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The Rare Earth hypothesis argues that planets with complex life, like Earth, are exceptionally rare.. In planetary astronomy and astrobiology, the Rare Earth hypothesis argues that the origin of life and the evolution of biological complexity, such as sexually reproducing, multicellular organisms on Earth, and subsequently human intelligence, required an improbable combination of astrophysical ...
Earth is the only place in the universe known to harbor life, where it exists in myriad environments. [8] [9] The origin of life on Earth was at least 3.5 billion years ago, possibly as early as 3.8-4.1 billion years ago. [2] [3] [4] Since its emergence, life has persisted in
Biogeography now incorporates many different fields including but not limited to physical geography, geology, botany and plant biology, zoology, general biology, and modelling. A biogeographer's main focus is on how the environment and humans affect the distribution of species as well as other manifestations of Life such as species or genetic ...
Lovelock formulated the Gaia Hypothesis in journal articles in 1972 [1] and 1974, [2] followed by a popularizing 1979 book Gaia: A new look at life on Earth. An article in the New Scientist of February 6, 1975, [ 42 ] and a popular book length version of the hypothesis, published in 1979 as The Quest for Gaia , began to attract scientific and ...
The Earth has many diverse ecosystems and ecologicalsystem diversity. These are NASA composite images of the Earth: 2001 (left), 2002 (right), titled The Blue Marble. Ecosystem diversity deals with the variations in ecosystems within a geographical location and its overall impact on human existence and the environment.
A view of Earth's troposphere from an airplane Lightning is an atmospheric discharge of electricity accompanied by thunder, which occurs during thunderstorms and certain other natural conditions. [12] The atmosphere of the Earth serves as a key factor in sustaining the planetary ecosystem.
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species.The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within lineages.
In 2019, 39 million km 2 (15 million sq mi) of Earth's land surface consisted of forest and woodlands, 12 million km 2 (4.6 million sq mi) was shrub and grassland, 40 million km 2 (15 million sq mi) were used for animal feed production and grazing, and 11 million km 2 (4.2 million sq mi) were cultivated as croplands. [271]