Living microorganisms change the information (Shannon) content of a geophysical system

Abstract The detection of microbial colonization in geophysical systems is becoming of interest in various disciplines of Earth and planetary sciences, including microbial ecology, biogeochemistry, geomicrobiology, and astrobiology. Microorganisms are often observed to colonize mineral surfaces, mod...

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Autores principales:	Fiona H. M. Tang, Federico Maggi
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e1ad2ccd139f486d9f2d14da130f79e1
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e1ad2ccd139f486d9f2d14da130f79e12021-12-02T15:05:09ZLiving microorganisms change the information (Shannon) content of a geophysical system10.1038/s41598-017-03479-12045-2322https://doaj.org/article/e1ad2ccd139f486d9f2d14da130f79e12017-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03479-1https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The detection of microbial colonization in geophysical systems is becoming of interest in various disciplines of Earth and planetary sciences, including microbial ecology, biogeochemistry, geomicrobiology, and astrobiology. Microorganisms are often observed to colonize mineral surfaces, modify the reactivity of minerals either through the attachment of their own biomass or the glueing of mineral particles with their mucilaginous metabolites, and alter both the physical and chemical components of a geophysical system. Here, we hypothesise that microorganisms engineer their habitat, causing a substantial change to the information content embedded in geophysical measures (e.g., particle size and space-filling capacity). After proving this hypothesis, we introduce and test a systematic method that exploits this change in information content to detect microbial colonization in geophysical systems. Effectiveness and robustness of this method are tested using a mineral sediment suspension as a model geophysical system; tests are carried out against 105 experiments conducted with different suspension types (i.e., pure mineral and microbially-colonized) subject to different abiotic conditions, including various nutrient and mineral concentrations, and different background entropy production rates. Results reveal that this method can systematically detect microbial colonization with less than 10% error in geophysical systems with low-entropy background production rate.Fiona H. M. TangFederico MaggiNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Fiona H. M. Tang Federico Maggi Living microorganisms change the information (Shannon) content of a geophysical system
description	Abstract The detection of microbial colonization in geophysical systems is becoming of interest in various disciplines of Earth and planetary sciences, including microbial ecology, biogeochemistry, geomicrobiology, and astrobiology. Microorganisms are often observed to colonize mineral surfaces, modify the reactivity of minerals either through the attachment of their own biomass or the glueing of mineral particles with their mucilaginous metabolites, and alter both the physical and chemical components of a geophysical system. Here, we hypothesise that microorganisms engineer their habitat, causing a substantial change to the information content embedded in geophysical measures (e.g., particle size and space-filling capacity). After proving this hypothesis, we introduce and test a systematic method that exploits this change in information content to detect microbial colonization in geophysical systems. Effectiveness and robustness of this method are tested using a mineral sediment suspension as a model geophysical system; tests are carried out against 105 experiments conducted with different suspension types (i.e., pure mineral and microbially-colonized) subject to different abiotic conditions, including various nutrient and mineral concentrations, and different background entropy production rates. Results reveal that this method can systematically detect microbial colonization with less than 10% error in geophysical systems with low-entropy background production rate.
format	article
author	Fiona H. M. Tang Federico Maggi
author_facet	Fiona H. M. Tang Federico Maggi
author_sort	Fiona H. M. Tang
title	Living microorganisms change the information (Shannon) content of a geophysical system
title_short	Living microorganisms change the information (Shannon) content of a geophysical system
title_full	Living microorganisms change the information (Shannon) content of a geophysical system
title_fullStr	Living microorganisms change the information (Shannon) content of a geophysical system
title_full_unstemmed	Living microorganisms change the information (Shannon) content of a geophysical system
title_sort	living microorganisms change the information (shannon) content of a geophysical system
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/e1ad2ccd139f486d9f2d14da130f79e1
work_keys_str_mv	AT fionahmtang livingmicroorganismschangetheinformationshannoncontentofageophysicalsystem AT federicomaggi livingmicroorganismschangetheinformationshannoncontentofageophysicalsystem
_version_	1718388926786306048

Living microorganisms change the information (Shannon) content of a geophysical system

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