آیا نقش‌های اکولوژیکی می‌توانند سرنخ‌هایی از چگونگی آغاز زندگی ارائه دهند؟

Could ecological roles offer clues to how life began?

Producers, consumers, and decomposers play different roles in today's ecosystems. Thinking about these familiar roles led me to a question: Could their differences partly reflect the different physical and chemical environments in which early life developed? I wondered whether the organization of ecosystems might offer a useful starting point for thinking about life's beginnings.