Anastassia Makarieva speaks about old-growth forests and the biotic pump.

Anastassia Makarieva, co-developer of the concept of “Biotic Pump” was recently interviewed in a film produced by the New England Forests Group that you may find at this link (and also at the bottom of this post). The biotic pump is a fundamental idea that illustrates the way ecosystems regulate themselves by networking. In the case of forests, trees are the nodes of a giant network that operates using the typical win-win mechanism of holobionts. Each tree evaporates water to keep its own metabolic system working, but in doing so, it benefits the whole forest by creating a mechanism that pumps water from the ocean. It is the way most ecosystems work, including the huge one we call “Gaia.” Above, Anastassia Makarieva in the beech forest of Abbadia San Salvadore, in Italy, in 2023 (photo by UB).


https://open.substack.com/pub/theproudholobionts/p/anastassia-makarieva-explains-how