The picture below is an expanded picture of this vision of Gaia--life's ability to change rates and directions of flows and thereby alter the environment.
| This picture is from the mountain basin described in "Second Visions
of Gaia". On the right, a snowbank melts into a shallow pool. The pool
exists because of mats of moss have filled in between the boulders to form
a dam. As the moss grows taller, the water spreads wider which allows the
moss to spread wider which spreads the water wider...
The picture below is an expanded picture of this vision of Gaia--life's ability to change rates and directions of flows and thereby alter the environment. |
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The beauty of this moss clinging to the rocks midstream is amplified when we understand the power the moss has to change flows within this mountain basin as the mats of moss expand and join together. |
| The next two photos are from the Olympic Mountains. Here a small lake has been impounded by a massive moss dam. Notice that the rise in the ground at the lake's outlet is several feet high. |  |
| This photo is of the same outlet but taken from the side. You can see
how the bulk of the "dam" has different plants growing on it than the ground
beyond.
Notice how level the top of the dam is with the level of the lake. This is a result of the two co-evolving together. |
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