The biosphere has great importance for living things for various reasons: it provides food and raw materials, conserves biological diversity, prevents pollution and serves as a marker of pollution and climate change.
In the past, the biosphere was a concept reserved only for biologists, but now it has become a notion in common use among the general population. In this way, the biosphere generally refers to the portion of planet Earth that is inhabited by living beings and that is manifestly organized by them..
In reality, the biosphere coincides with the solid surface part of the Earth, which serves as its support and which at the same time is affected by the dynamics of life. This "solid part" includes, in addition to the continental surfaces, the liquid and gaseous envelopes of our planet, whose interactions are vital for the functioning of life on Earth..
It is the Russian chemist Vladimir Verdadjsky (or Vernadsky) who for the first time raises the possibility of a planetary vision that starts from a functional rather than a descriptive point of view, conceiving the biosphere more than as a substrate, as a complex system organized by your own rules.
This, at the time of its publication in 1929, was relatively novel, especially in contrast to the descriptivist biological positions that prevailed at that time. This idea is currently handled in ecology and applied biology and is taken as a principle in other biological sciences.
At present, the biosphere is understood as a unified system with specific synthetic properties and capacities that behaves as a large living and complex mass with internal relationships at multiple levels..
Through oxygenic photosynthesis, the production of oxygen and nitrogen that occurs in the biosphere is responsible for virtually all the biochemical processes of organic matter production through the complete carbon cycle, which involves both terrestrial and ocean substrates..
The biosphere is literally the living layer that covers the earth's surface. This includes the most superficial part of the earth's crust, as well as rivers, seas, lakes, oceans and even the lowest part of the atmosphere. The balance between all these parts allows the existence of life on earth, including humans.
Biota, that is, the set of living elements in the biosphere, is the vital component that provides humanity with the raw material it needs to survive: food, fiber and fuel..
Through the natural cycles of decomposition of biological modification, in the biosphere the planet earth gets rid of toxins and components that, in excess, can be harmful to life. In this way, carbon dioxide, for example, is used in the photosynthesis process and organic waste is reused by biota..
The food chain is the biological chain that exemplifies the flow of energy and nutrients that are established in the different species of an ecosystem. As all living beings inhabit the biosphere, this is the vital element for the survival of the species.
Through biosphere reserves, designated by Unesco as the areas composed of terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems, recognized by the UNESCO Program on Man and the Biosphere.
Societies that have lived in close contact with nature since ancient times need the conservation of the biosphere for their existence.
The participation of local communities in the conservation and preservation of the environment (and the biosphere with it) allows their own survival and the conservation of their original traditions and ways of life.
In reality, all the compounds used in the pharmaceutical industry today are derived to a greater or lesser extent from compounds that are found naturally in the terrestrial biosphere..
Biological research that occurs on a recurring basis in areas of high biological density such as Southeast Asia and the Amazon in South America have provided researchers with new elements that have been implemented in pharmaceutical treatments and medicines ranging from chemotherapy to beauty treatments..
The study and control of its composition can function as an efficient and adequate marker to control the levels of terrestrial pollution and check whether in effect public policies and international agreements have had a real and positive impact on the current levels of planetary pollution..
In this way, from the information obtained from the study of the biosphere, historical and perhaps even interregional comparisons can be established that show the changes and variations in the levels and ecosystems affected by pollution..
The study of the composition of the biosphere can show exactly what the pollutants caused by anthropogenic action on Earth are and how they act.
In this way, States and international organizations can initiate research and public policies that are adapted to the pollutants present in the environment that they intend to preserve..
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