Biosphere Flashcards
What is a biosphere?
Region of the earth where life exists encompassing all living organisms, ecosystems and their interactions with the physical environment.
The biosphere consists of
The lithosphere - is the soil and rocks comprising the outer layer of the earth.
Hydrosphere where it includes all the water on the surface of the earth like oceans, lakes and rivers etc
Atmosphere where the layer of the air surrounds the earth and consists of a mixture of various gases like carbon dioxide and oxygen which are essential for photosynthesis and respiration and filtering the sunlight to protect living organisms from harmful solar radiation. It’s mainly made up of nitrogen - 71%,oxygen 21% and co-0,03%
The biosphere extends
7 to 8000 meters above sea level and about 6 to 8000 meters below sea level
Levels of atmosphere
Thermosphere(highest level)
Mesophere
Stratosphere
Troposphere (surrounds us)
Examples of aquatic organisms that live in the Hydrosphere habitat
Microscopic plankton and fish and large organisms like sharks and whales
Fresh water makes up 3% of the Hydrosphere while
Ocean water makes up the rest.
The lithosphere is made up of
Rocks and soils and is the outside crust of the earth, a thin layer of the earthcrust namely the topsoil supporting plant life and being the source of ions and minerals which the living organisms need. The soil is the habitat for many microscopic invertebrates and large vertebrates.
Differences between invertebrates and vertebrates
Vertebrates have a backbone and internal skeleton, they reproduce sexually and are typically large in size like a human and a bird while
Invertebrates don’t have a backbone and internal skeleton, they have various modes of reproduction and are small in size like a squid, worm and insects
To make the biosphere easier to study
Ecologists divide the biosphere into smaller areas.
The biosphere is broken down into
Biomes ;ecosystems ;communities ;populations and organisms
Interconnections between spheres
Life exists where energy from the sun can interact with the lithosphere, Hydrosphere and atmosphere
Living organisms can directly and indirectly
Get energy from the sun(primary source of energy)
Photosynthesis and respiration (atmosphere processes)
Are responsible for the production or conversion of the energy from the sun into chemical energy. That energy is used by the organisms that exist on the earth, on the surface of the earth(lithosphere), those organisms in return rely on the Hydrosphere (acesss to water and aquatic organisms and in turn the aquatic organisms produce energy such as the phytoplankton that acesss solar energy and produce glucose which is avaliable to aquatic organisms
Two components of the biosphere
Biotic(living) and abiotic(non living) which are the interdependence(dependent) between living components and non living components
What’s an ecologist?
“An ecologist studies the interactions between living organisms, non-living components, and their physical environment, focusing on ecosystem dynamics, human impact, and conservation of environmental factors crucial for sustaining life.”
