Educational Model: Daisyworld
Visualization of J. Lovelock’s conceptual model “Daisyworld,” showing the potential of organisms to influence their habitat.
This model is a component of the IUMC (Innovative Educational and Methodological Complex) “Ecology: Constructing the Biosphere,” developed in 2008 by D. A. Shabanov, A. G. Kozlenko, and M. A. Kravchenko by order of the NTFP (National Training Foundation) of the Russian Federation (more about this project is discussed in the article “Innovation and Reality”; reasons why this complex is not used are briefly described in the column “Textbooks: Straight into the Day After Tomorrow”). This model is posted here for educational use. Visualization of J. Lovelock’s conceptual model “Daisyworld,” showing the potential of organisms to influence their habitat. The theoretical material related to the model is in the section Properties of Complex Systems of the manual “Ecology: Biology of Interactions.” In Lovelock’s model, the planet under consideration is located near a star that becomes hotter over time (like the Sun). Only one species can live on the planet — daisies, represented by two forms: black and white. Each form can live only within a certain temperature range. At temperatures below optimum, black daisies have an advantage (they absorb radiation better and warm up, also contributing to planetary warming), while at temperatures above optimum, white daisies have an advantage (their flowers reflect a significant part of incoming rays, leading to environmental cooling). Instructions for working with the model are located at the very bottom of its window; if these instructions do not fit in the box, they can be scrolled up and down with the arrows on the right. Model development follows the path selected by the user, which can be chosen by checking the box next to “Seed the planet with daisy seeds.” Some tasks that can be solved while working with the model: 1. Compare planetary development without daisies and with daisies. 2. Determine how the presence of one species of living organisms can influence the properties of an entire planet. 3. At what level does the emergent ability of the system shown in the model to regulate temperature at a global scale arise? Does this regulation require any special activity by daisies or any unusual properties in them?