Biotic regulation in simple words

Please note that many documents in this section are in Russian, so no links to them are provided from this page. To read the documents in Russian, please, go to the Russian version of this page.

SURVIVORSHIP ESSENTIALS: Neglected aspects of the population numbers' problem 14 February 2007
FOREST, WATER AND WEATHER or WHERE IS EUROPEAN WINTER? 8 December 2006
On the natural ecological role of man
V.G. Gorshkov, A.M. Makarieva, 17 July 2006.
What are the causes of the degradation of the biosphere?
A.M. Makarieva, V.G. Gorshkov, 14 February 2006.
On the occasion of Russia signing the Kyoto protocol: Climate warming or climate collapse?
A.M. Makarieva, V.G. Gorshkov, 14 February 2005.
Gorshkov V.G., Makarieva A.M. (2002) On biotic regulation and the perspectives of life persistence. In Russian.
The main document of this section. See the contents below. Updated 12 November 2003 (all chapters except for the 5th).
Priorities and delusions in global ecological problematics: natural biota and human population. In Russian.
Gorshkov V.G., Makarieva A.M. Highlights of the report made at the regional seminar "Mechanisms of involving business into sustainable development initiatives in the Central Asia", Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan, 18-19 July 2003.
Gorshkov V.G., Makarieva A.M. (2001) Pollution of the environment by audible information. In Russian.
Ecology and Education, ? 3/4 (2001), 10-16.
Plant immobility and animal locomotion. Sound and noise. Dog barking. Sound narcomannia. Deficit of positive emotions. And more.
On speciation.
31 July 2005. Gorshkov V.G., Makarieva A.M. Evolution, speciation, molecular clock, adaptation and biotic regulation.
Mass-media about biotic regulation. In Russian.

(biotic pump in Brazil)
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 (PDF)
O Estado de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 8 April 2007 (in Portuguese).

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

Halfway between the happy end and Apocalypse. I. Frankfurter.
Vesti Jerusalem, 9 February 2006 (in Russian).

Carbon devourers
Izvestiya Nauka, No. 4 (82), 24 January 2003 (in Russian).
A short adapted note (and our commentary to it) reviewing the results obtained in Gorshkov & Makarieva (2002).

Our breath damps the hell fire. A. Valentinov.
Rossiiskaya gazeta, N 86 (2954), 17 May 2002 (in Russian).
Our commentary to this paper.

	On the perspectives of life persistence: contents Our environment What are these environmental problems all about? Wildlife extinction ... not only the problem of clean or dirty streets and/or air ... life-compatible environmental temperature ... In modern Russia ... natural forest ecosystems are being exterminated ... leads to degradation of water cycle on land ... large-scale problems of water deficit ... catastrophic situations in large cities ... Vladivostok and Artem ... One environmental characteristic ... the biotic control of which is not merely important, but absolutely essential for the very possibility of life existence ...
	Too hot or too cold? ... two important parameters affecting Earth surface temperature ... planetary greenhouse effect... can be compared to a fur coat ... The main greenhouse substance is atmospheric water ... leads to physical instability of terrestrial climate ... could lead to complete evaporation of the oceans on Earth ... Conversely, if surface temperature dropped accidentally ... until complete glaciation of Earth surface... life has existed for about four billion years ... What are the reasons for this sustainability?
	Natural ecosystmes undisturbed by man make climate stable ... life-compatible environmental temperature on Earth is maintained... by natural ecosystems on land and in the ocean ... The biota of Earth represents a mechanism ... taking off the fur coat ... when the planet is "too hot" ... putinng on the fur coat, when it is too cold ... Destruction of natural ecosystems by man ... is equivalent to elimination of the stable climatic pit, where we exist ... when this pit becomes too shallow ... the climate of Earth rapidly goes to one of the two physically stable but life-incompatible states.
	Shall we regulate the planetary climate ourselves? ... to perform global environmental regulation the humanity would have had to create a network of microscopic computers, to input the unknown regulatory program and spread this network over the entire planetary surface with a density of about one computer per square micron ... unrealistic ... the only real possibility is the conservation of natural ecosystems over globally significant areas.
	How much undisturbed natural biota do we need? ... go into the details of how natural ecosystems are organized ... large animals ... in natural ecosystems are allowed to consume no more than one per cent of primary productivity ... the share of global primary productivity claimed by humans has risen to ten per cent ... means that in order to restore environmental stability ... it is necessary to diminish the anthropogenic pressure by ten times ... i.e. to restore natural ecosystems on most part of land and stop cultivation of the ocean ...
	Russia and its forests ... impossible to stop industrial and agricultural activities immediately. However some measures can be urgently taken which can substantially slow down the on-going degradation of global environment... ... complete abandonement of forest exploitation ... forest industry input into the world Gross Domestic Product is no more than one per cent ... ... assign the value of world heritage to the remaining natural forests... economical and political benefits for ecological services on environment stabilisation ... good perspectives for Russia ... cultivation of Russian forests is a dead end ... undermining the strategic environmental safety of the state...
	The man problem ... dwell on the ultimate reasons of the on-going degradation of global environmental conditions ... natural ecological community cannot accomodate species-lazybones or species-gangsters... the unique ability of humans for accumulating cultural heritage... ... until the middle of the nineteenth century the global population number of humans did not exceed the ecological threshold ...
	The race of population numbers ... modern population density is unnatural for Homo sapiens ... massacres of conspecifics ... Why is the problem of population number control is so unpopular? ... No nation would like the global population number to decrease at the expense of this very nation ... ... children that are being born become a tool in political games... ... the arena of political fight has changed... race of population numbers is even more dangerous than the nuclear arms race ... As far as the planetary surface is of limited size, to sustain environmental conditions suitable for their own existence people will have to considerably reduce their population numbers. Such reduction is necessary, first, for allowing natural ecosystems to perform their work on stabilisation of the environment favourable for human life and, second, for ensuring normal conditions of human existence that are coded in the genetic program of Homo sapiens and imply free communication with undisturbed nature and absence of overpopulation threatening the physchological and physical health of people.
	Literature