YOUR BIOTIC REGULATION QUESTIONS

How can it be that both unicellular and multicellular organisms co-exist on our planet?
Didn't the latter enter the biosphere as more progressive and should have then outcompeted the former in the struggle for survival?

YOUR BIOTIC REGULATION QUESTIONS

How can we as humans reduce our net primary productivity consumption?

What are the spatial boundaries of the biota (in kilometers)?

What is the minimum spatial volume where one could see the greenhouse effect? E.g., would a cube of 1 m³ filled with chlorofluorocarbons suffice?

TWENTY PHOTOS FROM GREENLAND

ARCTIC: THE MIRROR OF LIFE (Greenland, September 2007)
First presentation is available at http://www.biotic-regulation.pl.ru/rse.

YOUR BIOTIC REGULATION QUESTIONS
Asked by anonymous visitor on April 23rd, 2007:
What happens if species-destroyers disappear from the living community? (in RUSSIAN)

NEW PUBLICATION (Biotic pump comes through!)
 
Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G. (2007) Biotic pump of atmospheric moisture as driver of the hydrological cycle on land. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 11, 1013-1033. Abstract, PDF (0.7 Mb), discussion (closed, 24 comments).

• Featured in the media: "Savanization of the Amazon can cause climate impact in the Country: Studies show that the shrinking of Forests must affect winds, increase El Nino frequency and provoke drought" (O Estado de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, in Portuguese, 8 April 2007) Article PDF
   
  
• To be presented at EGU 2007 Assembly

YOUR BIOTIC REGULATION QUESTIONS
Asked by Mr. Volozhin, visitor of our site, on February 22nd, 2007:
Biotic regulation, is it a theory or a hypothesis?

YOUR BIOTIC REGULATION QUESTIONS
Asked by anonymous visitor on February 11th, 2007:
What is the difference between functions of unicellular and multicellular organisms?

YOUR BIOTIC REGULATION QUESTIONS
On August 16th, 2006 Professor Jos van Damme raised several important topics in his questions:
"I read the summary of the birth reduction plea and it shocked me quite strongly. If it is true that a tenfold or even a hundredfold reduction in population numbers is necessary for humans to live in balance with the world ecosystem, then this seems to imply destruction of the world ecosystem in practice to me, because I am not very optimistic that the human world population will reduce birth rates enough and in time in practice.
My first question is how much time does humanity have to reduce the birth rate around the globe sufficiently to prevent destruction of the world ecosystem? How many generations may this process of reducing birth rate take to work effectively?
My second question is what sort of process do you envisage for the human population to come to a reduction of birthrates? I see none at the moment; I see only misuderstandings and misuse of your ideas about birth rate reduction in political environments, what makes me rather pessimistic..." The essay "SURVIVORSHIP ESSENTIALS: Neglected aspects of the population numbers' problem" was written in response to these questions. The most general answer is that today the study of the demographic problem aimed at increasing public awareness in this most important sphere should be given the highest priority, then the needed changes in societal practices will not make one wait long.
The essay comes in two languages, Russian and English. In Russian it can be read in full right now, while the English translation will be coming chapter by chapter, with the Preface and Section I.1. "INTERNAL DEMOGRAPHIC PROBLEM: Population load of children and the elderly" already available.

 

YOUR BIOTIC REGULATION QUESTIONS
Asked by Eugene, visitor of our site, on January 22nd, 2007:
What is ecosystem succession? How do biomass, productivity and biodiversity change during succession?

 

NEW PUBLICATION
Gorshkov V.G., Makarieva A.M. (2006) The nature of the observed climate stability on Earth. Geoekologiya, N3 (2006), 483-495. PDF (0.9 Mb, in Russian).

 

MASS-MEDIA ON BIOTIC REGULATION
Who broke the climate pump? Ye. Kokurina.
Moscow News, 19 January 2007 (in Russian).
This article is about biotic pump of atmospheric moisture.

YOUR BIOTIC REGULATION QUESTIONS
What distinguishes living organisms from non-living?

NEW PUBLICATION

Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G., Li B.-L. (2006) Conservation of water cycle on land via restoration of natural closed-canopy forests: implications for regional landscape planning. Ecological Research, 21, 897-906, doi:10.1007/s11284-006-0036-6. Abstract, PDF (0.4 Mb). Copyright 2006 The Ecological Society of Japan. Further reproduction or electronic distribution is not permitted.

FIRST TEN COMMENTS ON THE BIOTIC PUMP OF ATMOSPHERIC MOISTURE AND OUR RESPONSES TO THEM ARE NOW AVAILABLE.

BIOTIC REGULATION IN SIMPLE WORDS
FOREST, WATER AND WEATHER or WHERE IS EUROPEAN WINTER?
In November and December 2006 most Western European countries are witnessing anomalously high temperatures that have in some cases beaten centuries' records. In the Central European part of Russia daily temperatures in the beginning of December, too, exceed the long-term means by up to eight degrees Celsius. These regional phenomena bring about a new swing of discussions of the global warming and carbon emissions. However, we would like to use this opportunity to demonstrate the potential power of the proposed biotic pump mechanism in explaining and predicting such regional climate anomalies...

NEW PUBLICATION

Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G. (2006) Biotic pump of atmospheric moisture as driver of the hydrological cycle on land. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 3, 2621-2673.
Abstract, PDF and interactive discussion.

ATTENTION: FIRST BIOTIC PUMP PAPER HAS BEEN PUBLISHED INTERACTIVE SCIENTIFIC DISCUSSION IS STILL OPEN more about biotic pump...

NEW PUBLICATIONS

Gorshkov V.G., Makar'eva A.M., Losev K.S. (2006) A strategy for the survival of the humanity is on agenda. Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 76(2), 139-143, doi:10.1134/S1019331606020055. PDF (500 Kb, Russian). The authors discuss the most important fallacies in modern climatology and ecology and priorities in solving the problems of environment and nature protection.

Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G., Li B.-L., Chown S.L. (2006) Size- and temperature-independence of minimum life-supporting metabolic rates. Functional Ecology, 20, 83-96, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2435.2006.01070.x. Abstract, PDF (proofs, 350 Kb), supplementary data (WinWord). Copyright 2006 The Authors Journal Compilation; Copyright 2006 British Ecological Society. Further reproduction or electronic distribution is not permitted.

 
YOUR BIOTIC REGULATIONS QUESTIONS
In Russian. Answers to the questions of Yelena (On the natural ecological role of man: "In some of your publications you indicated that man can be considered as a species-repairer useful for the restoration of disturbed nature...", 31.05.2006) and an anonymous visitor ("What is biogen?", 05.06.2006)
 

 
MASS-MEDIA ABOUT BIOTIC REGULATION. In Russian. Halfway between the happy end and Apocalypse. I. Frankfurter.
Vesti Jerusalem, 9 February 2006. In Russian.
 
RECENT UPDATES SO FAR UNACCOUNTED FOR ON THIS PAGE
 
1. YOUR BIOTIC REGULATION QUESTIONS
Answer to the questions asked by Albina, our site's visitor, on March, 27th, 2006: How does man exploit the natural biota? What is the relevance of the natural biota for the future survival of the humanity? In Russian. Added 10.04.2006
 
2. OPEN LETTER TO CITIZENS OF RUSSIA
 
FORESTS AS GUARANTEES OF THE EXISTENCE OF RUSSIAN RIVERS AND LIFE ON LAND (discussing the upcoming new forest code). In Russian. Added 05.05.2006.

NEW FEATURE
 
HOT RESEARCH TOPIC: Forests make rivers ...While in the traditional consideration of the water cycle on land it is assumed that the incoming flux of atmospheric moisture from the ocean is a purely geophysical parameter, i.e. an abiotic constraint on the ecosystem's functioning, we have shown that in reality this flux is fully determined by the properties of the terrestrial vegetation cover, in particular, by the flux of evaporation from its surface. The larger this flux, the stronger the winds from the ocean bringing moisture to land. As far as evaporation is highest above natural forest canopies, large forest-covered continental areas enjoy the largest incoming fluxes of atmospheric moisture. When the forests are being destroyed, these fluxes gradually weaken and cease altogether in deserts, since these are completely deprived of vegetation cover. The-chicken-or-the-egg problem of whether forests grow where it is wet, or it is wet where the forests grow, solves unambiguously in favor of the forests' priority...
 
RELATED PUBLICATION
 
Gorshkov V.G., Makarieva A.M. (2006) Biotic pump of atmospheric moisture, its links to global atmospheric circulation and implications for conservation of the terrestrial water cycle. Preprint No. 2655, Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, Russia, 47 pp. Abstract, PDF (840 Kb), discussion.
 
 
 

NEW PUBLICATIONS
 

Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G., Li B.-L. (2005) Energetics of the smallest: Do bacteria breathe at the same rate as whales? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Biological Series, 272, 2219-2224, doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3225. Abstract, PDF (submitted manuscript, 220 Kb). Copyright 2005 The Royal Society. Further reproduction or electronic distribution is not permitted.

Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G., Li B.-L. (2005) Biochemical universality of living matter and its metabolic implications. Functional Ecology, 19, 547-557, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2435.2005.01005.x. Abstract, PDF (200 Kb, proofs). Copyright 2005 British Ecological Society. Further reproduction or electronic distribution is not permitted.

Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G., Li B.-L. (2005) Revising the distributive networks models of West, Brown and Enquist (1997) and Banavar, Maritan and Rinaldo (1999): Metabolic inequity of living tissues provides clues for the observed allometric scaling rules. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 237, 291-301, doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2005.04.016. Abstract, PDF (270 Kb). Copyright 2005 Elsevier Ltd. Further reproduction or electronic distribution is not permitted.

Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G., Li B.-L. (2005) Gigantism, temperature and metabolic rate in terrestrial poikilotherms. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Biological Series, 272, 2325-2328, doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3223. Abstract, PDF (submitted manuscript, 150 Kb). Copyright 2005 The Royal Society. Further reproduction or electronic distribution is not permitted.

Makarieva A.M., Gorshkov V.G., Li B.-L. (2005) Temperature-associated upper limits to body size in terrestrial poikilotherms. OIKOS, 111(3), 425-436. Abstract, PDF (330 Kb, proofs). Copyright 2005 OIKOS. Further reproduction or electronic distribution is not permitted.

These studies are related to the metabolic block of the biotic regulation theory. The main result consists in the demonstration of the fact that, independent of their body size, all living organisms, from bacteria to whales, work to keep their mass-specific metabolic power within universal limits near the metabolic optimum of 1-10 1-10 W/kg (Gorshkov, 1981). This result opposes the common mechanistic view on the living matter, according to which biological features of the living organisms are shaped by their external environment, to which they presumably have to continuously adapt. Instead, our studies show that living organisms are able to overcome the physical limitations imposed on them by their environment and their own physical properties, maintaining optimal, preferred biochemical characteristics (in this case, mass-specific metabolic rate). As is demonstrated by other studies, they can also exert a stabilising impact on their immediate environment. In the modern biological paradigm the complexity of living organisms and their environmental abilities are practically ignored. For the lay person, this means that the growing environmental and ecological problems currrently faced by the humanity are attempted to be solved on a predominantly technological basis (which is a dead-end, according to the biotic regulation theory), without involving the huge regulatory potential of natural ecological communities of living organisms. These and other biotic regulation studies aim to change this outdated paradigm by emphasizing the active role of life in building both internal and external environments and keeping the Earth habitable for the humans.
 
 
YOUR BIOTIC REGULATION QUESTIONS
 
Answer to the question asked by Tanya, our site's visitor, on December, 25th, 2005: What are the causes of the degradation of the biosphere? There is a single cause of the degradation of the biosphere. Everything else is but its consequences... Answer to the question asked by Natasha, our site's visitor, on December, 2nd, 2005: What are locally accumulated biogens? If the physical diffusion flux of some biogen does not exceed the biotic productivity with respect to this biogen, then such a biogen is locally accumulated (synonym - locally regulated)...
 
 
NEW PHOTOS
 
Pine trees; Blue horizons; Herbs and sky; Forest brook; Blueberries; Passion; Last, sunny day!; Mother on guard; Cowberries. See the autumn section of our photo gallery.