Ecosystem: Macro to Micro Scale
“A healthy mature ecosystem is not like a picture of a single color, but a multicolor quilt that evolves and responds to changes in the environment, and to changes within itself.”
― Enric Sala, The Nature of Nature: Why We Need The Wild
Etymologically the word ecosystem comes from the Greek word oikos, meaning home and systema or systems. The Nineteenth and early twentieth century ecologists figured out the strong interdependence between living and nonliving matter. Today with advancement of science along with scientific discoveries we know that peptic ulcer is not caused just by stress and diet patterns but by a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori, or that our gut microbiome consists of 100 trillion bacteria, that harbors with our body and promotes synthesis of vitamins and micronutrients as nutrients. Well despite this symbiotic relationship with bacteria we know they can cause diseases as well, like Mycobacterium tuberculosis that causes Tuberculosis. The relationship of how the same type of species can be beneficial as well as detrimental have always amazed me.
The number of bacteria in our gut outnumbers the number of cells that consists of an entire human body. How does our gut harbor such an enriched environment of bacteria, and maintain the ecosystem so well, while evading the rest of the genus that causes disease? What makes the disease-causing bacteria so different from the gut bacteria, and why has nature selected such specifics while designing our body?
Research suggests that although every mammal has a gut microbiome, the composition of microbes differ in every species, and that changes over time through evolution. The composition is completely dependent on the foods we intake and our dietary habits. The microbes play a role in digesting the fibers and fermenting the undigested food. They help keep our gastric tract in order, dysfunction in which causes diseases like irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowels disease etc. While they are in synergy with our body, other microbes are regarded harmful since they cause diseases. A lot of research in biological science have been based on E.coli which is a gut bacteria, because it is noninfectious and simpler to use, and has a higher advantage over other infectious ones, like Vibrio cholerae and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
I wonder how nature evolves the microorganisms and sequestered in our bodies when some of them are infectious and others are not. One possible answer can be that they were infected with microbes and through evolution, the ones beneficial are selected, the others caused disease and epidemics. It’s not known if any of the gut bacterium were infectious earlier and later with most of the population survived with the bacterial load, they were sequestered. On the other hand, bacterium like H.pylori, which causes stomach ulcers, is a gut bacterium but is contagious and infectious. The number and behaviors of microbes in the gut is still enigmatic and needs further deeper investigation to unravel the mystery. Therefore, ecosystem is in flux, its changing and evolving, with its needs. In real terms micro and macro-cosm isn’t separate they are one within another, intertwined.
