Understanding Regeneration at Different Scales | eLife

Cottongrass regrows at the site of the Anaktuvuk River fire in arctic Alaska. ϲappEcosystems Center scientists are studying how the tundra recovers from wildfire. Credit: Emily Stone
Cottongrass regrows at the site of the Anaktuvuk River fire in arctic Alaska. ϲappEcosystems Center scientists are studying how the tundra recovers from wildfire. Credit: Emily Stone, ϲappLogan Science Journalism Program
By communications April 10, 2019
Categories

By Kate MacCord and Jane Maienschein
ϲappMcDonnell Initiative and Arizona State University

Nervous system of the planarian, one of many regenerative organisms studied at ϲappsince the early 1900s. Credit: 2013 ϲappEmbryology course
Nervous system of the planarian, one of many regenerative organisms studied at ϲappsince the early 1900s. Credit: 2013 ϲappEmbryology course

Regeneration occurs at many different levels in nature, from individual organisms (notably earthworms and hydra), through communities of microbes, to ecosystems such as forests. ... At each of these levels we see evidence for a built-in regenerative process that attempts to maintain the integrity of the system by restoring its structure and/or function after damage. Exploring the similarities and differences between the regeneration observed at these different levels is an active area of research in the philosophy of biology at present.

Source:

Related Tags
Regeneration