The Global Carbon Cycle and the Evolution of Photosynthesis

Product Description


The book deals with the problem of the interaction and interconditionality of the various processes occurring in both the Earths crust and the biosphere. It proposes a model of the global carbon cycle explaining the nature and mechanism of these interactions, showing that the key element of this interaction is the photosynthesis controlled by periodic carbon dioxide injections caused by collision zones of lithospheric plates. Changes in the environment due to the evolution of photosynthesis cause alterations in the carbon cycle, and lead to a stationary state when new features of the cycle are manifested. The main instruments of the analysis here are the isotopic technique and physico-chemical modeling, conducted on the basis of the principle of actualism. The model provides explanations of periodic mass extinctions of organisms, the explosions of life, the uneven distribution of organic matter in the sedimentary strata, stratigraphic oil distribution, and various other events in the biosphere in the course of geological history. The book will appeal to geologists, geochemists, climatologists, ecologists, biologists, and specialists in global change.


About the Author


Professor Alexander A. Ivlev is widely known to the world scientific community as an expert in the use of isotope effects as a tool for study processes in animate and inanimate nature. He has published five books devoted to the study of photosynthesis and carbon isotope fractionation processes. He is also the author of over 250 scientific publications, and graduated from the Department of Isotope Separation and Application of the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology of D. I. Mendeleev.