Ecology: the Biology of Interactions. 2.01. Biosphere
Chapter 2. Biospherology. The biosphere is the Earth’s shell transformed by the activity of living organisms. The alternative interpretation of the biosphere as the Earth’s shell within which living organisms occur, the “field of existence of life” according to V. I. Vernadsky, is much less useful...
Ukrainian language (latest version) / Russian language (updates discontinued) 1.14. (Supplement) Where Should We Seek the Causes of the Characteristics of Biosystems?
1.14. (addendum) Where to look for the causes of the peculiarities of biosystems?
D. Shabanov, M. Kravchenko. Ecology: the Biology of Interactions Chapter 2. Biospherology
2.02. Noosphere
Chapter 2. Biospherology 2.01. Biosphere The word “biosphere” is one of the most commonly used in modern science. How does this relate to the fact that it is used in different senses? It is generally recognized that the creator of biospherology was Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky. Both Ukraine and Russia are proud of this scientist: he was born and died in Russia, spent part of his life in Ukraine, and at one time became the first president of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences created under Hetman Skoropadsky. Incidentally, during part of his childhood Vladimir Vernadsky studied at the classical gymnasium in Kharkiv. The concept of the “biosphere” does not belong to Vernadsky. It was introduced into broad scientific circulation in 1875 by the Austrian geologist Eduard Suess in a work devoted to the geology of the Alps. For Suess, the biosphere was the Earth’s shell occupied by life. But Suess was not the first to create this concept. It was first used by the great French zoologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1803 to denote the totality of the planet’s living organisms. In general, Vernadsky defined the biosphere in the sense proposed by Suess, though in reality he substantially reinterpreted it. For the totality of Earth’s living organisms (the biosphere according to Lamarck), Vernadsky used the concept of “living matter.” Researchers of Vernadsky’s legacy emphasize that his texts mix interpretations of the biosphere as the zone of distribution of organisms (Vernadsky had the concept of the “field of existence of life”) and of the biosphere as the Earth’s shell transformed by life. Clearly, the second, functional, approach is much richer and more promising. It is this one that we shall use here (Fig. 2.1.1). Thus, the biosphere is the Earth’s shell transformed by the activity of living organisms. The alternative interpretation of the biosphere as the Earth’s shell within which living organisms occur proves far less useful. [IMG_1] Fig. 2.1.1. To avoid misunderstanding, one must first agree on the meaning invested in the terms used. How does this relate to the main idea of the epigraph to section 1.1? Choosing the most meaningful interpretations of vague concepts and using them only after the sense in which they are applied has been defined is an integral part of the “rectification of names” “Vernadsky ... called the outer shells of the Earth encompassed by life the biosphere and emphasized primarily the work of living matter itself (as he called the totality of organisms, in contrast to the inert matter of the planet). In addition, at the beginning of the twentieth century very little was known about the deep interior of the Earth and the upper layers of the atmosphere. Therefore, in his lectures and in the book Biosphere (1926), Vernadsky underestimated the thickness of the biosphere. In his later works he constantly expanded the boundaries of the biosphere, slowly but steadily transforming it from a region encompassed by life into a region of manifestation of the consequences of its geochemical work, whose source is the energy of solar rays. These regions differ substantially owing to the global geochemical cycle, which Vernadsky called the main function of the biosphere. Most of the energy driving the cycle is spent on the transport of inert matter, above all on the purely physical process of water evaporation and condensation. Thanks to the operation of the cycle, the products of vital activity, especially gaseous, liquid, and soluble ones, spread much more widely than the zone directly encompassed by active life. Thus, for Vernadsky the biosphere is first and foremost a natural-historical, namely geological, body, the outer shell of the planet, itself consisting of several geospheres: the troposphere with the lower part of the stratosphere, the liquid hydrosphere, and a significant part of the Earth’s crust, including its granite-metamorphic layer. Vernadsky called the latter the region of ‘former biospheres,’ emphasizing by this metaphor the continuity of the biosphere’s existence through time” (A. S. Rautian, 2001). “Living matter” is the totality of all living organisms considered as a single whole. The field of existence of living matter encompasses the entire hydrosphere, the upper layers of the lithosphere, and the lower part of the atmosphere, but the main concentration of living organisms is observed in the near-surface layer of land and ocean. If living matter were evenly distributed over the Earth’s surface, it would form a film 2 cm thick. The average renewal time of living matter is 8 years (and in the ocean, 33 days). But how can living matter transform an entire planet? Through its activity. The geochemical functions of living matter (after V. I. Vernadsky, with some modifications) are as follows: — energetic: accumulation of solar energy by plants as a result of photosynthesis with the further redistribution of that energy; — concentrational: selective accumulation of certain elements in the bodies of organisms themselves and in sedimentary rocks formed with their participation; — destructive: mineralization of organic matter, decomposition of rocks, involvement of elements in circulation; — environment-forming: transformation of environmental parameters into forms favorable for organisms (soil formation, maintenance of the gas composition of the atmosphere, purification of water bodies, and so forth); — transport: movement of elements included in living matter and its redistribution over the surface of the planet (example: removal of biogens from water bodies by fish-eating birds and animals with aquatic larval and terrestrial-aerial adult stages). The main results of the biogeochemical activity of living matter may be considered the oxygen revolution about 2.5 billion years ago; the formation of stable boundaries between land and water bodies (the transformation of sheet runoff from continents into channelized flow); the creation of soil; and the regulation of geological sediment formation. 1.14. (Supplement) Where Should We Seek the Causes of the Characteristics of Biosystems?
1.14. (addendum) Where to look for the causes of the peculiarities of biosystems?
D. Shabanov, M. Kravchenko. Ecology: the Biology of Interactions Chapter 2. Biospherology
2.02. Noosphere