Understanding Regeneration at Different Scales | eLife

Cottongrass regrows at the site of the Anaktuvuk River fire in arctic Alaska. Ecosystems 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. Ecosystems Center scientists are studying how the tundra recovers from wildfire. Credit: Emily Stone, Logan Science Journalism Program
By communications April 10, 2019
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By Kate MacCord and Jane Maienschein
McDonnell Initiative and Arizona State University

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