Daisyworld

class=skin-invert-image|thumb|right|Plots from a standard DaisyWorld simulation. Note, these plots are not from, nor do they correspond directly to, any data figure presented in the studies cited herein.

Daisyworld is the name of a model developed by Andrew Watson and James Lovelock (published in 1983) to demonstrate how organisms could inadvertently regulate their environment. The model simulates a fictional planet (called Daisyworld) which is experiencing slow global warming due to the brightening of its star. The planet is populated by two species of daisies: black daisies and white daisies. The white daisies have a high albedo (reflectivity), and therefore have a cooling effect on the planet. The black daisies, on the other hand, have a low albedo (and thus absorb more solar radiation) and so have a warming effect on the planet. The daisies' growth rates depend on the temperature, and each daisy also affects its own microclimate in the same way as it affects the global climate. As a result, the populations of the two daisy species self-organize such that the planet remains near the optimal temperature of both daisy species (i.e. with more black daisies when the star is dimmer and more white daisies when the star is brighter). This model is called a parable because it was meant to illustrate how biotic processes could not only affect the environment (in this case the climate), but also stabilize the environment, without any planning or awareness on the part of the species involved.