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- Kminek, G, et al.
(författare)
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COSPAR Sample Safety Assessment Framework (SSAF)
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrobiology. - : Mary Ann Liebert Inc.. - 1531-1074 .- 1557-8070. ; 22:S1, s. S186-S216
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Sample Safety Assessment Framework (SSAF) has been developed by a COSPAR appointed Working Group. The objective of the sample safety assessment would be to evaluate whether samples returned from Mars could be harmful for Earth's systems (e.g., environment, biosphere, geochemical cycles). During the Working Group's deliberations, it became clear that a comprehensive assessment to predict the effects of introducing life in new environments or ecologies is difficult and practically impossible, even for terrestrial life and certainly more so for unknown extraterrestrial life. To manage expectations, the scope of the SSAF was adjusted to evaluate only whether the presence of martian life can be excluded in samples returned from Mars. If the presence of martian life cannot be excluded, a Hold & Critical Review must be established to evaluate the risk management measures and decide on the next steps. The SSAF starts from a positive hypothesis (there is martian life in the samples), which is complementary to the null-hypothesis (there is no martian life in the samples) typically used for science. Testing the positive hypothesis includes four elements: (1) Bayesian statistics, (2) subsampling strategy, (3) test sequence, and (4) decision criteria. The test sequence capability covers self-replicating and non-self-replicating biology and biologically active molecules. Most of the investigations associated with the SSAF would need to be carried out within biological containment. The SSAF is described in sufficient detail to support planning activities for a Sample Receiving Facility (SRF) and for preparing science announcements, while at the same time acknowledging that further work is required before a detailed Sample Safety Assessment Protocol (SSAP) can be developed. The three major open issues to be addressed to optimize and implement the SSAF are (1) setting a value for the level of assurance to effectively exclude the presence of martian life in the samples, (2) carrying out an analogue test program, and (3) acquiring relevant contamination knowledge from all Mars Sample Return (MSR) flight and ground elements. Although the SSAF was developed specifically for assessing samples from Mars in the context of the currently planned NASA-ESA MSR Campaign, this framework and the basic safety approach are applicable to any other Mars sample return mission concept, with minor adjustments in the execution part related to the specific nature of the samples to be returned. The SSAF is also considered a sound basis for other COSPAR Planetary Protection Category V, restricted Earth return missions beyond Mars. It is anticipated that the SSAF will be subject to future review by the various MSR stakeholders. © Gerhard Kminek et al., 2022;
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- Bell, Karen L., et al.
(författare)
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Plants, pollinators and their interactions under global ecological change : The role of pollen DNA metabarcoding
- 2023
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 32:23, s. 6345-6362
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Anthropogenic activities are triggering global changes in the environment, causing entire communities of plants, pollinators and their interactions to restructure, and ultimately leading to species declines. To understand the mechanisms behind community shifts and declines, as well as monitoring and managing impacts, a global effort must be made to characterize plant-pollinator communities in detail, across different habitat types, latitudes, elevations, and levels and types of disturbances. Generating data of this scale will only be feasible with rapid, high-throughput methods. Pollen DNA metabarcoding provides advantages in throughput, efficiency and taxonomic resolution over traditional methods, such as microscopic pollen identification and visual observation of plant-pollinator interactions. This makes it ideal for understanding complex ecological networks and their responses to change. Pollen DNA metabarcoding is currently being applied to assess plant-pollinator interactions, survey ecosystem change and model the spatiotemporal distribution of allergenic pollen. Where samples are available from past collections, pollen DNA metabarcoding has been used to compare contemporary and past ecosystems. New avenues of research are possible with the expansion of pollen DNA metabarcoding to intraspecific identification, analysis of DNA in ancient pollen samples, and increased use of museum and herbarium specimens. Ongoing developments in sequencing technologies can accelerate progress towards these goals. Global ecological change is happening rapidly, and we anticipate that high-throughput methods such as pollen DNA metabarcoding are critical for understanding the evolutionary and ecological processes that support biodiversity, and predicting and responding to the impacts of change.
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- Dunér, David, et al.
(författare)
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Copernican Principle
- 2021
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Ingår i: Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. - Berlin/Heidelberg : Springer Berlin/Heidelberg. ; 1:1, s. 1-3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Copernican principle states that Earth has not any privileged position in the universe. In astrobiological terms, it means that terrestrial life, including the human beings, has not any particularly privileged, special, or unique position in the universe, which leads to the assumption that, given the presence of life on Earth, life will exist also in other places in the universe.
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- Dunér, David, et al.
(författare)
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Great Chain of Being
- 2021
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Ingår i: Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. - Berlin/Heidelberg : Springer Berlin/Heidelberg. ; 1:1, s. 1-2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A prevailing idea through the ages is that of the Great Chain of Being, understanding the universe as a hierarchy of beings, an unbroken chain of existence, from the simplest forms to the most complex ones, from non-living matter to the most rational creatures (Lovejoy 1936). In his History of Animals from the fourth century BCE, Aristotle arranged all beings in a ladder of nature, a scala naturae, a gradation of natural things from minerals, through plants and animals, to the human being. The chain of being got biological significance with, among others, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Carl Linnaeus, Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, and Charles Bonnet. Nature does not make jumps, Natura non-facit saltus, as Carl Linnaeus formulated it in Philosophia Botanica (1751). There is continuity in nature. In that respect, the Great Chain of Being is connected to the Principle of Plenitude, the fullness of being. The principle suggests that every possible form of creature exists. This could also be understood in a temporal sense that every possible form of creature, even though not existing right now, might have existed before or could be realized at some stage in the future. Continuity is an idea implicit in that of plenitude. In the early nineteenth century, this continuity of nature became understood in temporal meaning. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck went from a static concept of the series of life-forms to a theory of species transformation that life had developed over time from simpler to more complex forms. During the nineteenth century, the Great Chain of Being was replaced by another metaphor, the Tree of Life, which also stressed on the continuity of nature, but took into account the genealogy and evolution of life-forms, as in Lamarck’s Philosophie zoologique (1809) and Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859).
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- Dunér, David, et al.
(författare)
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Principle of Plenitude
- 2022
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Ingår i: Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. - Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg. - 9783642278334 ; 1:1, s. 1-3
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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