ecological co-composition

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

Ecological co-composition is the process through which organisms and generations alter the material and relational conditions supporting subsequent life. RB2 develops it through nutrient cycles, soils, atmospheric chemistry and succession. The proposal preserves organisms as contributors within wider fields, distinguishing co-composition from conscious collective design, a harmonious ecological whole or the claim that every change improves conditions for all participants.

Explanation

Each generation inherits conditions shaped by earlier life and modifies them in turn. Composition is therefore historical and materially consequential, not simply simultaneous proximity among species. The examples locate continuity in processes and altered supports rather than making an environment an inert background unaffected by its inhabitants.

RB2 keeps both the local integrity of an organism and the wider circuitry required for that integrity. Reefs, guts and forest floors exemplify partial coordination among differentiated roles. The proposal preserves that double aspect without merging organisms into one super-agent or assuming that dependence eliminates conflict and asymmetric consequences.

The same section retains competition, predation and parasitism alongside symbiosis. AB’s scale qualification prevents an ecological pattern from becoming a universal identical mechanism, while RB3’s environmental criterion asks whether regimes damage the milieus sustaining life. Co-composition is thus descriptive before its effects receive ethical approval or disapproval.

Scope and attribution

Keep historical material effects and differentiated ecological roles.

RB2 — The Real Book, Volume II: Becoming Is Being

Life inherits and changes ecological conditions through differentiated, partly coordinated processes.

Occurrence locators: 200, 201, 202, 222.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Material historical co-composition is distinguished from generic ecological ethical evaluation.