Baas Becking's Geobiology

Or Introduction to Environmental Science

Don E. Canfield, Deborah Sherwood, Mishka Stuip, Don E. Canfield

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781118295700
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geology & Earth Sciences

Laurens Baas Becking was a pioneer in the field of microbial ecology and the father of Geobiology. This is the first English translation of Baas Becking's Geobiologie: of Inleiding tot de Millieukunde published in Dutch in 1934. This book provides a fascinating view of how organisms have both adapted to and shaped their environment, from all types of settings ranging from lakes to the oceans, to acidic peats and salt ponds, drawing heavily on Baas Becking's own keen observations. Although written 80 years ago, Baas Becking's insights feel surprisingly modern and provide a unique insight into the fields of evolution of microbial ecology and geobiology. This book should appeal to anyone interested in microbial ecology, geobiology, biogeochemistry and the history of science. The translated text is accompanied by extensive footnotes and by an Editor's summary at the end of each chapter placing Baas Becking's writing in the context of modern developments in the field.

CHAPTER I
Introduction

The natural environment is something completely different to the observant enthusiast − Jules Renard’s chasseur d’images¹ − than it is to the researcher attempting to discover the order and patterns of various life forms in a laboratory. The former, the field biologist, views nature as an enormous, composite work of art. This manner of regarding nature is wholly satisfactory, so long as one is concerned only with “what.” One can name the organisms he sees and, led in part by intuition, one can likewise appreciate systems of organisms: communities of life forms that are often associated with a certain type of landscape (heath, dune, etc.). One can distinguish these communities even further and note the propagation of certain organisms (for example, the spread of cross-leaved heath in a field of heather).

However, in addition to the question of “what,” human beings also ask the questions of “how” and “why” (53),² because the “what” – necessary as it may be – leads only to cataloging inventories, and by simply naming the parts one can never learn to understand the whole.

One can attempt to answer the question of “how,” the second step toward understanding the natural world around us, without experimental tools. Yet in doing so, one encounters great difficulties. Both the external surroundings and the internal properties of organisms, which make possible the existence of large natural systems, often resist even the simplest attempts to analyze them. In order to study organisms, one must first study their environment. This can only be done in a place where the environment can be controlled, namely in a laboratory. Thus, under certain circumstances, an analysis is made of the relation between certain organisms and the controlled laboratory environment. Such an environment can be homogeneous, i.e., the external conditions in the experimental space either remain constant or change continually. When carrying out such an analysis in the field, one stumbles upon larger, in most cases even insurmountable, difficulties. First of all, the external conditions are variable. Anyone who has recorded the intensity of sunlight in measurements separated by several minutes is aware of this. The same is true for temperature and many other factors. Furthermore, these circumstances are heterogeneous, meaning that they differ in space. Places separated from each other by only a few decimeters can have entirely different climates. This phenomenon is known as “microclimate.” For example, humus-rich soil is often acidic, yet fragments of shells, etc., can make the soil locally alkaline, such that the acidity level differs from centimeter to centimeter. Such measurements, when conducted in the field, show us the hopelessness of reaching a binding analysis, but can nonetheless be useful in certain cases when they delimit the boundaries of biological possibilities.

However, in all scientific observations it is important to be aware of variability (over time) and heterogeneity (in space).

While the field biologist speaks of “tamed creatures” in the laboratory and complains that laboratory methods are “unnatural,” the experimenter has just as much right to reproach the field biologist for his apparent certainty gained by attempting to measure that which cannot be measured.

This contrast is not always as sharp as presented here, however, because whereas the immeasurability of various factors in certain environments (soil and atmosphere) is undeniable, this difficulty is not present − at least to the same extent − in other environments (particularly water).

An aqueous environment − be it bog, lake, or ocean − is certainly variable, but it is nonetheless much more homogeneous than other environments. Aquatic field biology is, perhaps for this reason, also much further developed than terrestrial field biology, and the biology of both fresh water (limnology) and salt water have long been sciences in which the question of “how” has often been answerable. Yet even here, the laboratory experiment must inspire.

The highest question a person can ask is “why.” We ask this question in relation to the natural world around us in order to understand the appearance and behavior of organisms. This “why” is always causal and never goal-oriented.³

No matter how one analyzes vital functions in the laboratory, the organism is part of the Earth and its lot is interwoven with that of the Earth. Once again, in this context we must think of the enthusiast, he who opts for the out-of-doors. He is an “image seeker” and has perhaps been so since he was a boy. Later, in the laboratory, he becomes acquainted with experiments. Let him now return with confidence to the wilderness. Though aware of his limits and no longer so unbiased, he can test his knowledge on this natural environment. The Earth “as it is” remains the most important testing ground for our understanding of biology.

This discourse is an attempt to describe the relationship between organisms and the Earth. The name “geobiology” simply expresses this relationship. This new word does not attempt to describe a new field. It rather tries to unite phenomena that have thus far been known to the different areas of biology as much as possible under one viewpoint.

I would like to thank the Board of the Diligentia Society, and particularly Dr. A. Schierbeek, for this opportunity they have offered me to organize my thoughts on this subject.

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Editor’s notes

In this Introduction, Baas Becking highlights his view of the “geobiological” approach. He distinguishes between the field biologist (or naturalist) who is informed by observable biodiversity and patterns of species distribution, and the experimental biologist who puts the metabolic function of organisms into the context of laboratory controlled variations in environmental parameters. Finally, he argues that real insights (“how” and “why”) come from combining these approaches so that the field biologist is informed by controlled and directed experiments on organismal metabolism and adaptation. This combined approach, which seeks to understand “the relationship between organisms and the Earth,” is defined as “geobiology” by Baas Becking and bears much in common with the modern view. Baas Becking was modest in offering this definition and was quite specific that this definition “does not attempt to describe a new field.” Little could he know that some 75 years later his “geobiology” is a thriving discipline of its own!

Baas Becking also highlights in this chapter the difficulty of placing an organism within an exact chemical and physical context in nature, particularly in terrestrial systems where chemical and physical gradients are large and “climates,” as he calls them, are highly variable. Although our ability to determine small-scale variations in chemical and physical parameters (such as temperature, moisture, or oxygen) has advanced greatly since Baas Becking’s time, understanding how organisms as individuals, or individual populations, interface with the chemical and physical environment remains a great challenge. For example, while we can measure in various ways the respiration rate of a terrestrial soil or a marine sediment, we still have a poor understanding of how individual members of the population contribute to this respiration. Part of the problem is that even now, we have difficulties in defining the true diversity of populations in nature, particularly microbial populations, and even for those members we can identify, we have difficulties in understanding their level of activity. This understanding, however, is beginning to expand with new approaches in molecular biology, including metagenomic sequencing for population diversity estimates as well as transcriptomic and proteomic approaches for elucidating the activity levels of individual populations in mixed microbial communities.

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Notes

1 Jules Renard (1864–1910) was a highly influential French author and keen observer of the natural world. 2 Numbers placed between parentheses refer to the References at the end of this book. 3 Baas Becking seems to be warning of the difference between hypothesis testing and hypothesis proving.

CHAPTER II
The Environment

Ein kleiner Ring

Begrenzt unser Leben.

Goethe

Imagine an ancient gate. Upon each column rests a sandstone ball, covered by a thin green layer of algae. In a hollow at the top lies a small pool of water, teeming with infusoria.¹ Now imagine a ball enlarged several million times: an enormous stone ball, the Earth, likewise with a thin green layer and a shallow pool, teeming with life. The Viennese geologist Suess named this layer the biosphere.² It is here, where atmosphere and lithosphere meet, that the highest known organizational form of matter has developed, closely related to – and in a certain sense the counterpart of – the Earth. It is the Earth itself, in its highest expression. This discourse is about this life, of and by the Earth.³

One cannot predict a priori the properties of molecules based on the properties of their atoms. This higher level of complexity brings with it new properties; the coordinated units together form a higher unit which has new properties. Nor can one predict the properties of the living state of matter based on its molecular configuration; life is a new property. But we can, a posteriori, test the properties of living matter against the con...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Editor's Introduction
• CHAPTER I: Introduction
• CHAPTER II: The Environment
• CHAPTER III: Environmental Factors: Solar Radiation
• CHAPTER IV: Environmental Factors: Temperature
• CHAPTER V: Environmental Factors
• CHAPTER VI: Cycles
• CHAPTER VII: Oligotrophic Water
• CHAPTER VIII: Eutrophic Fresh Water
• CHAPTER IX: Oceans
• CHAPTER X: Brine
• CHAPTER XI: Review
• Appendix
• References
• Index
• End User License Agreement