BEN
BOTANICAL ELECTRONIC NEWS
ISSN 1188-603X


No. 548 April 1, 2020 aceska@telus.net Victoria, B.C.
Dr. A. Ceska, 1809 Penshurst, Victoria, BC, Canada V8N 2N6


UNIVERSAL LAW OF HOMEOSTATIC RESILIENCE

From: A.C. Patella

For the last few years, I have been sensing that practically all the systems, even those simplest ones, deteriorate when they are left alone and when they lose the input of energy, money or both.

My observations led me into the formulation of the Universal Law of Homeostatic Resilience (ULOHR). This law states the following: Any system, even the simplest one, deteriorates to its lowest common denominator if you leave it without any input of energy, money, or both.

It was a great surprise to me when I realized that my Universal Law Of Homeostatic Resilience is just the total negation of Newton's First Law of Motion. I was trying to understand how it is possible that people still believe in Newton's First Law of Motion. If you look at Newton's First Law of Motion through the eyes of my Homeostatic Resilience Law, you see that it is only Newton's reputation that kept it alive for more than 320 years.

I wanted to devise a simple formula for my law, similar to that what Albert Einstein did, when an invisible power, called COVID-19, came and empirically proved this Law. In this situation, I cannot do more than to keep my fingers crossed that you will get this BEN issue.


INTERNATIONAL TEAM OF SCIENTISTS SAW ALGAE, LICHENS AND FOSSILS ON MARS

From: Joseph RG, Graham L, Büdel B, Jung P, Kidron GJ, Latif K, Armstrong RA, Mansour HA, Ray JG, Ramos10 GJ, Consorti11 L. 2020. Mars: Algae, Lichens, Fossils, Minerals, Microbial Mats, and Stromatolites in Gale Crater. Journal of Journal of Astrobiology and Space Science Reviews 3(1): 40-111.

Abstract

Gale Crater was an ancient Martian lake that has periodically filled with water and which may still provide a watery environment conducive to the proliferation and fossilization of a wide range of organisms, especially algae.

To test this hypothesis and to survey the Martian landscape, over 3,000 photographs from NASA's rover Curiosity Gale Crater image depository were examined by a team of established experts in astrobiology, astrophysics, biophysics, geobiology, microbiology, lichenology, phycology, botany, and my-cology. As presented in this report, specimens resembling terrestrial algae, lichens, microbial mats, stro-matolites, ooids, tubular-shaped formations, and mineralized fossils of metazoans and calcium-carbonate encrusted cyanobacteria were observed and tentatively identified.

Forty-five photos of putative biological specimens are presented in the paper. The authors were unable to precisely determine if these specimens are biological or consist of Martian minerals and salt formations that mimic biology. Therefore, a review of Martian minerals and mineralization was conducted and the possibility these formations may be abiogenic is discussed.

It is concluded that the overall pattern of evidence is mutually related and that specimens resembling algae-like and other organisms may have colonized the Gale Crater, beginning billions of years ago. That some or most of these specimens may be abiotic, cannot be ruled out.

Additional investigation targeting features similar to these should be a priority of future studies devoted to the search for current and past life on Mars.


STUDY OF AUSTRIAN OUTHOUSES DETECTED CLIMATE CHANGES IN THE 17TH CENTURY

From: Zechmeister HG, Kropik M, Popovtschak M, Scharrer-Liška G. 2019. Bryophytes in a latrine as indicators of climate change in the 17th century. Vegetation history and archaeobotany 28(5):575-81.

Abstract

Thirty-eight samples recovered from a latrine in the rural market town of Hadersdorf am Kamp (Lower Austria) and filled during the early 17th century were analyzed and compared to the current bryophyte vegetation there and in its surroundings. Twenty-eight moss species from the latrine could be identified, and four taxa could be determined only to genus level because of missing sporophytes.

The resulting data set is a valuable contribution to the state of knowledge of the bryophyte flora of that historic period, as none of the traditional methods such as herbaria date back to this early era. The most frequent species in the pit, Leucodon sciuroides, Antitrichia curtipendula and Neckera complanata, could hardly be found or not at all in the current bryophyte flora of the investigated area.

A comparison of Ellenberg's indicator values of the historic and current moss taxa revealed significant differences for temperature, humidity and continentality. Temperature values were much lower for the taxa found in the latrine. Furthermore, the historic mosses reflect a more humid and less continental climate than the ones growing nowadays. Many of the mosses found in the latrine are epiphytic or epilithic and could not be found in the investigated area today. These results indicate a different climate during the time of the Little Ice Age in the investigated area. According to the low total biomass of mosses in the pit (1-2 g per 10 l), we suggest that those found in the latrine arrived there mainly by chance, as in sweepings


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