Plants: definitely for the better.Plants: Definitely for the better While human activities may be warming Earth, the rest of life exerts a strong cooling influence on the planet. Trying to quantify that effect, a new study suggests the world was a whopping 30[deg.]C or 45[deg.]C warmer before life evolved, report David W. Schwartzman of Howard University Howard University, at Washington, D.C.; coeducational; with federal support. It was founded in 1867 by Gen. Oliver O. Howard of the Freedmen's Bureau, to provide education for newly emancipated slaves. A normal and preparatory department was opened the same year. in Washington, D.C., and Tyler Volk Tyler Volk is a professor currently teaching at New York University. He has authored four books: Gaia Toma Cuerpo (Geografia); Gaia's Body: Toward a Physiology of Earth; What is Death?: A Scientist Looks at the Cycle of Life and of New York University New York University, mainly in New York City; coeducational; chartered 1831, opened 1832 as the Univ. of the City of New York, renamed 1896. It comprises 13 schools and colleges, maintaining 4 main centers (including the Medical Center) in the city, as well as the in the Aug. 10 NATURE. They concentrated their examination on how life affects the chemical weathering of rocks -- a process that pulls carbon dioxide carbon dioxide, chemical compound, CO2, a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is about one and one-half times as dense as air under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. from the air and thereby keeps Earth's surface cool. Schwartzman and Volk contend that researchers have failed to consider the many ways in which higher plants, algae algae (ăl`jē) [plural of Lat. alga=seaweed], a large and diverse group of primarily aquatic plantlike organisms. These organisms were previously classified as a primitive subkingdom of the plant kingdom, the thallophytes (plants that and fungi increase weathering rates, in particular by preventing soil erosion. The new work shows that such life forms might speed weathering by perhaps 1,000 times. Before life arose, Earth may have been devoid of most soil, the researchers propose. Their calculations indicate the earliest life helped make the planet more hospitable for later forms -- a suggestion reminiscent of the controversial Gaia hypothesis, which holds that life regulates conditions on Earth. |
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