How much life can the Earth sustain? What limits this amount? How does life fluctuate with planetary events? What types of life survive mass extinctions? How and why do new species form? Microbes are the only form of life that have been around since the beginning 4 billion years ago, and they were the only form of life for 3 billion years. So how many are there? Where are they? What are they doing? This colloquium will address these questions and discuss how life has paralleled planetary events, such as the Great Oxygenation; the development of predation as a life strategy, and how life is a ‘zero sum game.’
This talk will be based on the paper “Prokaryotes: The unseen majority”.
It is suggested to the students to read the paper in advance and bring to the lecture with them.
