1 Image Credit: Martin Vargic 2 PEACH: The Physiology-Exoplanet Astroecological model for Characterizing Habitability

Alma Y. Ceja NASA MIRO FIELDS Fellow Planetary Research Laboratory University of California, Riverside

3 Questions:

1. What kinds of and produce habitable conditions? 2. What types of organisms could a “habitable” exoplanet sustain? 3. Which might be observable from inhabited exoplanets?

4 Ecological Modeling

Predicted Distribution Environmental Data

Physiological Data

5 ROCKE-3D

• Fully coupled and dynamic oceanic-atmospheric climate model • Simulates atmospheric chemistry, aerosols, the cycle, and other tracers • Has been used to model , Mars, , TRAPPIST-1, and Proxima Centauri b

Image Credit: Kaitlin Alexander and Steve Eastbrook 6 Rule-based modeling

7 Thermal Performance Curves

Schulte 2014 8 The Biokinetic Spectrum of Temperature for on Earth • Describes maximum and minimum thermal growth rate limits for 1627 organisms • Data is inclusive of all three Domains, all six Kingdoms, and forty-three of the fifty-five phyla • Data is made available and features individual thermophysiology data

Corkrey et al. 2016 9 Thermal Performance Curves

10 Fitting Performance Curves

Angilletta 2006 11 Rule-based modeling

organism environment remains is habitable

organism ‘analyzes’ environment

environment organism is not expires habitable

12 13 Biosignatures

• Note: degeneracies may exist between biotic/abiotic processes which may convolute spectral signatures.

14 Next Steps: Model Validation

1. Astroecology model vetting: validate model under observed Earth environmental temperatures 2. Constraining Earth-like exoplanets: execute Earth model with variable parameters (e.g. eccentricity, obliquity, - separation, stellar age) to identify limits in parameter 3. Identifying habitable exoplanets: execute model for confirmed rocky exoplanets

15 Acknowledgements Planetary Research Laboratory

[email protected] @thealmashow 16