Material cycling and organic evolution.

Intertwined cycles of matters are proposed to be one of the essential characteristics of life. The increase in the amount of recycled matters within biological groups and the complication of the cycling network are considered to be the early development of life soon after its appearance on the Earth. From this point of view, the origin of a cell alone can not sufficiently be regarded as the origin of life. The origin of a cell must be followed by a formation of material cycling among cells, if the cells are to stay on the Earth long enough so that they could be called life. This biogeochemical viewpoint leads to a quantitative analysis of life activity. A formula is presented to exemplify the potential utility of the viewpoint. It is applied to analyses of possible early developments of life and of an impact of present human activity on the global carbon cycle. Further application of the viewpoint to a variety of biogeochemical, sociogeochemical, ecological, and environmental problems should eventually show whether there is some utility in this view.