Daisyworld Archives

Daisyworld is a basic planet filled with two kinds of daisies that together regulate the temperature to maintain ideal conditions. If the planet heats up or cools down too quickly, all the daisies will go extinct, even if they would otherwise have been able to survive just fine under those conditions. This discovery mirrors similar observations found in other models and observed in real-life ecosystems. Credit Hannah Daniel/AIP

Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release

Rapid Environmental Change Can Threaten Even A Peaceful Daisyworld

by Keith CowingFebruary 24, 2025

Imagine a world filled only with daisies. Light-colored daisies reflect sunlight, cooling down the planet, while darker daisies absorb sunlight, warming it up. Together, these two types of daisies work […]

Rate-induced tipping towards extinction in the Daisyworld model. We initialise the system at the coexistence equilibrium (e5) with a value of L = Lmin. Then, we ramp L towards some new value Lmax, at a speed determined by a dimensionless rate parameter r. Panel (b) shows time series of L(rt), while panels (c) and (d) show time series of αw and αb. When the change is slow enough (green, r = 0.5), the biosphere survives; when it is too fast (red, r = 1), the biosphere collapses. This occurs because the system can enter the basin of attraction of the "dead planet" state, e0, if the change in L is fast enough. The threshold for entering this basin of attraction is the stable manifold of the saddle equilibrium e1 (see also Figure 5 and panel f of Figure 1). In the space of αw,αb, and L, the threshold becomes a two dimensional surface Ws (e1(L)): trajectories which cross it are precisely those which tip. This is shown in panel (a). -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Status Report

Rate-induced Biosphere Collapse In The Daisyworld Model

by Keith CowingOctober 8, 2024October 8, 2024

There is much interest in the phenomenon of rate-induced tipping, where a system changes abruptly when forcings change faster than some critical rate. Here, we demonstrate and analyse rate-induced tipping […]