The concept of the Biosphere
Ecology can be studied at several levels: population level (individuals of the same species), biocoenosis level (or community of species), ecosystem level, and biosphere level.
The outer layer of the planet Earth can be divided into several compartments:
> The hydrosphere (or sphere of water).
Water is essential for all living organisms on the 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.> The lithosphere (or sphere of soils and rocks) is the rigid, outermost shell of a terrestrial-type planet or natural satellite that is defined by its rigid mechanical properties. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of thousands of years or greater.
> The atmosphere (or sphere of the air). 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.).
The biosphere (or sphere of life), sometimes described as «the fourth envelope», is all living matter on the planet or that portion of the planet occupied by life. It reaches well into the other three spheres, although there are no permanent inhabitants of the atmosphere. Relative to the volume of the Earth, the biosphere is only the very thin surface layer which extends from 11,000 meters below sea level to 15,000 meters above.
The term «Biosphere» was formulated in 1875 by the Austrian geologist E. Suess. In his monograph “The Origin of the Alps”, he speaks of an "independent biosphere" as a special shell of the Earth formed by living organisms. 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.
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