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Gaia’s Body: Toward a Physiology of Earth

Autor Tyler Volk
en Limba Engleză Paperback – oct 2011
Is Earth alive? Put more rigorously, is the biosphere a self- sustaining meta-organism? This is the essence of Gaia theory: if the biosphere really is a single coherent system, then it must have something like a physiology. It must have systems and processes that perform living functions. OK, then, what systems, what processes, what functions? Gaia's Body is Tyler Volk's answer to this question. In this book, he describes the environment that enables the biosphere to exist; various ways of looking at its "anatomy" and "physiology," the major biogeographical regions such as rainforests, deserts, and tundra; the major substances the biosphere is made of; and the chemical cycles that keep it in balance. He then looks at the question of whether there are any long-term trends in earth's evolution--is Gaia growing colder? more complex?--and examines the role of humanity in Gaia's past and future. Adherents and skeptics both have often been concerned that Gaia theory contains too much goddess and too few testable hypotheses. This is the book that describes, for scientists, students, and lay readers alike, the theory's firm basis in science.
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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9781461274520
ISBN-10: 1461274524
Pagini: 292
Ilustrații: XVII, 269 p.
Dimensiuni: 178 x 254 x 15 mm
Greutate: 0.51 kg
Ediția:Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1998
Editura: Springer
Colecția Copernicus
Locul publicării:New York, NY, United States

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Cuprins

FANTASTIC VOYAGES. A view from above. A view from within.- GAIA AS HOLARCHY. Mats of microbes. Inward and outward causation. Planetary problems and opportunities.- OUTER LIGHT, INNER FIRE. Inclines of light. Architectures of heat. Feedbacks between life and climate.- PRIMARY SUBSTANCES OF GAIA. Air. Water. Earth. Wood.- GEOMETRIES FOR GLOBAL METABOLISM. Interpenetrations. Sheets, tubes, and tiny spheres. A spectrum of borders.- WORLD WIDE GENES. Collective green. Little enzymes that run the world.- BIOGEOCHEMICAL SYMPHONY. Carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, etc. Elemental mergings and partings. A paradox of Gaia's closure.- MOMENTS OF TRANSFORMATION. Internal thresholds. Jolts from space.- ARROWS IN THE LIFE OF GAIA. Persistence. Self-evolution. Evolution of the holarchy.- EPILOGUE: HUMANITY AS A SUBSTANCE OF GAIA.

Recenzii

"...an outstanding contribution to global ecology. The book is very well written and easy for a broadly educated audience to follow. ...I read it as an exciting novel." Nature