Construct · 1 fields · 4 citations

Gaia hypothesis: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

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Gaiahypothesis1 CONSTRUCTGaia hypothesisLOVELOCK · GAIA

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Earth System Science

Earth as a single self-regulating living-plus-physical system

James Lovelock introduced the idea in a 1972 note, Gaia as seen through the atmosphere, and developed it with the biologist Lynn Margulis in 1974 as the Gaia hypothesis: the proposal that Earth's living organisms and their physical and chemical surroundings function together as a single, self-regulating system that keeps surface conditions such as atmospheric composition, temperature, and ocean salinity within a range favorable for life. The name comes from Gaia, the ancient Greek personification of the Earth, suggested to Lovelock by the novelist William Golding. Proponents point to the persistence of a chemically unstable, oxygen-rich atmosphere and a broadly stable climate over billions of years as evidence of biological feedbacks, and Watson and Lovelock's 1983 Daisyworld model showed that such regulation can in principle arise from ordinary natural selection without any foresight or purpose on the part of the biosphere. The hypothesis has been stated in weaker and stronger versions, ranging from the modest claim that life strongly influences its environment to the contested claim that the biosphere actively regulates the planet for its own benefit, and critics including James Kirchner have argued that the stronger versions are difficult to test and risk implying goal-directed behavior that evolutionary theory does not support. Its distinctive scope is that it treats the whole planet, biology and geology and atmosphere together, as one coupled system, an outlook that helped shape the modern field of Earth system science.[1][2][3][4]

Unit
A theory in earth system science about planetary self-regulation through coupled biological and physical feedbacks
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Assessed by testing predicted planetary feedbacks (for example the regulation of atmospheric composition and surface temperature) against geochemical and paleoclimate records and against models such as Daisyworld

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Nearby constructs

homeostasis3 fields · 4 citationsjingle · one word, three constructsfeedback4 fields · 5 citationsjingle · one word, four constructsecosystem3 fields · 5 citationsjingle · one word, three constructs

References

  1. Lovelock, J. E. (1972). Gaia as seen through the atmosphere. Atmospheric Environment, 6(8), 579–580. https://doi.org/10.1016/0004-6981(72)90076-5
  2. Lovelock, J. E., & Margulis, L. (1974). Atmospheric homeostasis by and for the biosphere: The Gaia hypothesis. Tellus, 26(1–2), 2–10. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2153-3490.1974.tb01946.x
  3. Watson, A. J., & Lovelock, J. E. (1983). Biological homeostasis of the global environment: The parable of Daisyworld. Tellus B, 35(4), 284–289. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0889.1983.tb00031.x
  4. Kirchner, J. W. (2002). The Gaia hypothesis: Fact, theory, and wishful thinking. Climatic Change, 52(4), 391–408. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014237331082

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