Dr. Regis Ferriere Associate Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona
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Abstract: Ecology is the science of interactions between organisms and their environment. From an ecological standpoint, the habitability of an environment can be characterized from the set of abiotic conditions conducive to the emergence and persistence of some ecosystem, given that the ecosystem co-evolves with its environment. And biosignatures are detectable characteristics of the planetary environment produced by the function of an ecosystem co-evolving with its environment. I will show how ecological modeling can be used to predict and quantify habitability and biosignatures for pre-photosynthetic metabolisms. I will present recently published applications of this planetary ecological framework to the dynamics of the habitability of early Earth and early Mars, and to the probabilistic bayesian assessment of abiotic versus abiotic + biotic scenarios to explain some of the Cassini data for Enceladus. I will outline forthcoming applications to Europa and to populations of Earth-like exoplanets.
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For those viewing the colloquium in room 308, refreshments will be served in the Kuiper atrium at 3:30 p.m. ***Refreshments are not permitted in the seminar room.***