Biological Information and Environmental Uncertainty

Recent years have seen significant theoretical and methodological advances in understanding how environmental information is encoded within genetic, sensory, and immune systems. However, much of this work remains system-specific, leaving the role of environmental information and uncertainty in population, community, and ecosystem dynamics largely undeveloped. Genetic information can be (relatively) easily identified and its impact on fitness quantified, perhaps leading to a failure to appreciate the value of information that is encoded in less recognizable forms. Our goal is to move beyond the “genetics first” approach to understanding biological information. The time is ripe to develop integrative, interdisciplinary theories on how organisms use environmental information in the context of evolutionary and ecological feedbacks.

To develop a more comprehensive theory of the value of biological information for organismal biology, ecology, and evolution we will consider multiple forms of inherited information. Examples include genes and other molecules, cellular structures, membranes, microbiomes, constructed environments, culturally-transmitted behaviors, and inherited location/environment.