[Space] What is the 'Gaia' type of garden worlds like? ('Habitability 9').

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

• Large temperate zone and minimal seasons. Probably by a combination of favorable orbit, low axial tilt and greenhouse conditions.
• Low salinity in the seas; all bodies are freshwater.
• Relatively larger surface area of landmasses.
• Primitive or no development of native pathogens.
• High degree of nitrogenation of the soil.

I'd go with most of this. The low axial tilt seems obvious, as does high nitrogen content of the soil. There's a lot to be said for properly twisted amino acids, because that means humans can eat the native plants and animals, even though it means the native animals and pathogens can also eat us.

I don't think low-salinity oceans is a viable expectation, but a better distribution of ocean and land would be nice. A dozen or so land-masses the size of Australia, distributed more or less evenly around the planet, might work out well, especially if they were connected with archipelagos. That means a lot of shallow waters teeming with life, and the lack of really huge expanses of open ocean minimizes the intensity of coriolis storms.

I hadn't thought of the vulcanism thing, but that makes sense, too. Also, I'd say no huge extremes in altitudes. No mountains larger than about the Appalachians or the Pyrenees, which result in minimal rain-shadows or other atmospheric weirdness.

Lots of flora and fauna, everywhere.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I don't think low-salinity oceans is a viable expectation

It's the expectation if you terraform an arid world, until the new seas have had time to dissolve salts anyway, which takes megayears.

I could also imagine biogenic processes that clean oceanwater on a natural gaia.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

It's the expectation if you terraform an arid world, until the new seas have had time to dissolve salts anyway, which takes megayears.

I could also imagine biogenic processes that clean oceanwater on a natural gaia.

Except that you probably don't want really 'fresh' seas. The oceans are an integral part of the cycle of many minerals that are essential to terran life. Lower salinity, perhaps, but fresh water oceans would be bad.