Geophysiology
Encyclopedia
Geophysiology is the study of interaction among living organisms on the Earth operating under the hypothesis that the Earth itself acts as a single living organism (Gaia
).
The term "geophysiology" was popularized by James Lovelock
in his writings on the Gaia hypothesis. The term was in fact foreshadowed by many others. James Hutton
(1726-1797), the "Father of Geology" in 1789, in a lecture presented on his behalf by Dr. Black, wrote "I consider the Earth to be a super-organism and that its proper study should be by physiology." This view that the Earth in some ways could be viewed as a superorganism
was widely held in the early 19th century, and was supported even by such early biologists as Huxley (1825-1895). An analogous alternative geophysiology which views the Earth as a single cell was developed by Lewis Thomas
in his The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher (1974).
Vladimir Vernadsky
(1863-1945), founder of biogeochemistry
suggested that geophysiological processes were responsible for the development of the Earth through a succession of phases in which the geosphere
(of inanimate matter) develops into the biosphere
(of biological life). Vernadsky's thinking significantly influenced the development of ecology
in Russia
, culminating in the "Russian Paradigm" (a term first coined by Georgii A. Zavarzin in 1995). The basic tenets of this approach are i) that life can only exist in the form of interconnected nutrient cycles
(i.e. the ecosystem
); ii) that ecosystem assembly is an organized process as opposed a haphazard one; iii) that the emergence of life
on earth was congruent with respect to the appearance of primordial nutrient cycles; iv) that in addition to the evolution
of species there exists a separate process of ecological evolution the direction of which is predetermined by community
composition and dynamics (Lekevičius, 2006).
Frederick Clements (1874-1945) of the Carnegie Institute
of Washington, who popularized the idea of vegetation climax
also introduced the idea of physiology to ecology
, considering the interlocking natures of plants and animals as metabolic
processes within a single superorganism.
The British biologist, Arthur Tansey (1871-1955), who introduced the term ecosystem, also considered the possibility that plant communities could be considered to be boundary-less quasi-organisms, although he never extended his ideas to a planetary scale.
G. Evelyn Hutchison, studied the way logistic growth, biological feedback
systems and self-regulation
tended to explain many of the features of ecological systems, and Raymond Lindeman has further extended the way energy flows between various trophic level
s in his "trophic-dynamic" model, further developed by Mark McMenamin
and Dianna McMenamin's thesis of "Hypersea", which looks at the rate of water flow through the Gaian biological environment. Tyler Volk
, has also looked at the trophic cycling of various elements upon which life depends, and argues that this is central to an understanding of geophysiology.
Eugene Odum
believed that homeostasis and stability in ecosystems was a result of evolutionary processes, and Howard Odum
(his brother) extended this work to include thermodynamic effects in producing ecological "steady states". Howard Odum also extended the nature of the scale of ecosystems from that of a single pond upwards, showing that a "nested hierarchy", "heterarchy
" or "holarchy
" existed in which systems could be considered as elements of larger systems (leaf to tree to glade to forest to bioregion to biotic realm
or biomes). On the basis of this, Gaia theory and geophysiology represent the ultimate extension of these principles.
Gaia hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis, also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.The scientific investigation of the...
).
The term "geophysiology" was popularized by James Lovelock
James Lovelock
James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling...
in his writings on the Gaia hypothesis. The term was in fact foreshadowed by many others. James Hutton
James Hutton
James Hutton was a Scottish physician, geologist, naturalist, chemical manufacturer and experimental agriculturalist. He is considered the father of modern geology...
(1726-1797), the "Father of Geology" in 1789, in a lecture presented on his behalf by Dr. Black, wrote "I consider the Earth to be a super-organism and that its proper study should be by physiology." This view that the Earth in some ways could be viewed as a superorganism
Superorganism
A superorganism is an organism consisting of many organisms. This is usually meant to be a social unit of eusocial animals, where division of labour is highly specialised and where individuals are not able to survive by themselves for extended periods of time. Ants are the best-known example of...
was widely held in the early 19th century, and was supported even by such early biologists as Huxley (1825-1895). An analogous alternative geophysiology which views the Earth as a single cell was developed by Lewis Thomas
Lewis Thomas
Lewis Thomas was a physician, poet, etymologist, essayist, administrator, educator, policy advisor, and researcher.Thomas was born in Flushing, New York and attended Princeton University and Harvard Medical School...
in his The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher (1974).
Vladimir Vernadsky
Vladimir Vernadsky
Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky was a Russian/Ukrainian and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and of radiogeology. His ideas of noosphere were an important contribution to Russian cosmism. He also worked in Ukraine where he...
(1863-1945), founder of biogeochemistry
Biogeochemistry
Biogeochemistry is the scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment...
suggested that geophysiological processes were responsible for the development of the Earth through a succession of phases in which the geosphere
Geosphere
The term geosphere is often used to refer to the densest parts of Earth, which consist mostly of rock and regolith. The geosphere consists of the inside of the Earth or other planets or bodies....
(of inanimate matter) develops into the biosphere
Biosphere
The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a closed and self-regulating system...
(of biological life). Vernadsky's thinking significantly influenced the development of ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, culminating in the "Russian Paradigm" (a term first coined by Georgii A. Zavarzin in 1995). The basic tenets of this approach are i) that life can only exist in the form of interconnected nutrient cycles
Nutrient cycle
A nutrient cycle is the movement and exchange of organic and inorganic matter back into the production of living matter. The process is regulated by food web pathways that decompose matter into mineral nutrients. Nutrient cycles occur within ecosystems...
(i.e. the ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
); ii) that ecosystem assembly is an organized process as opposed a haphazard one; iii) that the emergence of life
Abiogenesis
Abiogenesis or biopoesis is the study of how biological life arises from inorganic matter through natural processes, and the method by which life on Earth arose...
on earth was congruent with respect to the appearance of primordial nutrient cycles; iv) that in addition to the evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
of species there exists a separate process of ecological evolution the direction of which is predetermined by community
Community (ecology)
In ecology, a community is an assemblage of two or more populations of different species occupying the same geographical area. The term community has a variety of uses...
composition and dynamics (Lekevičius, 2006).
Frederick Clements (1874-1945) of the Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institution for Science
The Carnegie Institution for Science is an organization in the United States established to support scientific research....
of Washington, who popularized the idea of vegetation climax
Climax community
In ecology, a climax community, or climatic climax community, is a biological community of plants and animals which, through the process of ecological succession — the development of vegetation in an area over time — has reached a steady state. This equilibrium occurs because the climax community...
also introduced the idea of physiology to ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
, considering the interlocking natures of plants and animals as metabolic
Metabolism
Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in the cells of living organisms to sustain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories...
processes within a single superorganism.
The British biologist, Arthur Tansey (1871-1955), who introduced the term ecosystem, also considered the possibility that plant communities could be considered to be boundary-less quasi-organisms, although he never extended his ideas to a planetary scale.
G. Evelyn Hutchison, studied the way logistic growth, biological feedback
Feedback
Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
systems and self-regulation
Autoregulation
Autoregulation is a process within many biological systems, resulting from some internal adaptive mechanism that works to adjust the systems response to stimuli. While most systems of the body show some degree of autoregulation, it is most clearly observed in the kidney, the heart, and the brain...
tended to explain many of the features of ecological systems, and Raymond Lindeman has further extended the way energy flows between various trophic level
Trophic level
The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food chain. The word trophic derives from the Greek τροφή referring to food or feeding. A food chain represents a succession of organisms that eat another organism and are, in turn, eaten themselves. The number of steps an organism...
s in his "trophic-dynamic" model, further developed by Mark McMenamin
Mark McMenamin
Mark McMenamin is a tenured professor of geology at Mount Holyoke College. His research is primarily focused on paleontology, particularly the Ediacaran biota....
and Dianna McMenamin's thesis of "Hypersea", which looks at the rate of water flow through the Gaian biological environment. Tyler Volk
Tyler Volk
Tyler Volk is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at New York University. Volk is an active proponent of the Gaia hypothesis. A 1989 study, co-authored by Volk, published in the journal Nature asserts that without the cooling effects of living things, Earth would be 80 degrees...
, has also looked at the trophic cycling of various elements upon which life depends, and argues that this is central to an understanding of geophysiology.
Eugene Odum
Eugene Odum
Eugene Pleasants Odum was an American scientist known for his pioneering work on ecosystem ecology. He wrote the first ecology textbook: Fundamentals of Ecology....
believed that homeostasis and stability in ecosystems was a result of evolutionary processes, and Howard Odum
Howard T. Odum
Howard Thomas Odum was an American ecologist...
(his brother) extended this work to include thermodynamic effects in producing ecological "steady states". Howard Odum also extended the nature of the scale of ecosystems from that of a single pond upwards, showing that a "nested hierarchy", "heterarchy
Heterarchy
A heterarchy is a system of organization replete with overlap, multiplicity, mixed ascendancy, and/or divergent-but-coexistent patterns of relation...
" or "holarchy
Holarchy
A holarchy, in the terminology of Arthur Koestler, is a connection between holons – where a holon is both a part and a whole. The term was coined in Koestler's 1967 book The Ghost in the Machine...
" existed in which systems could be considered as elements of larger systems (leaf to tree to glade to forest to bioregion to biotic realm
Realm
A realm is a dominion of a monarch or other sovereign ruler.The Old French word reaume, modern French royaume, was the word first adopted in English; the fixed modern spelling does not appear until the beginning of the 17th century...
or biomes). On the basis of this, Gaia theory and geophysiology represent the ultimate extension of these principles.
See also
- Earth immune systemEarth immune systemThe Earth immune system is a controversial proposal, claimed to be a consequence of the Gaia hypothesis.The Gaia hypothesis holds that the entire earth may be considered a single organism ....
- Gaia HypothesisGaia hypothesisThe Gaia hypothesis, also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.The scientific investigation of the...
- Earth System ScienceEarth system scienceEarth system science seeks to integrate various fields of academic study to understand the Earth as a system. It considers interaction between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere , biosphere, and heliosphere....
- Medea hypothesisMedea HypothesisThe Medea Hypothesis is a term coined by paleontologist Peter Ward for the anti-Gaian hypothesis that multicellular life, understood as a superorganism, is suicidal; in this view microbial-triggered mass extinctions are attempts to return the Earth to the microbial dominated state it has been for...