A New Substack Site to Know About

Biotic Regulation and the Biotic Pump

Degradation of the biosphere is a major reason for climate destabilization. If we as a planetary community urgently develop an understanding of this complexity, and based on this understanding, protect the biosphere, we will likely fulfill our evolutionary mission as a thinking species.

Anastassia Makarieva

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A new and important voice is on Substack, that of Russian theoretical physicist Anastassia Makarieva. Her site is called is called Biotic Regulation and the Biotic Pump, and I hope you will subscribe.

Along with fellow physicist and mentor, the late Victor Gorshkov, Makarieva formulated the biotic pump theory, which shows how forest ecosystems are able to draw water inland and maintain water cycles thousands of miles from the ocean. Mainstream science has held a certain distance from the idea, but some scientists, such as Douglas Sheil, are giving it credence. In a paper with Daniel Murdiyarso, He writes “If it survives scrutiny, this hypothesis will transform how we view forest loss, climate change, hydrology, and environmental services. It offers new lines of investigation in macroecology and landscape ecology, hydrology, forest restoration, and paleoclimates. It also provides a compelling new motivation for forest conservation.”

What makes the theory so critical is the risk involved in ignoring it. If she and her associates are correct, Earth’s last remaining intact, primary forests, such as the Amazon, the Congo, the northern Boreal and the island rainforests of Southeast Asia, depend on contiguous forest from the ocean inland to maintain their pumping mechanisms and hydrate themselves. As forest is cleared by deforestation and agriculture, the pump weakens and will eventually break, at which point these water-rich forests will collapse to drier states. This already appears to be underway in the Amazon, which should have us all clamoring for action to stop the deforestation there, and elsewhere.

Beneath the Biotic Pump theory lies another, more comprehensive theory, that of Biotic Regulation, which Makarieva writes about in her second posting. The premise is simple: “Natural ecosystems regulate the environment, maintaining it in a state favorable for life.” This of course includes the climate, and as with the biotic pump, the risks involved with ignoring such regulation are huge. I’ll let her explain why in her post, but will second her closing remark, in which she calls for “an urgent global moratorium on the exploitation of the remaining natural ecosystems.”

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