Doolittle W Ford
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
J Theor Biol. 2017 Dec 7;434:11-19. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2017.02.015. Epub 2017 Feb 22.
The Gaia hypothesis of James Lovelock was co-developed with and vigorously promoted by Lynn Margulis, but most mainstream Darwinists scorned and still do not accept the notion. They cannot imagine selection for global stability being realized at the level of the individuals or species that make up the biosphere. Here I suggest that we look at the biogeochemical cycles and other homeostatic processes that might confer stability - rather than the taxa (mostly microbial) that implement them - as the relevant units of selection. By thus focusing our attentions on the "song", not the "singers", a Darwinized Gaia might be developed. Our understanding of evolution by natural selection would however need to be stretched to accommodate differential persistence as well as differential reproduction.
詹姆斯·洛夫洛克的盖亚假说由林恩·马古利斯共同提出并大力推广，但大多数主流达尔文主义者对此嗤之以鼻，至今仍不接受这一观点。他们无法想象在构成生物圈的个体或物种层面上实现对全球稳定性的选择。在此我建议，我们应将那些可能赋予稳定性的生物地球化学循环及其他稳态过程——而非执行这些过程的分类群（大多为微生物）——视为相关的选择单位。通过将注意力集中在“歌声”而非“歌手”上，或许可以发展出一种达尔文式的盖亚理论。然而，我们对自然选择进化的理解需要拓展，以容纳差异存续以及差异繁殖。
