Dependence of Biological Activity on the Surface Water Fraction of Planets

Abstract

One of the unique features associated with the Earth is that the fraction of its surface covered by land is comparable to that spanned by its oceans and other water bodies. Here, we investigate how extraterrestrial biospheres depend on the ratio of the surficial land and water fractions. We find that worlds that are overwhelmingly dominated by landmasses or oceans are likely to have sparse biospheres. Our analysis suggests that major evolutionary events such as the buildup of O$_2$ in the atmosphere and the emergence of technological intelligence might be relatively feasible only on a small subset of worlds with surface water fractions ranging approximately between $30\%$ and $90\%$. We also discuss how our predictions can be evaluated by future observations, and the implications for the prevalence of microbial and technological species in the Universe.