Hi nobleresearcher,
Thank you for your question.
Biosphere
http://www.xasa.com/wiki/en/wikipedia/b/bi/biosphere.html
"A biosphere is that part of a planet's terrestrial system - including
air, land and water - in which life develops, and which life processes
in turn transform. It is the collective creation of a variety of
organisms and species which form the diversity of the ecosystem. From
the broadest geophysiological point of view, the biosphere is the
global ecological system integrating all living beings and their
relationships, with their interaction with the elements of the
lithosphere (rocks), the hydrosphere (water), and the atmosphere
(air)."
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Biosphere 1 (Earth's biosphere)
http://www.biospheres.com/definitions1.html
John Allen, FLS - Chairman, Global Ecotechnics Corporation
"The Earth's biosphere is a basically materially closed (some input
from the solar system and from Earth's interior and some output via
subduction and escaping gasses), and energetically open to sources,
sunlight, sun and moon gravity, and from Earth's interior and to sinks
(heat radiation and light reflection to space). The Earth's biosphere
is now informationally open as well to space programs launching
information gatherers and receivers outside the biosphere. The Earth's
biosphere is a self-organizing, adaptive, complex system that
increases its free energy in an amount substantially less (about 1%)
than the difference in the free energy in molecular and informational
organization.
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Earth: the First Biosphere
http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/bio3/2000projects/carroll_d_walker_e/earthpage.html
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News of the Biosphere
http://matrixmasters.com/blog/earthnewsblog.shtml
April through September 2004
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The Biosphere
http://web.geology.ufl.edu/Biosphere.html
"The term "Biosphere" was coined by Russian scientist Vladimir
Vernadsky in the 1929. The biosphere is the life zone of the Earth and
includes all living organisms, including man, and all organic matter
that has not yet decomposed. Life evolved on earth during its early
history between 4.5 and 3.8 billion years ago and the biosphere
readily distinguishes our planet from all others in the solar system.
The chemical reactions of life (e.g., photosynthesis-respiration,
carbonate precipitation, etc.) have also imparted a strong signal on
the chemical composition of the atmosphere, transforming the
atmosphere from reducing conditions to and oxidizing environment with
free oxygen. The biosphere is structured into a hierarchy known as the
food chain whereby all life is dependent upon the first tier (i.e.
mainly the primary producers that are capable of photosynthesis).
Energy and mass is transferred from one level of the food chain to the
next with an efficiency of about 10%. All organisms are intrinsically
linked to their physical environment and the relationship between an
organism and its environment is the study of ecology. The biosphere
can be divided into distinct ecosystems that represent the
interactions between a group of organisms forming a trophic pyramid
and the environment or habitat in which they live."
Atmosphere: Life processes involve a vast number of chemical reactions
some of which either extract or emit gases from and to the atmosphere.
For example, photosynthesis consumes carbon dioxide and produces
oxygen whereas respiration does the opposite. Other examples of
biogenic gases in the atmosphere include methane, dimethylsulfide
(DMS), nitrogen, nitrous oxide, ammonia, etc.).
Hydrosphere: Water is essential for all living organisms on Earth and
has played a key role in the evolution and sustenance of life on our
planet. The biosphere as we know it would not exist without liquid
water (for example, consider Mars). Water is also important for
transport the soluble nutrients (phosphate and nitrate) that are
needed for plant growth, and for transporting the waste products of
life's chemical reactions.
Geosphere: The geosphere and biosphere are intimately connected
through soils, which consist of a mixture of air, mineral matter,
organic matter, and water. In fact, one could consider soil as
composed of all four spheres (atmosphere, geosphere, biosphere, and
hydrosphere). Plant activity such as root growth and generation of
organic acids are also important for the mechanical and chemical
breakdown (weathering) of the geosphere.
Anthrosphere: Human population poses a threat to the biosphere by
habitat destruction, especially by the destruction of tropical
rainforests (deforestation). This process is driving thousands of
species each year to extinction and reducing biological diversity."
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Best regards,
tlspiegel |
