The Biosphere

"Vladimir Vernadsky was a brilliant and prescient scholar-a true scientific visionary who saw the deep connections between life on Earth and the rest of the planet and understood the profound implications for life as a cosmic phenomenon." -DAVID H. GRINSPOON, AUTHOR OF VENUS REVEALED
"The Biosphere should be required reading for all entry level students in earth and planetary sciences." -ERIC D. SCHNEIDER, AUTHOR OF INTO THE COOL: THE NEW THERMODYNAMICS OF CREATIVE DESTRUCTION

Contenu

One The Biosphere in the Cosmos.- The Biosphere in the Cosmic Medium.- The Biosphere as a Region of Transformation of Cosmic Energy.- The Empirical Generalization and the Hypothesis.- Living Matter in the Biosphere.- The Multiplication of Organisms and Geochemical Energy in Living Matter 6o.- Photosynthetic Living Matter.- Some Remarks on Living Matter in the Mechanism of the Biosphere.- Two The Domain of Life.- The Biosphere: An Envelope of the Earth.- Living Matter of the First and Second Orders in the Biosphere 103 The Limits of Life.- The Limits of Life in the Biosphere.- Life in the Hydrosphere.- Geochemical Cycles of the Living Concentrations and Films of the Hydrosphere.- Living Matter on Land.- The Relationship Between the Living Films and Concentrations of the Hydrosphere and Those of Land.- Appendix I: A Biographical Chronology.- Appendix II: Vernadsky's Publications in English.- Acknowledgments.