International Travel: AGU Chapman Conference on the Gaia Hypothesis; Valencia, Spain; June 19-23, 2000

American Geophysical Union, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This award is for travel support for graduate students and young scientists to attend the Chapman Conference on The Gaia Hypothesis to be held in Valencia, Spain June 19-23 2000. A fundamental intellectual question in geosciences is the role of life in regulating the biosphere's biogeochemical cycles and climate. The Gaia hypothesis asserts that interaction between the biota and the physical and chemical environment is large enough to serve as an active feedback capacity for biogeoclimatologic control. On the other hand many environmental changes over geological time scales can be explained using geochemical arguments, regardless of the contribution to life. The first Chapman conference on the Gaia hypothesis was held in 1988 to examine the possibility of active climate regulation systems and the relative importance of feedback processes between organic and inorganic environmental components. A ten-year interval has elapsed since that conference. The objective of the second conference is to focus on the work initiated since, and to update material from the first conference