The process Lovelock likes for preventing excess salt accumulation in the ocean is the evaporation of seawater in shallow lagoons and salt marshes. There seawater is evaporated for recycling, as rain, into fresh water. The salt precipitates out and is buried under layers of sediment. Thus, the shallow lagoons and salt marshes cleanse the oceans as our own kidneys remove impurities from our blood. Lagoons are created by coral reefs, huge biologically created structures.
Lagoons gradually fill in, get shallower, and become salt marshes.
The Burial of Carbon Another Gaian process is the burial of carbon in sedimentary rocks. This process in turn helps regulate the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. It may even help to bring about Earth's plate tectonics. This very slow turning of Earth's crust may be important for life. The Teleological Aspect of Gaia Lovelock sees many processes that convert and stabilize the environment as evidence of Gaia at work.