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NASA NTRS1994

Endangered and potentially endangered wildlife on John F. Kennedy Space Center and faunal integrity as a goal for maintaining biological diversity

Buffer zones for space operations provide for a wildlife diversity unsurpassed among most federal facilities in the continental U.S. demonstrating the coexistence possible with one of man's greatest technological achievements. This document ranks 119 resident or migratory wildlife species that are endangered or declining. The ranking system herein was based on species' vulnerability to extinction and the relevance of Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for maintaining populations in the U.S. and Florida. One amphibian, 19 reptiles, 80 birds, and 19 mammals were considered endangered or declining. KSC is an integral area for regional species diversity being the focus of the Merritt Island/Cape Canaveral/Turnbull Ecosystem which is part of the Indian River Lagoon watershed, an estuary of national significance. Many species that use this system also use the nearby St. Johns River Basin ecosystem. These two ecosystems are biological corridors between temperate Carolinian and tropical/subtropical Caribbean biotic provinces. Threats to biological diversity on KSC were also reviewed. Traditional environmental assessments, resulting from environmental regulation guidelines, focus on environmental contaminants and habitat lost due to construction. However, this review suggested that small population sizes, isolation of populations, ecosystem and habitat fragmentation, road mortality, and other edge effects may represent more critical threats to biological diversity than the traditional topics.

Breininger, David R.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Life Sciences and Space Research 25 (2) Radiation Biology: Topical Meeting of the COSPAR Interdisciplinary Scientific Commission F of the COSPAR 29th Plenary Meeting, Washington, DC, Aug. 28-Sep. 5, 1992

Papers presented on long-term exposure to ionizing radiation, obtained from the Long Duration Exposure Facility, included radiation monitoring, radiation effects, and dosimetry. Mechanisms of biological systems, especially cells, under ionizing radiation and relative biological effectiveness were compared. The role of HZE particles as agents of mutation were reported from plant, animal, and in vitro models. Data on known and predicted effects of cosmic rays and other solar radiation on biological systems included differences related to Linear Energy Transfer and heavy ion particles.

Horneck, G.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 395)

This bibliography lists 82 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during Nov. 1992. Subject coverage includes: general life sciences; aerospace medicine (including physiological factors, biological effects of radiation, and effects of weightlessness on man and animals); behavioral sciences (including psychological factors, individual and group behavior, crew training and evaluation, and psychic research); man/system technology and life support (including human engineering, biotechnology, and space suits and protective clothing) and space biology (including exobiology, planetary biology, and extraterrestrial life).

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NASA NTRS1996

Space Station Biological Research Project: Reference Experiment Book

The Space Station Biological Research Project (SSBRP), which is the combined efforts of the Centrifuge Facility (CF) and the Gravitational Biology Facility (GBF), is responsible for the development of life sciences hardware to be used on the International Space Station to support cell, developmental, and plant biology research. The SSBRP Reference Experiment Book was developed to use as a tool for guiding this development effort. The reference experiments characterize the research interests of the international scientific community and serve to identify the hardware capabilities and support equipment needed to support such research. The reference experiments also serve as a tool for understanding the operational aspects of conducting research on board the Space Station. This material was generated by the science community by way of their responses to reference experiment solicitation packages sent to them by SSBRP scientists. The solicitation process was executed in two phases. The first phase was completed in February of 1992 and the second phase completed in November of 1995. Representing these phases, the document is subdivided into a Section 1 and a Section 2. The reference experiments contained in this document are only representative microgravity experiments. They are not intended to define actual flight experiments. Ground and flight experiments will be selected through the formal NASA Research Announcement (NRA) and Announcement of Opportunity (AO) experiment solicitation, review, and selection process.

Johnson, Catherine↗

NASA NTRS1996

NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) in Gravitational Biology

The mission of our NSCORT is to investigate the effects of gravity and other environmental factors on biological function at the cellular and molecular level. The research efforts, training opportunities, and scientific exchange will promote the expansion of a scientific peer group well-educated in space-related biological issues. This will stimulate the interest of the larger scientific community and insure the continuing development of rigorous flight investigations in Gravitational Biology.

Mclntire, Larry V.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Gravity and Biology

Gravity has been the most constant environmental factor throughout the evolution of biological species on Earth. Organisms are rarely exposed to other gravity levels, either increased or decreased, for prolonged periods. Thus, evolution in a constant 1G field has historically prevented us from appreciating the potential biological consequences of a multi-G universe. To answer the question 'Can terrestrial life be sustained and thrive beyond our planet?' we need to understand the importance of gravity on living systems, and we need to develop a multi-G, rather than a 1G, mentality. The science of gravitational biology took a giant step with the advent of the space program, which provided the first opportunity to examine living organisms in gravity environments lower than could be sustained on Earth. Previously, virtually nothing was known about the effects of extremely low gravity on living organisms, and most of the initial expectations were proven wrong. All species that have flown in space survive in microgravity, although no higher organism has ever completed a life cycle in space. It has been found, however, that many systems change, transiently or permanently, as a result of prolonged exposure to microgravity.

Morey-Holton, Emily R.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Analysis of Land-Use Effects on Landscape Patterns and Biological Diversity in Pacific North Forests: 1972-1991

While there is widespread recognition of the importance of preserving biological diversity there is considerable uncertainty about how to map current patterns of diversity and monitor changes through time. Ground-based approaches are impractical for examining regional patterns of biological diversity, for monitoring change, and they may actually overlook important higher-order phenomena. Thus, there is a critical need for innovative techniques to examine land-use effects on biological diversity at the landscape and regional scales. In this project, we have used satellite-based remote sensing to examine land-use effects on forest ecosystems in the Pacific NorthWest region (PNW) of the U.S.A. Rates and patterns of forest change throughout the region were quantified for the period from 1972 to 1993. This information was then used to map changes in the abundance and distribution of potential habitat for selected vertebrate species. The results of this project will be useful for identifying "keystone" stands that are important in maintaining habitat connectivity at the regional scale and for evaluating the impact of future land-use on vertebrate diversity throughout the region. The approaches developed here will also be useful in other forested regions throughout the world.

Wallin, David O.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A Continuing Bibliography

Aerospace Medicine and Biology concentrates on the biological, physiological, psychological, and environmental effects to which humans are subjected during and following simulated or actual flight in the Earth's atmosphere or in interplanetary space. References describing similar effects on biological organisms of lower order are also included. Such related topics as sanitary problems, pharmacology, toxicology, safety and survival, life support systems, exobiology, and personnel factors receive appropriate attention. Applied research receives the most emphasis, but references to fundamental studies and theoretical principles related to experimental development also qualify for inclusion.

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NASA NTRS1999

Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A Continuing Bibliography With Indexes

In its subject coverage, Aerospace Medicine and Biology concentrates on the biological, physiological, psychological, and environmental effects to which humans are subjected during and following simulated or actual flight in the Earth's atmosphere or in interplanetary space. References describing similar effects on biological organisms of lower order are also included. Such related topics as sanitary problems, pharmacology, toxicology, safety and survival, life support systems, exobiology, and personnel factors receive appropriate attention. Applied research receives the most emphasis, but references to fundamental studies and theoretical principles related to experimental development also qualify for inclusion. Each entry in the publication consists of a standard bibliographic citation accompanied, in most cases, by an abstract.

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NASA NTRS1999

Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A Continuing Bibliography with Indexes

This report lists reports, articles and other documents recently announced in the NASA STI Database. In its subject coverage, Aerospace Medicine and Biology concentrates on the biological, physiological, psychological, and environmental effects to which humans are subjected during and following simulated or actual flight in the Earth's atmosphere or in interplanetary space. References describing similar effects on biological organisms of lower order are also included. Such related topics as sanitary problems, pharmacology, toxicology, safety and survival, life support systems, exobiology, and personnel factors receive appropriate attention. Applied research receives the most emphasis, but references to fundamental studies and theoretical principles related to experimental development also qualify for inclusion. Each entry in the publication consists of a standard bibliographic citation accompanied, in most cases, by an abstract.

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NASA NTRS1999

Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A Continuing Bibliography with Indexes

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NASA NTRS1979

Biological and Organic Chemical Decomposition of Silicates

The weathering of silicate rocks and minerals, an important concern of geologists and geochemists for many years, traditionally has been approached from strictly physical and chemical points of view. Biological effects were either unrecognized, ignored, or were mentioned in passing to account for such phenomena as the accumulation of organic matter in sediments or the generation of reducing environments. A major exception occurred in soil science where agricultural scientists, studying the factors important in the development of soils and their ability to nourish and sustain various crops, laid the foundation for much of what is known of the biological breakdown of silicate rocks and minerals. The advent of the space age accelerated the realization that many environmental problems and geo- chemical processes on Earth can only be understood in terms of ecosystems. This in turn, spurred renewed interest and activity among modem biologists, geologists and soil scientists attempting to unravel the intimate relations between biology and the weathering of silicate rocks and minerals of the earth surface.

Silverman, M. P.↗

NASA NTRS1979

Biological and Organic Chemical Decomposition of Silicates

The weathering of silicate rocks and minerals, an important concern of geologists and geochemists for many years, traditionally has been approached from strictly physical and chemical points of view. Biological effects were either unrecognized, ignored, or were mentioned in passing to account for such phenomena as the accumulation of organic matter in sediments or the generation of reducing environments. A major exception occurred in soil science where agricultural scientists, studying the factors important in the development of soils and their ability to nourish and sustain various crops, laid the foundation for much of what is known of the biological breakdown of silicate rocks and minerals. The advent of the space age accelerated the realization that many environmental problems and geochemical processes on Earth can only be understood in terms of ecosystems. This in turn, spurred renewed interest and activity among modem biologists, geologists and soil scientists attempting to unravel the intimate relations between biology and the weathering of silicate rocks and minerals of the earth's surface.

Sliverman, M. P.↗

NASA NTRS2000

New Directions in NASA's Biological Crystal Growth Program on the International Space Station

NASA's Biological Crystal Growth Program (BCG) on the International Space Station (ISS) is changing direction from the study of crystallization to an emphasis on producing crystals for structure determination in leading problems in structural biology. The program will consist of two phases. The first phase is during assembly of the ISS and will primarily utilize payloads that currently fly in the orbiter middeck but can be adapted for ISS. The second phase begins after assembly of the ISS is complete and BCG payloads will occupy part of the Biotechnology Facility aboard the ISS. Two types of BCG payloads will be flown. One will emphasize the production of crystals for structure determination back on Earth. These types of payloads will allow hundreds of crystallization conditions to be tested. The second type of payload will be designed to study the crystallization process with the primary aim of assisting the structural biology efforts. Access to these facilities will be through the NASA BCG Guest Investigators program, the NASA Research Announcement, and other opportunities currently being formulated. Details of the crystallization hardware, the application procedures, and the operational aspects of the program will be described.

Kundrot, Craig E.↗

NASA NTRS2000

New Directions in NASA's Biological Crystal Growth Program on the International Space Station

Kundrot, Craig E.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Ecosystem Modeling of Biological Processes to Global Budgets

From an ecological perspective, the search for life on distant planets begins from several key assumptions. The first of these is that, viewed from a remote location in space, the signature of life on a distant planet will be the result of net gas exchange of organisms with their environment. On the basis of extensive biogeochemical measurements and biogenic trace gas fluxes in modem Earth environments, it is probable that certain groups of organisms both produce and consume the same trace gas(es) within a single bioprofile of Solid (porous) substrate or surface water. The net gas exchange rate with the atmosphere measured at the living surface is frequently the result of competing metabolic reactions, which may carried out by different functional groups of organisms located at dissimilar 'climatic' or chemical microsites within the same bioprofile. Biogenic gases produced at one (deep) level of a bioprofile may be consumed by another functional group of organisms located closer to the level of surface exchange with the atmosphere. A second key assumption is that the net biogenic fluxes of atmospheric gases on Earth can be used to infer relative abundance and functional composition of the major organisms on a distant planet. Examples of this principle include the presence of methanogenic microorganisms abundant today in freshwater ecosystems worldwide, which are major source of atmospheric methane and its seasonal variability in Earth's atmosphere. A third assumption is that scaling up biogenic gas fluxes from a single biological community to the planetary level requires flux measurements at the whole ecosystem level. This implies that measurements of biogenic gas exchange with the global atmosphere cannot be easily inferred from measurements of gas production rates of single organisms, which may have been isolated in some manner from the setting of their native ecosystem. Hence, the unit of biological organization used in modern Earth Science for scaling up to biosphere effects on atmospheric composition is the ecosystem level. These assumptions are the foundation for developing modern emission budgets for biogenic gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, isoprene, nitrous and nitric oxide, and ammonia. Such emission budgets commonly include information on seasonal flux patterns, typical diurnal profiles, and spatial resolution of at least one degree latitude/longitude for the globe. On the basis of these budgets, it is possible to compute 'base emission rates' for the major biogenic trace gases from both terrestrial and ocean sources, which may be useful benchmarks for defining the gas production rates of organisms, especially those from early Earth history, which are required to generate a detectable signal on a global atmosphere. This type of analysis is also the starting point for evaluation of the 'biological processes to global gas budget' extrapolation procedure described above for early Earth ecosystems.

Christopher, Potter S.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Biomaterials, Biomimetics and Biological Interfaces Research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A viewgraph presentation outlines the development of biomaterials, biomimetics (mimicking biological processes and functions), and biological interfaces research. The different types of biomaterials are described, including details on bio-ceramics, biocompatible materials, materials characterization, and 'hybrid' biomaterials. The vision for biomimetics in creating a virtual human is discussed. Biological interfaces research is outlined, including information on interfaces with materials and computing.

Mark E. Reeves↗

NASA NTRS2000

The Precambrian Biogeochemical Carbon Isotopic Record: Contributions of Thermal Versus Biological Processes

Superplumes offer a new approach for understanding global C cycles. Isotopes help to discern the impacts of geological, environmental and biological processes ujpun the evolution of these cycles. For example, C-13/C-12 values of coeval sedimentary organics and carbonates give global estimates of the fraction of C buried as organics (Forg), which today lies near 0.2. Before Oxygenic photosynthesis arose, our biosphere obtained reducing power for biosynthesis solely from thermal volatiles and rock alteration. Thus Forg was dominated by the mantle redox state, which has remained remarkably constant for greater than Gy. Recent data confirm that the long-term change in Forg had been small, indicating that the mantle redox buffer remains important even today. Oxygenic photosynthesis enabled life to obtain additional reducing power by splitting the water molecule. Accordingly, biological organic production rose above the level constrained by the mantle-derived flux of reduced species. For example, today, chemoautotrophs harvesting energy from hydrothermal emanations can synthesize at most between 0.2 x 10(exp 12) and 2x 10(exp 12) mol C yr-1 of organic C globally. In contrast, global photosynthetic productivity is estimated at 9000 x 10(exp 12) mol C yr-1. Occasionally photosynthetic productivity did contribute to dramatically -elevated Forg values (to 0.4 or more) as evidenced by very high carbonate C-13/C-12. The interplay between biological, tectonic and other environmental factors is illustrated by the mid-Archean to mid-Proterozoic isotopic record. The relatively constant C-13/C-12 values of Archean carbonates support the view that photosynthetically-driven Forg increases were not yet possible. In contrast, major excursions in C-13/C-12, and thus also in Forg, during the early Proterozoic confirmed the global importance of oxygenic photosynthesis by that time. Remarkably, the superplume event at 1.9 Ga did not trigger another major Forg increase, despite the favorable conditions for organic burial that were evidenced by elevated sea levels and higher black shale abundances. Perhaps those superplume-rated processes that favored enhanced organic burial were offset by the ability of mantle-derived redox buffering, which was enhanced during the superplume event, to limit excursions in Forg.

DesMarais, David J.↗