The biosphere as a geological envelope

One of the most important questions arising from the biosphere as a geological envelope concerns the boundaries of the biosphere and its place in planet Earth s very structure. To define the biosphere, as seen from this angle, Vernadsky introduced two basic principles ... 

However, Vernadsky did not define clearly enough a place of the biosphere between other geological envelopes. A scheme of the relationship between the biosphere and other geospheres as accepted by many of the followers of Vernadskian tradition (Kolchinskij, 1990, Lapo, 1987b) was later proposed by Vassoyevich and Ivanov (Vassoyevich, Ivanov, 1977) (see 2.3.2.). 

In contrast to Teilhard de Chardin and James Lovelock, Vernadsky never understood the biosphere as the totality of living organisms or as just a domain where life exists or as a living entity. In Vernadsky s theory, the biosphere appears as a bioinert selfregulating system and, at the same time, as a geological envelope including both living matter and its inert environment. Bioinert system is defined as a system. .which is made... 

In order to define the research field of this newly created science, Vernadsky introduced his interpr ation of the term the biosphere. He had used the term biosphere siiKe 1911, but first gave a clear definition in 1923, after the beginning of his synthetical works in biogeochemistry (Vassoevich, Ivamiv, 1977, p. 69, Vernadsky, 1923, pp. 38-39). The biosphere of the Earth appears as one of the geospheres occupied and organised by life and thus can be seen as a geological envelope. 

The biosphere was furthermore investigated by Vernadsky and his followers as a geological envelope. This aspect differentiates Vernadsky s approach from that of Lovelock and Beklemishev, who paid little attention to the geological structure of the biosphere and its environment. 

The biosphere is a stable dynamic equilibrium. Its main peculiarity is the presence of living matter within this geological envelope. Living matter transforms solar energy into fiee energy of the biosphere ( the biosphere can be treated as the area of the Earth s crust occupied by the transformers ). Inert substances are an essential component of this process. Thus the basic principles of the biosphere theory should describe the relations between the main components living matter, inert matter and energy. 

The detailed theory of the biosphere was elaborated by V.I. Vernadsky (1863-1945), who had a personal acquaintance with Suess. Vernadsky gave the term of Suess a quantitative meaning and elaborated a biosphere-noosphere theory, where the biosphere appears as a self-regulating system and geological envelope. As George E. Hutchinson (1970) stated lt is essentially Vernadsky s concept of the biosphere, developed about 50 years after Suess wrote, that we accept today". 

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