread of biological diversity and its impact on biospheric change. For example, we must define and quantify the relationship between environmental heterogeneity and microbial diversity and its bearing on evolution. We must understand how organisms affect each other, and how ecosystems modulate the environment through the processes of chemistry and the changing composition of the oceans and atmosphere due to natural geophysical processes and biology.

Implementation

Near- and mid-term

  • Establish how mutualistic and competitive interactions within communities influence the development of biological diversity.

  • Document the role of ecological processes in the exchange of genetic information between microorganisms.

  • Document how microbial communities produce biological marker compounds, structures, minerals, and isotopic compositions that might serve as ecological signatures preserved in rocks and detectible in remotely-sensed atmospheres.

  • Relate microbial communities to their fossil equivalents by understanding the processes of diagenesis, mineralization and burial of these communities.

Future extensions

  • Microbial ecological studies will substantially improve our understanding of early life's adaptation and evolution. These studies will guide the development of both laboratory and theoretical models for the structure and function of ecosystems. These models will contribute ultimately to a better understanding of life's potential to adapt to future changes on Earth and beyond.
         


Questions? Comments?

Responsible NASA Official:
Mary Voytek

Last Updated: October 27, 2014