Organisms Amplify Diversity. An autocatalytic hypothesis. 2023. 13 figs. 304 p. 4to. Hardcover.

This book presents a hypothesis and evidence that organisms promote and ecosystems maximize biodiversity. All species have a net positive effect on their environment, other species, and diversity. The sun is 30% hotter than when life began, but the temperature has been kept moderate by life. Life created high oxygen, the ozone layer, and fertile soil, a diverse, living system. No species evolves in isolation, and most evolution is coevolution. The nature and number of links between species are as important as species number. Eukaryotes coevolve with complex ecosystems of microbes with which they exchange genes. Genomes and intraspecific interactions both act to promote evolution and diversification. Viruses increase diversity of their hosts and cause macroevolutionary transitions.

Key Features

Life alters the Earth in ways that increase biodiversity
All species make their environment better for other species and promote diversity
Life created the life-friendly atmosphere, temperature, and soil of today

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Life Regulates the Atmosphere’s Greenhouse Gas Levels and the Earth’s Temperature

Chapter 3. Organisms Created High Oxygen Levels, which Allowed Complex Life to Evolve and Diversify

Chapter 4. Species Profoundly Affect the Evolution of Other Species; Coevolution is Fundamentally Important and Was Involved in the Vast Majority of Major Evolutionary Transitions

Chapter 5. In Ecological Succession, Earlier Communities Create Favorable Environmental Conditions for Succeeding, Usually More Complex and Diverse, Communities

Chapter 6. Life Creates Soil, a Diverse Ecosystem that Benefits Life in the Soil and Above It

Chapter 7. Eukaryotes are Complex Ecosystems with Diverse Microbiomes, Showing the Importance of Symbiosis and Commensalism, and Challenging the Concept of the Individual

Chapter 8. Viruses Are by Far the Most Genetically Variable and Biodiverse Group of Organisms, Generate High Diversity in Cellular Organisms, and Are Key Drivers of Major Adaptive Macroevolutionary Breakthroughs in Cellular Organisms

Chapter 9. Genomes and Their Behaviors Promote Genetic Variability, Evolution, Large Adaptive Evolutionary Innovations, and Diversification; the Amount and Nature of Genetic Variability is Subject to Natural Selection

Chapter 10. Altruism and Cooperation within Populations Are Often Adaptive, and Maintain Populations and Diversity

Chapter 11. Network Theory Models and Empirical Evidence Support the Thesis that Coevolved Diversity and Connectance Correlate with Ecosystem Stability, Productivity, Resilience, and Persistence

Chapter 12. Scientific Laws Indicate the Essential Inevitability of the Chemical Evolution of Life Under Favorable Conditions; a Hypothesis that Incorporates the Autocatalytic Biodiversity Hypothesis Postulates a Tendency for Increase in Information in Systems with Favorable Conditions

Chapter 13. The Solar System, Sun, Jupiter, Earth’s Moon, and Nonbiological Earth All Aid Life, Suggesting the Autocatalytic Biodiversity Hypothesis Does Not Account for All of Earth’s Biodiversity, and is a Subset of a More General Hypothesis

Chapter 14. Counter Examples to and Arguments against the Autocatalytic Biodiversity Hypothesis and Answers to Them

Chapter 15. Implications

Glossary

Index