Twenty percent of the biomass (i.e. every living thing) lives underground where we can't see it and an enormous component of that is bacterial. That may seem trivial but the interrelationships between them genetically point to an overall dynamic which has evolutionary geneticists doing cartwheels due to the variety of life they have discovered. (Science Daily: New bacteria groups, and stunning diversity, discovered underground)
As to the significance of the discoveries, most discoveries of new organisms fall down at the Genus or species level which is a cool thing but not always earthshaking. There is one novel aspect since the discovering scientists get naming rights and perhaps that goes romantic and the creature gets a lover's name or perhaps it goes philosophical and it gets named after Noam Chomsky.
In case you think the latter with Chomsky does not happen, I give you Megachile chomskyi (WIKI), a bee named in his honor. It's not likely Chomsky's ego will get out of control since a wasp was named after Metallica. So it goes.
Here's a graphic to show the significance of the organisms the researchers found.
Stunning diversity, visualized. All the known major bacterial groups are represented by wedges in this circular "tree of life." The bigger wedges are more diverse groups. Green wedges are groups that have not been genomically sampled at the Rifle site--everything else has. Black wedges are previously identified bacteria groups that have also been found at Rifle. Purple wedges are groups discovered at Rifle and announced last year. Red wedges are new groups discovered in this study. Colored dots represent important metabolic processes the new groups help mediate.
As to the significance of the discoveries, most discoveries of new organisms fall down at the Genus or species level which is a cool thing but not always earthshaking. There is one novel aspect since the discovering scientists get naming rights and perhaps that goes romantic and the creature gets a lover's name or perhaps it goes philosophical and it gets named after Noam Chomsky.
In case you think the latter with Chomsky does not happen, I give you Megachile chomskyi (WIKI), a bee named in his honor. It's not likely Chomsky's ego will get out of control since a wasp was named after Metallica. So it goes.
Here's a graphic to show the significance of the organisms the researchers found.
Stunning diversity, visualized. All the known major bacterial groups are represented by wedges in this circular "tree of life." The bigger wedges are more diverse groups. Green wedges are groups that have not been genomically sampled at the Rifle site--everything else has. Black wedges are previously identified bacteria groups that have also been found at Rifle. Purple wedges are groups discovered at Rifle and announced last year. Red wedges are new groups discovered in this study. Colored dots represent important metabolic processes the new groups help mediate.
Credit: Banfield Group
As reported online October 24 in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists netted genomes from 80 percent of all known bacterial phyla, a remarkable degree of biological diversity at one location. They also discovered 47 new phylum-level bacterial groups, naming many of them after influential microbiologists and other scientists. And they learned new insights about how microbial communities work together to drive processes that are critical to the planet's climate and life everywhere, such as the carbon and nitrogen cycles.
As reported online October 24 in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists netted genomes from 80 percent of all known bacterial phyla, a remarkable degree of biological diversity at one location. They also discovered 47 new phylum-level bacterial groups, naming many of them after influential microbiologists and other scientists. And they learned new insights about how microbial communities work together to drive processes that are critical to the planet's climate and life everywhere, such as the carbon and nitrogen cycles.
- Science Daily
If I'm reading that correctly the new phylum-level discoveries are near the highest level of classification of organisms. It's a great thing to discover something at the lower levels but these are near the top. In one whack they discovered all these things.
Where it comes to the part with Gaia and the living Mother Earth is in the microbial communities and the interrelationships between them. The significant bearing they have on the Great Circle is right in front of us with this one.
Maybe this is getting too hippie dippie but the biomass isn't by the number of organisms but rather it's their mass or weight. Twenty percent of the weight of all the organisms on Earth is underground making it work. Moreover, they're driving cycles which relate to the air we breathe so if that isn't the Earth living and breathing, what is it.
If I'm reading that correctly the new phylum-level discoveries are near the highest level of classification of organisms. It's a great thing to discover something at the lower levels but these are near the top. In one whack they discovered all these things.
Where it comes to the part with Gaia and the living Mother Earth is in the microbial communities and the interrelationships between them. The significant bearing they have on the Great Circle is right in front of us with this one.
Maybe this is getting too hippie dippie but the biomass isn't by the number of organisms but rather it's their mass or weight. Twenty percent of the weight of all the organisms on Earth is underground making it work. Moreover, they're driving cycles which relate to the air we breathe so if that isn't the Earth living and breathing, what is it.
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