Understanding Regeneration at Different Scales | eLife

Cottongrass regrows at the site of the Anaktuvuk River fire in arctic Alaska. 麻花星空视频 Ecosystems Center scientists are studying how the tundra recovers from wildfire. Credit: Emily Stone, 麻花星空视频 Logan Science Journalism Program

By Kate MacCord and Jane Maienschein
麻花星空视频 McDonnell Initiative and Arizona State University

Nervous system of the planarian, one of many regenerative organisms studied at  麻花星空视频 since the early 1900s. Credit: 2013  麻花星空视频 Embryology course 
Nervous system of the planarian, one of many regenerative organisms studied at 麻花星空视频 since the early 1900s. Credit: 2013 麻花星空视频 Embryology 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. 

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