Student assignment. (requirement for course by Peter Kabai)

The Gaia Hypothesis

essay by Yoav J.Eisenberg

The Gaia idea or as better known was the "Gaia hypothesis " was first brought up by

Dr James Lovelock, a British Chemist . he was hired by N.A.S.A to take part in the research of Mars by use of the first space craft to ever visited the planet (Mariner 4) in 1965. his part in the mission was to search for the evidence of life on Mars. He came to the conclusion the Red planet is a "dead" planet by the assumption of it's gas equilibrium. After assuming that he turned his eyes to look at our own atmosphere which was widely different from that of Mars (fig1) the question arouse in him for why was our earth in such a different gas equilibrium ? and how is it actually maintained in the presence of constant Ecological changes?

So it was that in 1970 that the "Gaia hypothesis" came to life named after the Greek goddess of the land . supported by professor Lynn Margulis , Lovelock went to work to prove his theory that the earth is one super-organism which can act to self regulate .

In his first book published in 1979 named "Gaia: a new look at life on earth" he described the assents of the Gaia Idea like so "The entire range of living matter on Earth from whales to viruses and from oaks to algae could be regarded as constituting a single living entity capable of maintaining the Earth's atmosphere to suit its overall needs and endowed with faculties and powers far beyond those of its constituent parts".

So in fact , the major idea behind Gaia was that all organizemes aware or unaware works in a kind of symbiosis in which the Earth is at the control panels ordering what is needed to occur in order for equilibrium to try and be achieved .

He continued on in order to strongly emphasis and explain his theory in his book "The ages of Gaia" published in 1988 in which he said "Less is Gaia the same as the biota, which is simply the collection of all individual living organisms. The biota and the biosphere taken together form a part but not all of Gaia. Just as the shell is part of the snail, so the rocks, the air, and the oceans are part of Gaia".

Lovelock ran into heavy opposition to his theory , which would not by any circumstances submit to the fact that "this ball of solid rock could be somehow alive, and it is the interaction between the organisms which set the pace that life takes . Lovelock did not remain "hidden" against the attack coming from the scientific community and retorted by giving a simple example also noted in his book "The ages of Gaia" . he used the example of a giant redwood tree saying " The great tree is an ancient spire of dead wood, made of lignin and cellulose by the ancestors of the thin layer of living cells which constitute its bark. How like the Earth, and more so when we realize that many of the atoms of the rocks far down into the magma were once part of the ancestral life of which we all have come." But still rarely any of his writings or any others dealing with the Gaia notion and related topic would receive a place in a respectable scientific journal . the most fierce opposition came from the Darwin followers which said that Lovelock's theories are unacceptable seeing how this shatters the whole Darwin based assumption of natural selection .

In response Lovelock said "By taking the species and their physical environment together as a single system, we can, for the first time, build ecological models that are mathematically stable and yet include large numbers of competing species. In these models increased diversity among the species leads to better regulation." Lovelock also noted that no contradiction comes between him and Darwin seeing how that an organism which favors the environment could be seen propagating because the environment (meaning the Gaia itself) would also benefit from him . and the opposite is also true.

But the most well known counter argument was that of the "Daisyworld".

Which came in order to counter attack to teleology brand mark which has been given to the Gaia hypothesis :

Basic Explanation(of Daisyworld) :

This model comes to resemble our earth by giving an example of cloudless plant which bares the same conditions as our Earth in the meaning of soil nutrients.

This planet which is called "Daisyworld" is called so because it's home for only two species one is a dark Daisy and one is a light colored Daisy (gray as an intermediate) .

This planet also has a sun same like ours which grows progressively brighter through time, radiating more and more heat. Now we will follow the progress of time on this planet from the very begining as indicated in fig 2.

at first the planet was cool , this caused the number of dark daisy to increase and that is because their dark color has good heat absorption qualities which cause the surrounding vicinity of the daisies to be warmer then a non daisies plain (Point A).

so now the conditions are warmer around the dark daises and more dark daises begin to grow around the original daisy and as the conditioned become even more comfortable we can see the initiation of gray and white daisies which start to increase in population (point B).

meanwhile the sun of our Daisyworld continues to get wormer and thus projecting more heat to the surface of the planet- eventually passing over the point of tolerance which the dark daisies can absorbed and they begin to die , but at the same time the light colored ("white") daises begin to increase in number because they have the ability to project the heat back to the atmosphere and out of the plant. And by that creating cool spots across the planet surface. This would result in a total decrees in global temp' even thou the sun itself continues to get warmer and warmer. (points C+D)

but as our sun continues to get warmer with time so does this sun, and it's heat projected at the planet would keep on increasing until a point in which even the white Daisies wont be able to with-stand the heat and eventually die leaving a desert as it's tomb (as can be seen happening on earth).

By this model Lovelock tried to show that according to the Gaia hypothesis the one daisy even thou by itself unaware of a much larger role it plays and acting on own self interest , is actually one of the elements in which the super organism namely the earth is using in order to maintain the equilibrium .

Lovelock model was later on reinforced by Von Bloh which introduced a more advanced model of the Daisyworld theory .

In his model , interaction between the plants was allowed and that resulted in the formation of mutations in according to the albedo (reflectivity of a surface) ability . it was shown that as the heat projected by the sun increased through the progress of time , so did the daisies mutate to form a lighter colored species which can cool the planet better.

But still high opposition rose against Lovelock's and Margulis's work also known as the symposium . the most dominant was James Kirchner which said that Lovelock's idea of Gaia can be at best considered as a form of global physiology and would never be the dealing of serious scientific work.

He even went so far as to publish his own spectrum of the Gaia hypothesis which gives grade to it's different fundamental ideas as seen in fig 3.

But that didnt cause the Gaia project to end , on the contrary , for it is now seen in much a wider prospective and studied vastly checking possibilities of ecological engineering through the Gaia hypothesis.

So how can we conclude and try to summaries by that which had been said .

We can't!! for the Gaia Hypothesis is still a young sibling reaching for it's first gulps of air . but we can come to number of understandings in which I have strong faith in .

These are the understandings which open our eyes to see the complex ecological world which befolds in front of us . the tangled webs of this delicate and sophisticated system which is beyond our understanding and comprehension.

I for one feel that there is yet much more for us to revile and behold in this once thought simple system of nature.

I believe in the Gaia hypothesis , and see it to be true .

There is no doubt in my mind that the whole earth (and perhaps the whole galaxy) is as one giant organism and as such , if one part of it is dieing the rest of it will follow and that is what makes the Gaia idea much more relevant in these days , when our planet is suffering the cruel hand of men which brings it and him self to an early doom.

I shell end by the words of the one who conceived the Gaia hypothesis :

"There are many possibilities for comfort as there are for dismay in contemplating the consequences of our membership in this great commonwealth of living things. It may be that one role we play is as the senses and nervous system for Gaia. Through our eyes she has for the first time seen her very fair face and in our minds become aware of herself. We do indeed belong here. The earth is more than just a home, it's a living system and we are part of it".

James Lovelock.

References

"Gaia Hypothesis" (James Lovelock)

"Gaia : a new look on life on earth" (James Lovelock)

"The age of Gaia" (James Lovelock)

"Guide to the Blue Planet " (M. Bjornerud, J. Hughes and A. Baldwin, 1995)

"Catastrophes on Daisyworld" (David M.wilkinson)

http://www.mountainman.com.au/gaia_jim.html

http://bio.univet.hu/SALVE/Student_essay/libr/gaia_daysiworld.pdf

Yoav J.Eisenberg

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The Gaia Hypothesis essay by Yoav J.Eisenberg The Gaia idea or as better known was the "Gaia hypothesis " was first brought up by Dr James Lovelock, a British Chemist . he was hired by N.A.S.A to take part in the research of Mars by use of the first space craft to ever visited the planet (Mariner 4) in 1965. his part in the mission was to search for the evidence of life on Mars. He came to the conclusion the Red planet is a "dead" planet by the assumption of it's gas equilibrium. After assuming that he turned his eyes to look at our own atmosphere which was widely different from that of Mars (fig1) the question arouse in him for why was our earth in such a different gas equilibrium ? and how is it actually maintained in the presence of constant Ecological changes? So it was that in 1970 that the "Gaia hypothesis" came to life named after the Greek goddess of the land . supported by professor Lynn Margulis , Lovelock went to work to prove his theory that the earth is one super-organism which can act to self regulate . In his first book published in 1979 named "Gaia: a new look at life on earth" he described the assents of the Gaia Idea like so "The entire range of living matter on Earth from whales to viruses and from oaks to algae could be regarded as constituting a single living entity capable of maintaining the Earth's atmosphere to suit its overall needs and endowed with faculties and powers far beyond those of its constituent parts". So in fact , the major idea behind Gaia was that all organizemes aware or unaware works in a kind of symbiosis in which the Earth is at the control panels ordering what is needed to occur in order for equilibrium to try and be achieved . He continued on in order to strongly emphasis and explain his theory in his book "The ages of Gaia" published in 1988 in which he said "Less is Gaia the same as the biota, which is simply the collection of all individual living organisms. The biota and the biosphere taken together form a part but not all of Gaia. Just as the shell is part of the snail, so the rocks, the air, and the oceans are part of Gaia". Lovelock ran into heavy opposition to his theory , which would not by any circumstances submit to the fact that "this ball of solid rock could be somehow alive, and it is the interaction between the organisms which set the pace that life takes . Lovelock did not remain "hidden" against the attack coming from the scientific community and retorted by giving a simple example also noted in his book "The ages of Gaia" . he used the example of a giant redwood tree saying " The great tree is an ancient spire of dead wood, made of lignin and cellulose by the ancestors of the thin layer of living cells which constitute its bark. How like the Earth, and more so when we realize that many of the atoms of the rocks far down into the magma were once part of the ancestral life of which we all have come." But still rarely any of his writings or any others dealing with the Gaia notion and related topic would receive a place in a respectable scientific journal . the most fierce opposition came from the Darwin followers which said that Lovelock's theories are unacceptable seeing how this shatters the whole Darwin based assumption of natural selection . In response Lovelock said "By taking the species and their physical environment together as a single system, we can, for the first time, build ecological models that are mathematically stable and yet include large numbers of competing species. In these models increased diversity among the species leads to better regulation." Lovelock also noted that no contradiction comes between him and Darwin seeing how that an organism which favors the environment could be seen propagating because the environment (meaning the Gaia itself) would also benefit from him . and the opposite is also true. But the most well known counter argument was that of the "Daisyworld". Which came in order to counter attack to teleology brand mark which has been given to the Gaia hypothesis : Basic Explanation(of Daisyworld) : This model comes to resemble our earth by giving an example of cloudless plant which bares the same conditions as our Earth in the meaning of soil nutrients. This planet which is called "Daisyworld" is called so because it's home for only two species one is a dark Daisy and one is a light colored Daisy (gray as an intermediate) . This planet also has a sun same like ours which grows progressively brighter through time, radiating more and more heat. Now we will follow the progress of time on this planet from the very begining as indicated in fig 2. at first the planet was cool , this caused the number of dark daisy to increase and that is because their dark color has good heat absorption qualities which cause the surrounding vicinity of the daisies to be warmer then a non daisies plain (Point A). so now the conditions are warmer around the dark daises and more dark daises begin to grow around the original daisy and as the conditioned become even more comfortable we can see the initiation of gray and white daisies which start to increase in population (point B). meanwhile the sun of our Daisyworld continues to get wormer and thus projecting more heat to the surface of the planet- eventually passing over the point of tolerance which the dark daisies can absorbed and they begin to die , but at the same time the light colored ("white") daises begin to increase in number because they have the ability to project the heat back to the atmosphere and out of the plant. And by that creating cool spots across the planet surface. This would result in a total decrees in global temp' even thou the sun itself continues to get warmer and warmer. (points C+D) but as our sun continues to get warmer with time so does this sun, and it's heat projected at the planet would keep on increasing until a point in which even the white Daisies wont be able to with-stand the heat and eventually die leaving a desert as it's tomb (as can be seen happening on earth). By this model Lovelock tried to show that according to the Gaia hypothesis the one daisy even thou by itself unaware of a much larger role it plays and acting on own self interest , is actually one of the elements in which the super organism namely the earth is using in order to maintain the equilibrium . Lovelock model was later on reinforced by Von Bloh which introduced a more advanced model of the Daisyworld theory . In his model , interaction between the plants was allowed and that resulted in the formation of mutations in according to the albedo (reflectivity of a surface) ability . it was shown that as the heat projected by the sun increased through the progress of time , so did the daisies mutate to form a lighter colored species which can cool the planet better. But still high opposition rose against Lovelock's and Margulis's work also known as the symposium . the most dominant was James Kirchner which said that Lovelock's idea of Gaia can be at best considered as a form of global physiology and would never be the dealing of serious scientific work. He even went so far as to publish his own spectrum of the Gaia hypothesis which gives grade to it's different fundamental ideas as seen in fig 3. But that didnt cause the Gaia project to end , on the contrary , for it is now seen in much a wider prospective and studied vastly checking possibilities of ecological engineering through the Gaia hypothesis. So how can we conclude and try to summaries by that which had been said . We can't!! for the Gaia Hypothesis is still a young sibling reaching for it's first gulps of air . but we can come to number of understandings in which I have strong faith in . These are the understandings which open our eyes to see the complex ecological world which befolds in front of us . the tangled webs of this delicate and sophisticated system which is beyond our understanding and comprehension. I for one feel that there is yet much more for us to revile and behold in this once thought simple system of nature. I believe in the Gaia hypothesis , and see it to be true . There is no doubt in my mind that the whole earth (and perhaps the whole galaxy) is as one giant organism and as such , if one part of it is dieing the rest of it will follow and that is what makes the Gaia idea much more relevant in these days , when our planet is suffering the cruel hand of men which brings it and him self to an early doom. I shell end by the words of the one who conceived the Gaia hypothesis : "There are many possibilities for comfort as there are for dismay in contemplating the consequences of our membership in this great commonwealth of living things. It may be that one role we play is as the senses and nervous system for Gaia. Through our eyes she has for the first time seen her very fair face and in our minds become aware of herself. We do indeed belong here. The earth is more than just a home, it's a living system and we are part of it". James Lovelock. References "Gaia Hypothesis" (James Lovelock) "Gaia : a new look on life on earth" (James Lovelock) "The age of Gaia" (James Lovelock) "Guide to the Blue Planet " (M. Bjornerud, J. Hughes and A. Baldwin, 1995) "Catastrophes on Daisyworld" (David M.wilkinson) http://www.mountainman.com.au/gaia_jim.html http://bio.univet.hu/SALVE/Student_essay/libr/gaia_daysiworld.pdf *Yoav J.Eisenberg*

Notes (if any) by Peter Kabai: