The Simulated Evolution of Biochemical Guilds: Reconciling Gaia Theory and Natural Selection

Gaia theory, which states that organisms both affect and regulate their environment, poses an interesting problem to Neo-Darwinian evolutionary biologists and provides an exciting set of phenomena for artificial-life investigation. The key challenge is to explain the emergence of biotic communities that are capable, via their implicit coordination, of regulating large-scale biogeochemical factors such as the temperature and chemical composition of the biosphere, but to assume no evolutionary mechanisms beyond contemporary natural selection. Along with

• Type: Journal
• Year: 1999
• Where: ALIFE
• Authors: Keith L. Downing, Peter Zvirinsky
• Keywords: ALIFE 1999, Gaia Theory, Large-scale Biogeochemical Factors, Modeling And Simulation, Neo-Darwinian Evolutionary Biologists