Life, Temperature, And The Earth. The Self-Organizing Biosphere

David Schwartzman

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David Schwartzman - Life, Temperature, And The Earth. The Self-Organizing Biosphere.
The idea that living things and the atmosphere, oceans, and soils comprise an interactive, self-regulating system-the Gaia concept-was first proposed... Lire la suite
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Résumé

The idea that living things and the atmosphere, oceans, and soils comprise an interactive, self-regulating system-the Gaia concept-was first proposed nearly thirty years ago. Since then researchers have been seeking new connections between life and the global environment. David Schwartzman contributes to that search by examining how the Earth's biosphere regulates itself over geologic lime. Emphasizing long-term geologic trends-not the short-term perturbations that have received so much media attention (e.g., the so-called greenhouse effect), the author presents and elucidates his theory of biospheric evolution. Life, Temperature, and the Earth updates and modifies important aspects of the Gaia hypothesis in light of geochemical, geophysical, mathematical, and paleontological data that were either ignored or unavailable at the lime the hypothesis was developed. Schwartzman argues that the Earth's climatic temperature bas been biologically regulated amid the backdrop of variable volcanic outgassing and an evolving son. The key to this regulation-discussed here in depth-has been the progressive increase in life's promotion of weathering on land over geologic lime. The book is the first to take note of strong evidence for much higher temperatures prior to about two billion years ago and their role in constraining the evolution of microbes and delaying the emergence of complex multicellular life. Schwartzman sets the stage by introducing his theory of biospheric evolution and outlining the development of the Gaia concept during the 1980s and 1990s. He then presents a systematic exposition of the weathering process, discussing the habitability of the Earth over geologic lime and the role of such abiotic factors as tectonics and the carbon geodynamic cycle in climatic evolution. The final third of the book turns to a reinterpretation of the surface temperature history of the Earth, positing a much warmer Precambrian Earth surface than conventionally believed and discussing the implications of this fact to evolutionary biology and bioastronomy (the search for life elsewhere in the universe). Determining the history of climate and investigating the self-organization of the biosphere, Life, Temperature, and the Earth explores the very foundations of environmental science and illuminates the evolution of life itself.

Sommaire

    • Climatic Evolution: From Homeostatic Gaia to Geophysiology
    • The Biogeochemical Cycle of Carbon
    • Faint Young Sun Paradox and Climate Stabilization
    • Weathering and Its Biotic Enhancement
    • Weathering: From Theory and Experiment to the Field
    • Quantifying the Biotic Enhancement of Weathering and Its Implications
    • Surface Temperature History of the Earth
    • Did Surface Temperatures Constrain Microbial Evolution? Self-Organization of the Biosphere
    • Alien Biospheres?

Caractéristiques

  • Date de parution
    02/02/2000
  • Editeur
  • ISBN
    0-231-10212-7
  • EAN
    9780231102124
  • Présentation
    Relié
  • Nb. de pages
    241 pages
  • Poids
    0.475 Kg
  • Dimensions
    15,5 cm × 23,5 cm × 1,9 cm

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À propos de l'auteur

Biographie de David Schwartzman

David Schwartzman is a professor in the Department of Biology at Howard University. His research focuses on biogeochemistry, exobiology, and environment science.

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