TY - JOUR
T1 - Natural selection, Gaia, and inadvertent by-products
T2 - A reply to Lenton and Wilkinson's response
AU - Volk, Tyler
PY - 2003/5
Y1 - 2003/5
N2 - Lenton and Wilkinson (2003), in response to me (Volk, 2002), have offered a number of important ideas for a Gaia theory of 'regulatory feedbacks' between life and the global environment. After what are generally positive comments on a selection of their concepts, I focus my reply on one specific point of disagreement. Contrary to the claim of Lenton and Wilkinson, nitrogen fixation is merely another example of how a by-product affects the shared environment among organisms. For Gaia theory to properly incorporate evolution by natural selection, we must distinguish between life's products and by-products. Because organisms evolve in environments altered by these by-products, I continue to support the idea that feedback loops in the biosphere contain segments based solely upon by-products of organisms' metabolisms.
AB - Lenton and Wilkinson (2003), in response to me (Volk, 2002), have offered a number of important ideas for a Gaia theory of 'regulatory feedbacks' between life and the global environment. After what are generally positive comments on a selection of their concepts, I focus my reply on one specific point of disagreement. Contrary to the claim of Lenton and Wilkinson, nitrogen fixation is merely another example of how a by-product affects the shared environment among organisms. For Gaia theory to properly incorporate evolution by natural selection, we must distinguish between life's products and by-products. Because organisms evolve in environments altered by these by-products, I continue to support the idea that feedback loops in the biosphere contain segments based solely upon by-products of organisms' metabolisms.
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U2 - 10.1023/A:1023463510624
DO - 10.1023/A:1023463510624
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:0037837265
SN - 0165-0009
VL - 58
SP - 13
EP - 19
JO - Climatic Change
JF - Climatic Change
IS - 1-2
ER -