Transcript Biosphere - Euroakadeemia

Biosphere
The structure and
function of ecosystems
“In the geological history of the biosphere is seen the
boundless future of man, only if he understands it and
does not use his intellect to work for self-annihilation”.
Vladimir Vernadsky
“A few words about the noosphere”, 1944.
• “Not only will men of science have to grapple
with the sciences that deal with man, but – and
this is a far more difficult matter – they will have
to persuade the world to listen to what they have
discovered. If they cannot succeed in this difficult
enterprise, man will destroy himself by his
halfway cleverness.”
• Bertrand Russell
Living matter
In the series of empirical generalizations underlying
the theory of the Biosphere, a place of prominence is
held by the concept of “living matter”, which is the
aggregate of all living organisms (animals, plants,
microorganisms, fungi), numerically expressed in
their elementary chemical composition, weight and
energy.
LIVING MATTER
• Such an approach to living matter makes
up the basis of biogeochemistry, one of
the major scientific subjects of the
general science of the biosphere.
Chemical composition of living
matter
There are chemical 88 elements that could conceivably
enter into the composition of living matter.
Among the elements still undetected in living matter
are four of the noble gases – helium, neon, krypton,
and xenon, that undoubteadly occur there as
atmospheric contaminants.
• It is improbale that any of the
unidentified elements (platinum metals,
and elements of atomic numbers in the
range 49-91) is completely excluded from
protoplasm.
The major biological elements
The major biological elements:
hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen compose 9699% of the live weight of nonskeletal tissues.
These elements enter into the composition of the four
main groups of protoplasmic molecules, namely,
water (89.4% O and 10.6% H by weight),
proteins (51.3% C, 22.4% O, 17.8% N, and 6.9% H),
carbohydrates (49.4% O, 44.4% C, and 6.2% H), and
lipids (69.0% C, 17.9% O, and 10.0% H).
• In terms of the number of atoms in
living matter
decreases in the order:
hydrogen > oxygen > carbon > nitrogen.
• Skeletal or supporting structures may be
composed of organic compounds such as
cellulose, lignin, chitin, and scleroproteins; or inorganic compounds such as
calcium carbonate, silcon dioxide, and
calcium phosphate.
Concentrations of elements
Concentrations of essential elements may vary by a
factor 100,000 or higher.
Some elements of unknown function occur in very
small amounts.
The cow liver cell , for example, contains only some
23 atoms of radium.
The protistan (green algae) Euglena gracilis, on other
hand, requires only 5000 molecules per cell of the
essential cobalt-containing vitamin cyanocobalamin
(vitamin B12).
The biological elements are generally those of low
atomic weight:
however, iodine, with an atomic weight of 127, is
a notable exception ( because of funcition in
thyroid gland).
• In the nickel-rich areas of the Ural
Mountains, some abnormal forms of
spreading anemone (Anemone patens)
. may contain up to 8 times more cobalt and
50 times more nickel than the same species
growing on normal soils
•
Trace elements and isotopes
Many of the trace elements are incorporated into
protoplasm by forming complexes with proteins,
porphyrins, amino acids, mucopolysaccarides and
other polyvalent compounds.
• There exists a stability sequence for the
metal-ligand complexes that is largely
independent of the nature of the ligand:
• Mn++ < Fe++ < Co++ Ni++ < Cu++ > Zn++.
A fractionation of isotopes does occur in most
biological processes, with a preferential
accumulation of the lighter members of in the
pairs C12 – C13 and S32 – S34.
Isotope ratios of natural materials provide useful data in
determining the mode of origin of certain deposits, and in
the case of O16 – O18 in carbonate shells, in determining
paleotemperatures.
The average percentage by weight of
elements in vegetation
El
Percentage
El
Percentage El
Percentage
O
70
Fe
2x10-2
Br
1x10-4
C
18
Mn
3x10-3
Mo
5x10-5
H
10.5
F
3x10-3
Y
4x10-5
Ca
0.5
Ba
3x10-3
Ni
2x10-5
N
0.3
Al
2x10-3
V
2x10-5
K
0.3
Sr
2x10-3
Pb
2x10-5
Si
0.15
B
1x10-3
Li
1x10-5
Mg
7x10-2
Zn
3x10-4
U
1x10-5
P
7x10-2
Rb
2x10-4
Ga
3x10-6
S
5x10-2
Cs
2x10-4
Co
2x10-6
Cl
4x10-2
Ti
1x10-4
I
1x10-6
Na
2x10-2
Cu
1x10-4
Ra
2x10-12
Heterogeneity of the living matter
Living matter is heterogeneous both in composition and
in spatial distribution on the Earth’s surface.
According to the estimates, the Earth is inhabited
altogether by three million species of living organisms.
• Of these
• only 300,000 belong to species of plants
and some autotrophic microorganisms
which create the primary biomass;
• the remaining 2.7 million species of
organisms are heterotrophic
• which use ready organic matter for food.
• Despite the relatively low species
composition of the phytomass,
they amount to 97-98 percent by weight
of all the terrestrial biomass,
and only 1-3 percent by weight accounts
for the biomass of animals and
microorganisms.
Living matter is distributed unevenly in the biosphere,
forming regions of “concentration”(saturation)
and regions of “rarefaction” (dispersion) of life.
The near-surface areas of the land and oceans,
where photosythesis takes place, are the most saturated
with life.
The soil, especially its fertile humic horizon, is a mighty
accumulator of living matter in the biosphere.
Structure of the biosphere and
its dissymmetry
The idea of “biosphere” as region of life was
introduced in biology by Lamarck (1744-1829)
early in the XIX century, and in geology,
by E. Seuss (1831-1914) in late XIX.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)
• he first did the eminent service of arousing attention to the
probability of all changes in the organic, as well as in the
inorganic world, being the result of law, and not of
miraculous interposition.
Eduard Suess
•
(1831 – 1914)
was an Austrian geologist who was an expert on the
geography of the Alps. He is responsible for hypothesising
two major former geographical features, the supercontinent
Gondwana (proposed in 1861) and the Tethys Ocean.
The modern view on
this phenomenon is:
• The Biosphere comprises the space of
the Earth’s crust, which throughout
the entire geological history,
at every stage of life evolution, was
subjected to influence of living matter.
For this reason the biosphere extends by far more
than tiny film of living matter on the earth:
its upper boundary envelops the lower layers of the
stratosphere, up to the height of the ozone screen
(16-40 km) which protects living things from the
effect of short-wave ultraviolet radiation;
it includes the entire litosphere (sedimentary shell)
and the hydrosphere. The lower boundary,
including the region of “past biospheres”, goes
down to an average of 16 km (the upper boundary
of the mantle).
Earth’s biosphere
Dissymmetry of the biosphere
One of the most substantial feature of the
Biosphere as well as of the entire planet is its
dissymetry.
The latter manifests itself above all in that 70,8
percent of the earth’s surface is occupied by oceans
and seas, and 29.2 by land. It is only with such a
relationship between these two major structures of
the earth they counterbalance one another,
considering the average depth of the oceans and the
the average thickness of the continents composed of
silicates.
Views of Earth's poles. The areas of the Arctic
ocean and the Antarctic continent are similar
in size, and both are very cold, but many
differences exist (modified from Stowe, 1983).
•The dissymmetry of the structure of the Biosphere
consists in that the bottom of the oceans is
predominantly of basalt, and the bedplate of the
continents, of crystal rock;
•the continents at the depth os 3.8 km have a
temperature of 115º C and the oceans at the same
depth about 0º C.
• The continents are mainly situated in the
Northern hemisphere, while the oceans in
the Southern one, both hemispheres of
the planet having a different curvature;
• different intensity of radioactive
processes has been recorded under the
oceans and seas.
Continental and oceanic crust
Above: Earth is a geologically active planet -- its mass is always slowly shifting around. These motions have a different characteristic time scales than
other mass movements, such as water flows. Scientists will use GRACE to study geologic, hydrologic, and glaciologic phenomena.
It becomes clear that the above-mentioned
dissymmetry of the Earth’s crust also leads to a
dissymmetry of the Biosphere,
and first of all of its living matter, to its sharply
uneven distribution and qualitative diversity in the
global structures, and to different intensity of
biological processes.
The cosmic charcter of dissymmetry of the
Biosphere is more profoundly disclosed when
analysing Biosphere in a historical aspect, in the
duration of “geological time”.
The scientists calculated that all the sedimentary
deposits laid down between the Cambrian and
Caenozoic period, would have give a huge crust of
120.6 km.
• Consequently, the entire 60-km granite
crust was destroyed at least twice during
this period under the influence of living
matter, being transformed into
sedimentary deposits it sunk to the
subcrustal layers of the mantle, remelted
and formed again granite rocks.
For this reason
it is considered that the whole granite crust
is a region of “past biospheres” and as a
part of the total extension of the biosphere.
With such a historical approach to the Biosphere as a
planetary shell which underwent an evolution over
two thousand million years, and not only as a thin
layer of living matter which now covers the earth, the
cosmic origin of the Biospere is disclosed more
profoundly and accurately; the role of cosmic
radiation and of the Sun radiation – intransient,
permanent life creators – stands out more
prominently.
Biosphere matter
V. Vernadsky emphasized that defining the biosphere
only as a “region of life” (ecosphere by E. Odum) is
insufficient and incomplete. Apart from living matter,
there widely occurs in biosphere “biogenic matter”,
such as organic and organomineral products created
by living matter throughout the geological time: coal,
oil shales, soil humus and, assumingly, oil.
Biogenic matter is a trace of “past biospheres”
of the Cambrian, Silurian, Ordovician, Devonian,
Carboniferous, Permian, Jurassic and other periods.
Academician Vladimir Vernadski
(1863-1945)
The other important component of the Biosphere
is the bioinert matter, the result of synthesis of
living and non-living (inert) matter:
all natural waters,
sedimentary rock,
the surface atmosphere,
the crust of weathering
and clay minerals.
• On the opposite pole of the matter is the
crystal “inert matter”
(magmatic and effusive rock extrusive
from the earth’s interior).
• The profound difference between living
and non-living nature is manifested at the
level of space-time organization of these
systems.
All living organisms have their
own rythmus of the reactions processes,
peculiar biological time, and,
as compared to the laws of Eucleidean geometry,
a more complex spatial structure described
within the framework of Riemannian geometry
(predominance of spherical surfaces,
guinary and higher kinds of symmetry
“forbidden” in crystal matter)
and other differences.
• The important component of the
biosphere, forming part of its matter, in
addition to those enumerated, are
radioactive matter, dispersed atoms and
individual isotopes as well as matter
from space, which for thousands of
millions of years have been bombarding
the earth.
Structure of the biosphere matter
Organization of the biosphere
What distinguishes the living organisms,
“one of the most powerful geochemical forces on
the planet”
from the other material systems?
Living matter as a whole is the only component of
the Biosphere in the process of evolution of which
an increase and not a decrease in free energy takes
place (The Law of Enthropy).
In the course of the biogenic current of atoms,
thousands of millions of living things of such
single free energy centres are involved in creating
a new organization of the Biosphere matter and
of its structural levels.
In the process of life evolution a perfection of both
the individual organization of living things and of
their environment, i.e. the soil, landscapes and
surface atmosphere, occurs.
According to the first biogeochemical
principle,
the evolution of living matter is directed
toward maximum manifestation of the
aggregate organizing force of the
organisms, which is reveald in their
nourishment, respiration and reproduction.
Consequently, organization of the Biosphere is
nothing but a manifestation of the
bigeochemical functions of living matter
and they function most effectively in the upper
structural level of the Biosphere,
in the region of “condensation of life”, in the
ecosphere or in the the sphere of landscapes.
Organization of the biosphere,
biogeochemical function of living matter
• Gas function
• Concentration function
• Reduction-oxidation
function
• Biochemical function
• Mans biogeochemical
function
The gas function
The gas function is a mjor function of living
matter determining the limits of the distribution
of life over the planet and the entire tempo of
reproduction of organisms. There is a constant
exchange between living matter and the
Biosphere gas component. of living matter.
• Basic geochemical features of of our
planet are related to gas function.
• We are aware of the fact that oxygen and
nitrogen in the atmosphere, virtually all
carbon dioxide, natural gases and odours
are the derivatives
It is less known, that according to estimates, all
atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is capable of
passing through plant photosynthesis
in just 200 years.
• Within a year living organisms displace
in different ways much more volume of
gas than that contained in the earth’s
atmosphere.
With such displacement, living matter
produces, in addition to the indicated
components, ozone-peroxide,
hydrocarbon, hydrogen sulphide and
other gaseous components.
The concentration function,
concentration of the first kind
The concentration function is a manifestation of a
new form of organization of matter.
Living organisms are capable of accumulating
from the habitat, on one hand,
practically all the elements of the periodic system,
including dispersed and rare elements
(concentration of first kind),
Concentration of the second kind
• and on the other hand, of selectively
accumulating separate chemical elements
in quantities which sometimes
hundreds of thousands times exceed their
concentrations in the environment
(concentration of the second kind,
biomagnification).
Well known the organisms - concentrators are
horsetails, ferns, grasses, diatome algae, and Radiolaria,
which accumulate silicon;
corals and various kinds of algae which concentrate
calcium and which in dying off are transformed into
organogenic limestones, etc.
• The remarcable fact is that the very creation of
life on carbon base about three thousand
million years ago was a vivid manifestation of
the concentration function of living matter:
as compared with the Earth’s crust and the
lithosphere, plants contain almost 200 times
more carbon and 30 times more nitrogen; the
average carbon content in rock (“inert
matter”) amounts to hundreths of a fraction of
a percent, and in living organism, up to 10
percent.
Free-energy-rich living matter capable of
performing geochemical work and chemical
transformation forms basis of the
reduction-oxiodationox function.
Under the influence of living organisms there
takes place an intensive migration of atoms in
elements with a variable valence, such as
compounds of iron, manganese, vanadium,
chromium, sulphur, phosphorus and nitrogen.
As a result, new organomineral compounds of
iron and other metals constantly come into being
in the biosphere, hydrogen sulphide is liberated,
and sulphides and elementary sulphur are
deposited.
Biochemical function
Important process occurs inside the living organisms;
as a result of biosynthesis and metabolism, hundreds
and thousends of complex biochemical compounds
(proteins, carbochydrates, lipids, amino acids, etc.)
are formed. This is the biochemical function which
proceeds in specific thermodynamic conditions of a
living cell, different from those of the environment.
Mans biogeochemical function
The Biosphere assumes new organizational forms
under the influence of man’s geochemical activity.
The above-considered functions of living matter,
which lead to a definite organization of the
biosphere, are displayed jointly, in the form of
eternal cycles of matter and energy. The rates of
cycles sharply differ, the same as the material
components involved in the cycle; this depends on
the real activities in which the cycle takes place and
on its duration or the time when the process occur.
It is possible to present differences in space-time
organization and cycle rates as “atom eddies” in
the biosphere.
Cycles are not closed (open systems) and do not
revert to the initial states: part of the atoms leave
the cycle, are consolidated and reshaped by new
forms of living organisms and by the vital
activity elements.
This is the significance of the progressive
development (evolution) of the Biosphere as a
new planetary shell and carrier of a new form of
movement of matter.
The differences between the “atom eddies” in the
Biosphere shows the correlation of the rates of
matter cycles, as a function of time.
The lowest cycle rates, amounting to thousands of
millions of years, are inherent in rarefied cosmic
space on in “slow” cosmic time; as is well known,
hydrogen and helium nuclei are typical
representatives of cosmic matter.
The cycle rates of matter in the duration of the
“geological time” or of the planetery time similar
to the terrestrial one are considerably higher and
reach millions of years.
The spectrum of chemical elements and
compounds involved in the cycle is considerably
richer in this case.
The origin of life on earth and at the same time of
a new biological form of matter movement gave
rise to the formation of the Biosphere and a
drastic acceleration of cycle processes.
The new biological space, the time of living matter,
formerly non-existent in the history of earth,
radically changed the organization of matter and
the structure of the earth’s crust and brought out
quantitatively new “atom eddies” to the “stage”.
Atom eddies in the biosphere
Transition to the Noosphere
The progress of science and technology in the
historical time results in a new evolutionary
change of the biosphere. This new state is
considered as the “noosphere”.
• The idea of “noosphere”, the sphere of reason,
was introduced in 1927 by French
mathematician and philosopher Le Rois and
the palaentologist Telyard de Charden. The
initial foundation for them was the
biogeochemical description of the processes in
the biosphere, first outlined by V. Vernadsky in
1922-1923 in his lectures at the Sorbonne
University.
Biogeochemical functions of man bring about the
formation of new forms of the Biosphere organization.
This is first of all manifested in sharp acceleration
and intensification of the cycles of matter and energy
involved in the sphere of man’s economic and cultural
activity.
New chemical elements and compounds hitherto
unknown in the Biosphere are being produced
now in thousands of millions tons,
such as native iron or pure aluminum which
never existed on our planet, while the number of
new artificially developed chemical compounds,
especially polymers, synthetic materials, etc.
already reached enormous figure of
600,000-800,000 names.
It is well known that many areas of the world are
seriously polluted by different waste gases,
aromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides, dioxines, etc.
Most of them are byproducts of technologies,
many of them specially created as economically
useful products but having ecologically harmful
impact on the living organisms including man.
Noosphere
“chemical composition”