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Earth's biosphere is divided into several biomes, inhabited by fairly similar flora and fauna. On land, biomes are separated primarily by latitude. Terrestrial biomes lying within the Arctic and Antarctic Circles are relatively barren of plant and animal life. In contrast, most of the more populous biomes lie near the equator.
Biosphere 2. Closed ecological systems or contained ecological systems (CES) are ecosystems that do not rely on matter exchange with any part outside the system. The term is most often used to describe small, man-made ecosystems. Such systems can potentially serve as a life-support system or space habitats. [1]
The Simple Biosphere (SiB) model, presented by Sellers et al. in 1986, calculates transfer of energy, mass and momentum of the atmosphere and the vegetated surface of the Earth. The model is designed for use in atmospheric general circulation models , to account for the related climate attribution of the biosphere. [ 5 ]
Biosphere 2, with upgraded solar panels in foreground, sits on a sprawling 40-acre (16-hectare) science campus that is open to the public. The Biosphere 2 project was launched in 1984 by businessman and billionaire philanthropist Ed Bass and systems ecologist John P. Allen, with Bass providing US$150 million in funding until 1991. [7]
The major parts of the biosphere are connected by the flow of chemical elements and compounds in biogeochemical cycles. In many of these cycles, the biota plays an important role. Matter from the Earth's interior is released by volcanoes. The atmosphere exchanges some compounds and elements rapidly with the biota and oceans.
For levels larger than Biosphere or Ecosphere, see Earth's location in the Universe More complex schemes incorporate many more levels. For example, a molecule can be viewed as a grouping of elements , and an atom can be further divided into subatomic particles (these levels are outside the scope of biological organisation).
In the theory of Vernadsky, the noosphere is the third in a succession of phases of development of the Earth, after the geosphere (inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life). Just as the emergence of life fundamentally transformed the geosphere, the emergence of human cognition fundamentally transforms the biosphere.
The five components of the climate system all interact. They are the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere. [1]: 1451 Earth's climate system is a complex system with five interacting components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things).