What is a virtual journal of geobiology? What is geobiology? Why do we need a virtual journal of geobiology? Three good questions that an editor of the Virtual Journal of Geobiology ought to be able to answer.
A virtual journal is not really a journal, but rather a single, online, access point to a selective, structured, and enhanced collection of articles that have recently appeared in other true journals, in this case published by Elsevier. In some ways it is simply a current awareness service to the broad community of geobiologists who may not be fully aware of developments in geobiology published in more traditional, disciplinary journals. We hope, though, that geobiologists will use the virtual journal to communicate their ideas about this developing field and debate contentious issues whose resolution proceeds more slowly through the conventional outlets.
As for geobiology itself: if you ask 50 Earth scientists, as Elsevier did, you'll get 50 different definitions. For geology departments, geobiology is a refreshing way to define new hiring initiatives that may include traditional paleontology or biostratigraphy, but which may also facilitate the hiring of a new breed of scientists whose transdisciplinary approach spans the traditional areas of geology, biochemistry, microbiology and genetics. Knoll and Hayes (2000) define geobiology as "the study of how organisms have influenced and been influenced by the Earth's environmental history... the goal of geobiology is to provide a biological perspective on Earth history." To others, geobiology is even broader, encompassing modern process studies in which the focus is on reciprocal influences between the biota (often the microbiota) and its local or global environment (e.g., Amend et al., 2001). So the quintessential geobiologist may be Andy Knoll (Harvard) who integrates studies of environmental and biotic evolution over million-to-billion-year time scales, or Ken Nealson (JPL/USC) or Derek Lovley (Umass) whose focus is on modern microbial biogeochemistry (see Pennisi, 2002). We define geobiology most broadly as a field of scientific inquiry that is arising from the recognition that biological, physical, and chemical processes at the surface and shallow subsurface of Earth are inextricably linked at all scales of space and time.
Finally, do we need a Virtual Journal of Geobiology? Because the field is in its nascent stage, its scientific contributions are appearing in more traditional disciplinary journals. For now, this may be for the better; disciplinary rigor is better insured through disciplinary review. Moreover, many of our journals have the breadth to readily accommodate papers where reviewers from more than one discipline are needed. Progress in geobiology requires both interdisciplinary collaboration and transdisciplinary understanding. In the latter sense, we must all expand our reading to include work outside of our traditional training. Our goal in starting the Virtual Journal of Geobiology is to facilitate this task. Of course, for the virtual journal to be of use the selection of titles has to be limited. Toward that end, we limit the scope and provide a structured list that allows the user to focus in particular areas of geobiology. Based on an initial survey of Elsevier journals, we focus on Earth science journals but have included a limited number of journals from other disciplines. In restricting our definition of geobiology, we exclude a tremendous amount of solid, provocative and exciting work in all of the fields contributing to geobiology appearing in Elsevier journals. Instead, we look for papers whose focus is on feedback between environment and the biota. So, for example, a report of a new and important paleontological method for inferring paleoclimates may not be included in the virtual journal, whereas a study of the acceleration of chemical weathering of apatite by bacteria seeking apatite will. The criteria for selection must evolve with the field, and in response to the needs and desires of the practitioners. Toward that end, I welcome your comments on the list of papers included in this issue and in the archival issue in which geobiology papers published in the first half of 2002 are being listed. Are there papers that were published by Elsevier in 2002 that should have been included? Is our definition of geobiology too broad or too restricted? Are there other things the virtual journal could provide you to enhance your research and education endeavors? I expect to hear that the collective answer to all of these questions is "yes." Ultimately, however, the success of the virtual journal will be reflected in the extent to which it helps and encourages the Earth and life-science communities to come together to reveal and elucidate the intricate inner-workings and evolutionary adjustments of the Earth system in the distant past, present, and future.
Amend, Jan P; Fedo, Chris; Cady, Sherry L.; Southam, Gordon; Konhauser, Kurt O., 2001. Geobiology and geomicrobiology in the 21st century. GSA Today, vol.11, no.10, pp.10.
Knoll, Andrew H.; Hayes, John M., 2000. Geobiology; problems and prospects. Senckenberg-Buch, vol.74, pp.149-153.
Pennisi, Elizabeth, 2002. Geobiologists: As diverse as the bugs they study. Science, vol. 296, pp. 1058-1060.
* Email: kump@geosc.psu.edu