We are not individuals

Lichens help us think beyond ourselves solely as separate individuals by highlighting the variety, complexity and intimacy of how our lives are reproduced, maintained and enriched in close interdependence with the more than human world.

This is an entry in the Anarchist Bestiary, an ongoing project which shares stories that enable us to learn with and from other species, with the aim of building a world together in which all can thrive.

The entry is available as a podcast above, about 6 minutes long or a text below.

Information

Lichen are an example of symbiosis: a long-term, close relationship between organisms from different species. They are formed by a species of fungus as host as a symbiont which can be  a species of  algae and/or cyanobacteria- a kind of bacteria that can photosynthesise. The fungal host creates the body of the lichen and the symbiont(s) provide the food through photosynthesis. Frequently there is also a species of yeast as an additional symbiont which acts as defense against predation, infection and pollution. This means at least two different species are involved and possibly three or four representing two or three kingdoms of life- fungus, plant and bacteria. The resulting lichen looks very different from what any of the individual species would look like on their own. Lichens have no root system and are noted for being able to survive in harsh environments. Indeed, in experiments in 2008-9 and 2014-6, lichen samples taken to the International Space Station survived 18 months in the vacuum of space exposed to the extreme cold and radiation without significant damage. Lichen reproduce in different ways, sometimes creating packets containing the two, three or four species which have each co-ordinated self-cloning. In some cases the fungal partner will reproduce sexually and the new fungus will search for new symbionts 

Lichen are pioneer species able to colonise bare rock and create microclimates that become homes for multiple life forms and form part of the diet of many insects, birds and even animals like reindeer. 

Humans have long used lichens as dyes, in perfumes and medicines and, more recently, they have provided data as indicators of air quality.  

Insurrection

The 2012 paper A Symbiotic View Of Life: We Have Never Been Individuals  by Gilbert, Sapp and Tauber, concerns what the authors see as a paradigm shift in the biological sciences caused by the recognition of the importance of symbiosis. The paper ends with the line: “We are all lichens”. 

This sentence captures the idea that we all exist in close interdependency with many other species and that seeing ourselves as individuals separate from the rest of nature impoverishes us and denies the richness of the natural world and human experience. 

As humans, we have symbionts. Our gut microbiome and our immune systems are the most obvious examples. A newborn human needs symbionts to aid digestion from the moment they start feeding, and in fact our gut microbiome depends on how we are born, whether we are breastfed or bottle fed, the country we are in, who else is in close physical contact and, indeed, it continues to change throughout our life. The human gut microbiome varies with location. For example, in Japan, where seaweed is a common part of the diet, the microbiome includes bacteria that can break down the sugars in seaweed more effectively. Understanding these intimate relationships with symbionts without whom we could not live changes our perspective and as the authors argue, transforms many disciplines such as immunology, zoology and physiology.

This shift in perspective that lichens offer can lead us to other questions: who else is involved in the reproduction of a human? Family, neighbours, teachers, friends, pets, the flora and fauna of the place we are born, the microbiome and viruses common in the population. It takes an ecosystem to raise and maintain a human and to see ourselves as separate individuals can miss much of this richness. 

The recognition that we are all lichens can be a call to recognise our interdependence: the richness and value of our ecosystems and the species we share the planet with and the diversity of intimate and sexual relationships, friendships, communities, family structures, lifeways and cultures that we benefit from as humans. 

Inspiration

Gilbert, S. F., Sapp, J., & Tauber, A. I. (2012). A Symbiotic View of Life: We Have Never Been Individuals. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 87(4), 325–341. https://doi.org/10.1086/668166

Griffiths, D. (2015). Queer Theory for Lichens. UnderCurrents: Journal of Critical Environmental Studies, 19, 36–45. https://doi.org/10.25071/2292-4736/40249

Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash