The biosphere is the space on or near the Earth's surface which contains and supports living organisms. It is typically subdivided into the lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. The lithosphere is the Earth's surrounding layer composed of solid substance such as soil and rock, the atmosphere is the surrounding gaseous envelope, and the hydrosphere refers to liquid environments such as lakes and oceans which lie between the lithosphere and atmosphere. The biosphere's creation and continuous existence results from chemical, biological, and physical processes. To study these processes a multi disciplinary effort has been employed by scientists from fields such as chemistry, biology, geology, and ecology.

History

The term biosphere was first used by Austrian geologist Eduard Suess (1831-1914) in 1875 to describe the space on Earth which contains life. The concept introduced by Suess had little impact on the scientific community until it was resurrected by Russian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky...