Editing Gaia hypothesis (section)

==Overview==
Gaian hypotheses suggest that organisms [[Co-evolution|co-evolve]] with their environment: that is, they "influence their [[abiotic]] environment, and that environment in turn influences the [[Biota (ecology)|biota]] by [[Darwinism|Darwinian process]]". Lovelock (1995) gave evidence of this in his second book, ''Ages of Gaia'', showing the evolution from the world of the early [[Bacteria|thermo-acido-philic]] and [[methanogenic bacteria]] towards the oxygen-enriched [[atmosphere]] today that supports more [[Phanerozoic|complex life]].

A reduced version of the hypothesis has been called "influential Gaia"<ref name="Lapenis-2002">{{Cite journal|last=Lapenis|first=Andrei G.|year=2002|title=Directed Evolution of the Biosphere: Biogeochemical Selection or Gaia?|journal=The Professional Geographer|volume=54 |issue=3|pages=379–391|via=[Peer Reviewed Journal]|doi=10.1111/0033-0124.00337|bibcode=2002ProfG..54..379L |s2cid=10796292}}</ref> in the 2002 paper "Directed Evolution of the Biosphere: Biogeochemical Selection or Gaia?" by Andrei G. Lapenis, which states the [[Biota (ecology)|biota]] influence certain aspects of the abiotic world, e.g. [[temperature]] and atmosphere.  This is not the work of an individual but a collective of Russian scientific research that was combined into this peer-reviewed publication. It states the coevolution of life and the environment through "micro-forces"<ref name="Lapenis-2002" /> and biogeochemical processes. An example is how the activity of [[Photosynthesis|photosynthetic]] bacteria during Precambrian times completely modified the [[Earth's atmosphere|Earth atmosphere]] to turn it aerobic, and thus supports the evolution of life (in particular [[eukaryotic]] life).

Since barriers existed throughout the twentieth century between Russia and the rest of the world, it is only relatively recently that the early Russian scientists who introduced concepts overlapping the Gaia paradigm have become better known to the Western scientific community.<ref name="Lapenis-2002" /> These scientists include [[Piotr Kropotkin|Piotr Alekseevich Kropotkin]] (1842–1921) (although he spent much of his professional life outside Russia), [[:ru:Ризположенский, Рафаил Васильевич|Rafail Vasil’evich Rizpolozhensky]] (1862 – {{Circa|1922}}), [[Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky]] (1863–1945), and [[:ru:Костицын, Владимир Александрович|Vladimir Alexandrovich Kostitzin]] (1886–1963).

Biologists and Earth scientists usually view the factors that stabilize the characteristics of a period as an undirected [[emergent property]] or [[entelechy]] of the system; as each individual species pursues its own self-interest, for example, their combined actions may have counterbalancing effects on environmental change. Opponents of this view sometimes reference examples of events that resulted in dramatic change rather than stable equilibrium, such as the conversion of the Earth's atmosphere from a [[reducing environment]] to an [[oxygen]]-rich one at the end of the [[Archean|Archaean]] and the beginning of the [[Proterozoic]] periods.

Less accepted versions of the hypothesis claim that changes in the biosphere are brought about through the [[Superorganism|coordination of living organisms]] and maintain those conditions through [[homeostasis]]. In some versions of [[Gaia philosophy]], all lifeforms are considered part of one single living planetary being called ''Gaia''. In this view, the atmosphere, the seas and the terrestrial crust would be results of interventions carried out by Gaia through the [[Coevolution|coevolving]] diversity of living organisms.

The Gaia paradigm was an influence on the [[deep ecology]] movement.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-first=David Landis |editor1-last=Barnhill |editor2-first=Roger S. |editor2-last=Gottlieb |title=Deep Ecology and World Religions: New Essays on Sacred Ground |publisher=SUNY Press |year=2010 |page=32}}</ref>