Biological Individuality
This note is about the notion of biological individuals and related concepts including Agency and Process Ontology.
Levels of Biological Individuality and Linked Agency
| Level | What makes this level meaningful | Possible design relation | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gene | A heritable element that influences traits, capacities or vulnerabilities | Selection, adaptation, inherited tolerance, disease resistance, domestication effects | genes associated with heat tolerance, disease resistance, pigmentation, growth form |
| Cell | A living unit that senses, metabolises, communicates and responds | Biofabrication, sensing, repair, growth, immune response, tissue formation | bacterial cells, plant cells, animal immune cells, algal cells |
| Tissue or organ | A functional part of an organism that performs a specialised task | Filtration, photosynthesis, respiration, structural support, sensory exchange | leaves, roots, gills, skin, fungal hyphae, coral polyps |
| Organism | A relatively bounded living being that acts, senses, moves, grows or makes choices | Direct design collaborator, beneficiary, user, cohabitant, builder, disturber | one eel, one bird, one possum, one tree, one fungus |
| Modular organism | A living body composed of repeated semi-autonomous units | Growth, spreading, repair, habitat formation, surface occupation | fungal mycelium, clonal plants, corals, bryozoans, lichens in some readings |
| Colony | A collective of connected or coordinated organisms that acts as a functional unit | Construction, defence, filtration, soil making, reef making, distributed sensing | oysters, corals, ants, termites, bees |
| Symbiotic association | Different organisms living in close, consequential relation | Mutual support, nutrient exchange, protection, development, survival | plant and mycorrhizal fungi, coral and algal symbionts, lichen-forming partners |
| Holobiont | A host plus associated microbial and symbiotic partners | Health, digestion, immunity, adaptation, development, environmental response | animal plus microbiome, plant plus microbiome and mycorrhizae |
| Population | Members of a species connected by place, reproduction, movement or shared pressures | Migration support, habitat connectivity, demographic resilience, local adaptation | eels in one catchment, urban possums in one suburb, a local bird population |
| Species | A named evolutionary lineage or taxonomic unit | Conservation target, regulatory unit, ecological actor, design beneficiary | Anguilla australis, Malurus cyaneus, Eucalyptus camaldulensis |
| Guild | Different species grouped by similar ecological roles or practices | Designing for function rather than taxon, such as pollination, decomposition, predation or shelter use | pollinators, hollow-using animals, detritivores, canopy foragers |
| Community | Multiple interacting populations in a place | Multispecies habitat design, restoration, ecological care, food-web support | soil microbiome, reef assemblage, urban canopy assemblage, wetland community |
| Ecosystem engineer | An organism or group that modifies environments for itself and others | Co-construction, habitat formation, hydrological change, microclimate creation | beavers, oysters, termites, trees, fungi, corals |
| Habitat system | A recurring environmental structure that supports multiple beings | Shelter, nesting, feeding, movement, refuge, reproduction | hollow-bearing tree, artificial reef, wetland, nest box assemblage, urban canopy |
| Ecosystem | A dynamic system of organisms, materials, flows and physical conditions | Restoration, stewardship, infrastructural design, disturbance management | river, reef, grassland, forest patch, wetland, soil system |
| Biome | A large-scale ecological formation shaped by climate, vegetation, disturbance and evolutionary history | Planetary comparison, climate adaptation, conservation strategy | temperate forest, tropical reef, savanna, arid woodland, mangrove biome |
| Biosphere | The global sum of all ecosystems and living processes on Earth | Planet-scale ecological accounting, biosphere integrity assessment, and cross-biome design strategy | Earth biosphere, global carbon and biodiversity dynamics |
| Earth system and solar-system context | Coupled planetary spheres, solar forcing, and extra-planetary exchange pathways that constrain biospheric conditions | Earth system governance, planetary boundary framing, long-horizon scenario testing, and planetary stewardship design | atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere-biosphere coupling; meteoritic transfer as potential sink or source for organic molecules and possibly life; orbital and off-world abiotic infrastructures |
Unifying Taxonomies of Individuality and Levels of Biological Organisation
| Unifying taxonomy | Core idea | Coverage across this table | Why it helps here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Levels of biological organisation and ecological hierarchy1, 2 | Life and ecology can be described as nested levels from genes and cells to organisms, populations, ecosystems, and biosphere | Covers most rows directly: gene to biosphere, including organism, population, community, ecosystem, biome | Gives a stable backbone for classification and avoids ad hoc level selection |
| Hierarchy theory and panarchy3, 4 | Systems operate across nested spatial and temporal scales with cross-scale constraints and adaptive cycles | Covers organism to biosphere strongly, and supports the earth-system and solar-system context as slow variables and boundary conditions | Explains how local interventions connect to regional and planetary dynamics |
| Evolutionary individuality and major transitions5, 6 | Individuality is not fixed; it emerges through evolutionary transitions and degrees of Darwinian agency | Covers gene, cell, organism, colony, holobiont, and higher collective units; partially covers ecological rows via evolved interdependence | Clarifies when a unit should count as an agent, collaborator, or governance subject |
| Scale and pattern in ecological systems7 | Processes differ by scale, and valid explanation depends on matching level to question | Covers almost all rows as an analytic rule for moving between fine and coarse levels | Helps select the right level for design, monitoring, and regulation decisions |
Species
There are many concepts of species, some 22 in 1997.
Some argue that one should be better than others.
Mayden, Richard L. ‘A Hierarchy of Species Concepts: The Denouement in the Saga of the Species Problem’. In Species: The Units of Biodiversity, edited by Michael F. Claridge, Hassan A. Dawah, and Michael R. Wilson, 381–423. London: Chapman & Hall, 1997.
Other accept the plurality of understandings.
Ereshefsky, Marc. ‘Eliminative Pluralism’. Philosophy of Science 59, no. 4 (1992): 671–90. https://doi.org/10/bsmvcn.
Dupré, John. ‘On the Impossibility of a Monistic Account of Species’. In Species: New Interdisciplinary Essays, edited by Robert A. Wilson, 3–20. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
Organisms
Baedke, Jan, and Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda. ‘The Organism in Evolutionary Explanation: From Early Twentieth Century to the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis’. In Evolutionary Biology: Contemporary and Historical Reflections Upon Core Theory, edited by Thomas E. Dickins and Benjamin J.A. Dickins, 121–50. Cham: Springer, 2023.
References
Krakauer, David, Nils Bertschinger, Eckehard Olbrich, Jessica C. Flack, and Nihat Ay. “The Information Theory of Individuality.” Theory in Biosciences 139, no. 2 (2020): 209–23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-020-00313-7.
Pradeu, Thomas. “The Many Faces of Biological Individuality.” Biology & Philosophy 31, no. 6 (2016): 761–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-016-9553-z.
Footnotes
Allen, Timothy F. H., and Thomas B. Starr. Hierarchy: Perspectives for Ecological Complexity. 1982; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.˄
O’Neill, Robert V., Donald Lee Deangelis, and Jack B. Waide. A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986.˄
Holling, C. S. “Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems.” Ecosystems 4, no. 5 (2001): 390–405. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-001-0101-5.˄
Gunderson, Lance H., and C. S. Holling, eds. Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems. Washington: Island Press, 2002.˄
Maynard Smith, John, and Eörs Szathmáry. The Major Transitions in Evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.˄
Godfrey-Smith, Peter. Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.˄
Levin, Simon A. “The Problem of Pattern and Scale in Ecology: The Robert H. MacArthur Award Lecture.” Ecology 73, no. 6 (1992): 1943–67. https://doi.org/10.2307/1941447.˄
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