Based on papers delivered at the American Geophysical Union's annual Chapman Conference in March, 1988, in San Diego, Calif.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Geophysiology : the science of Gaia / James E. Lovelock -- The biota and Gaia : 150 years of support for environmental sciences / Lynn Margulis and Gregory Hinkle -- Coevolution and its applicability to the Gaia hypothesis / Paul Ehrlich -- A selection of biogenic influences relevant to the Gaia hypothesis / Walter Shearer -- Gaia and the myths of harmony : an exploration of ethical and practical implications / John Visvader -- The Gaia hypotheses : are they testable? Are they useful? / James W. Kirchner -- Gaia : hypothesis or worldview? / John J. Kineman -- The mechanical and the organic : on the impact of metaphor in science / David Abram -- Ecosystem stability and diversity / John Harte -- Earth - the water planet : a lucky coincidence? / B. Henderson-Sellers, A. Henderson-Sellers, S.M.P. Benbow, and K. McGuffie -- The climate system and its regulation by atmospheric radiative processes / Jeffrey T. Kiehl -- Theoretical microbial and vegetation control of planetary environments / Penelope J. Boston and Starley L. Thompson -- Mechanisms for stabilization and destabilization of a simple biosphere : catastrophe on Daisyworld / Ralph Keeling -- Radiative entropy as a measure of complexity / Glen B. Lesins -- Geophysiological interaction in the global sulfur cycle / M.O. Andreae -- Planetary homeostasis through the sulfur cycle / Glenn E. Shaw -- Atmospheric sulfur from oceanic phytoplankton versus sulfur from industry : which dominates cloud condensation nuclei? / Robert J. Charlson -- Evolutionary pressures on planktonic dimethylsulfide production / Ken Caldeira -- Atmospheric oxygen, tectonics, and life / Robert A. Berner -- Gaian and nongaian explanations for the contemporary level of atmospheric oxygen / G.R. Williams -- The mechanisms that control the carbon dioxide and oxygen content of the atmosphere / Heinrich D. Holland -- Feedback processes in the biogeochemical cycles of carbon / James C.G. Walker -- Gaia's garden and BLAG's greenhouse : global biogeochemical climate regulation / Lee R. Kump and Tyler Volk -- Tectonics, carbon, life, and climate for the last three billion years : a unified system? / Thomas R. Worsley, R. Damian Nance, and Judith B. Moody -- Quantitative evolution of global biomass through time : biological and geochemical constraints / Manfred Schidlowski -- Land biota, source or sink of atmospheric carbon dioxide : positive and negative feedbacks within a changing climate and land use development / G.H. Kohlmaier, Matthias Lüdeke, Alex Janecek, Günther Benderoth, Jürgen Kindermann, and Axel Klaudius -- A geophysiological model for glacial-interglacial oscillations in the carbon and phosphorus cycles / Andrew J. Watson and Linda Maddock -- Peatland formation and ice ages : a possible Gaian mechanism related to community succession / Lee F. Klinger -- Some aspects of air-sea carbon dioxide transfer during the last glacial maximum / David J. Erickson III -- Phanerozoic carbonate skeletal mineralogy and atmospheric carbon dioxide / William D. Bischoff and Collette D. Burke -- Feedbacks between climate and carbon dioxide cycling by the land biosphere / Michael A. Palecki -- Silica in the oceans : biological-geochemical interplay / Raymond Siever -- Ephemeral biogenic emissions and the earth's radiative and oxidative environment / Robert B. Chatfield -- The macromolecular matrix of plant cell walls as a major Gaian interfacial regulator in terrestrial environments / Paul S. Mankiewicz -- Microbial weathering and Gaia / David Schwartzman, John Evans, Harold Okrend, and Soe Aung -- Feedback mechanisms involving humic substances in aquatic ecosystems / Diane M. McKnight -- An ecological rationale for the heterogeneity of humic substances : a holistic perspective on humus / Patrick MacCarthy and James A. Rice -- Biomineralization and Gaia / John F. Stolz -- The biosphere as a driver for global atmospheric change / Joel S. Levine -- Fire in Phanerozoic cybernetics / Jennifer M. Robinson -- Gaia and life on Mars / Christopher P. McKay and Carol R. Stoker -- Gaia versus Shiva : cosmic effects on the long-term evolution of the terrestrial biosphere / Michael R. Rampino -- Gaia on the brink : biogeochemical feedback processes in global warming / Daniel A. Lashof -- The greenhouse civilization and the Gaia hypothesis : a view from Congress / George E. Brown Jr. and Anthony Ellsworth Scoville