Where is biosphere found

The portions where life is found and sustained are the only ones regarded as parts of the biosphere. For example, the part of the sky where birds are seen flying is part of the biosphere.

In contrast, higher up the atmosphere that cannot sustain life is not considered part of the biosphere. The lithosphere is known as the terrestrial component of the biosphere. For instance, it contains solid landmasses like our continents and islands.

The part that does not sustain any life, and therefore, not a part of the biosphere, is its lower mantle and core. All the other parts aside from this support lives, from the smallest bacteria to the large mammals and tall trees, by providing them shelter, and food. The atmosphere is the gaseous covering above the Earth.

It contains different gases like carbon dioxide, oxygen, and other gases to help living organisms like plants, animals, and humans sustain life. However, the upper region of the atmosphere has a low composition of oxygen; that is why it is possible to find the flying birds under the region of meters of the Earth. The hydrosphere refers to all the waters on Earth. Thus, it is also called the aquatic region. However, it also includes solid forms, like glaciers. The hydrosphere where life is sustained plays an important role in regulating the temperature on Earth.

Moreover, it supplies the water necessary for all living things. As for the biotic components, they include plants, animals, and microorganisms. These biological components are also the builder of the food chain of the ecosystem. Plants are the primary producers. They produce their food through photosynthesis. Moreover, they are also known as autotrophs. They also take part in recycling waste material.

However, they are the only primary source for every living organism, including animals and humans. These are the consumers. They cannot produce their food from inorganic sources. They depend upon other sources like plants or other small animals. They are also known as heterotrophs. The food they intake is used to release energy and store it for future use. The energy is used for growth and development. Microorganisms are a major part of the ecosystem.

They include fungi, algae, bacteria, viruses, etc. Moreover, they serve as decomposers by decomposing the amount of waste or dead materials. They use this process of decomposing as their food source. The biosphere is mainly described by the reference of the whole life and living organisms around the Earth. It consists of five levels of organizational structure:. The large biosphere is divided into large parts of biomes.

Scientists classified biomes into five different types: tundra, grassland, forests, deserts, and aquatic biomes. Rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, and other aqueous habitats are inhabited by a large diversity of plants and animals.

Conversely, desserts are the driest areas of the Earth with the lowest measurement of rain per year. Grasslands cover the green areas of the Earth. However, it experiences moderate rainfall but not enough to grow large trees. Forests are areas dominated by large trees. Tundras are the vast treeless Arctic region wherein the subsoil is permanently frozen. The ecosystem is made up of a biological community and the physical environment.

And so it includes both the biotic and abiotic factors. The living things and their physical environment function together as a unit. Four types of ecosystems are terrestrial, freshwater, marine, and artificial. The terrestrial ecosystem is the ecosystem occurring on land and is exemplified by the grassland ecosystem and the forest ecosystem. The freshwater ecosystem is an aquatic ecosystem and exemplified by lentic and lotic ecosystems.

The marine ecosystem is a saltwater ecosystem and therefore found in seas and oceans. The artificial ecosystem is a man-made system, such as a terrarium. As the biosphere shows wide diversity, different species build up the community. These species survive in the areas where abiotic factors like temperature, ph, and nutrients are tolerable or optimum. A biological community, though, is defined as the assemblage of interacting organisms either of the same or different species coexisting in a particular area and time.

All the members of the particular species living in the single habitat are known as the population. The population size can vary from a few to thousands of members. All of the microbes, plants, and animals can be found somewhere in the biosphere. The biosphere extends to the upper areas of the atmosphere where birds and insects can be found. It also reaches to dark caves deep in the ground or to the bottom of the ocean at hydrothermal vents.

The biosphere extends to any place that life of any kind might exist. The biosphere is the crossroads of all the other earth science spheres you will study in class.

Think about the possible interactions for a second. The coasts are teeming with life such as fish, birds, invertebrates, and mammals. Rising mountains cool the air and force clouds to drop their water, leading to rain for forests of trees and rivers filled with fish.

Volcanic vents under the seas are surrounded by life. All of these interactions create the variety in our living world. There are large factors such as the distance between the Earth and the Sun. If our planet were closer to the Sun, it might be too hot to support life. It involves two types of succession: primary succession and secondary succession.

Primary succession is the development of the first biota in a given region where no life is found. An example is of this is the surrounding areas where volcanic lava has completely covered a region or has built up a new island in the ocean. Initially, only pioneer species can survive there, typically lichens and mosses , which are able to withstand poor conditions.

They are able to survive in highly exposed areas with limited water and nutrients. Lichen, which is made up of both a fungus and an alga, survives by mutualism. The fungus produces an acid, which acts to further dissolve the barren rock. The alga uses those exposed nutrients, along with photosynthesis, to produce food for both.

Grass seeds may land in the cracks, carried by wind or birds. The grass grows, further cracking the rocks, and upon completing its own life cycle, contributes organic matter to the crumbling rock to make soil. In time, larger plants, such as shrubs and trees may inhabit the area, offering habitats and niches to immigrating animal life.

When the maximum biota that the ecosystem can support is reached, the climax community prevails. This occurs after hundreds if not thousands of years depending on the climate and location. The first few centimeters of this soil may have taken years to develop from solid rock. It may be rich in humus, organic waste, and may be stocked with ready seeds of future plants. Secondary succession is also a new beginning, but one with a much quicker regrowth of organisms.

Depending on the environment, succession to a climax community may only require to years with normal climate conditions, with communities progressing through stages of early plant and animal species , mid-species and late successional species.

Some ecosystems, however, can never by regained. The biosphere can be divided into relatively large regions called biomes. A biome has a distinct climate and certain living organisms especially vegetation characteristic to the region and may contain many ecosystems. The key factors determining climate are average annual precipitation and temperature. These factors, in turn, depend on the geography of the region, such as the latitude and elevation of the region, and mountainous barriers.

The major types of biomes include: aquatic , desert , forest , grassland and tundra. Biomes have no distinct boundaries. Instead, there is a transition zone called an ecotone, which contains a variety of plants and animals. For example, an ecotone might be a transition region between a grassland and a desert, with species from both.

Water covers a major portion of the earth's surface, so aquatic biomes contain a rich diversity of plants and animals. Aquatic biomes can be subdivided into two basic types: freshwater and marine. Freshwater has a low salt concentration, usually less than 1 percent, and occurs in several types of regions: ponds and lakes, streams and rivers, and wetlands.

Ponds and lakes range in size, and small ponds may be seasonal. They sometimes have limited species diversity due to isolation from other water environments. They can get their water from precipitation, surface runoff, rivers, and springs. Streams and rivers are bodies of flowing water moving in one general direction i. Streams and rivers start at their upstream headwaters, which could be springs, snowmelt or even lakes. They continue downstream to their mouths, which may be another stream, river, lake or ocean.

The environment of a stream or river may change along its length, ranging from clear, cool water near the head, to warm, sediment-rich water near the mouth. The greatest diversity of living organisms usually occurs in the middle region. Wetlands are places of still water that support aquatic plants, such as cattails, pond lilies and cypress trees.

Types of wetlands include marshes, swamps and bogs. Wetlands have the highest diversity of species with many species of birds, fur-bearing mammals, amphibians and reptiles. Some wetlands, such as salt marshes, are not freshwater regions. Marine regions cover nearly three-fourths of the earth's surface. Marine bodies are salty, having approximately 35 grams of dissolved salt per liter of water 3.

Oceans are very large marine bodies that dominate the earth's surface and hold the largest ecosystems. They contain a rich diversity of living organisms.

Ocean regions can be separated into four major zones: intertidal , pelagic , benthic and abyssal. The intertidal zone is where the ocean meets the land. Sometimes, it is submerged and at other times exposed, depending upon waves and tides. The pelagic zone includes the open ocean further away from land. The benthic zone is the region below the pelagic zone, but not including the very deepest parts of the ocean.

The bottom of this zone consists of sediments. The deepest parts of the ocean are known as the abyssal zone. This zone is very cold near freezing temperatures , and under great pressure from the overlying mass of water. Mid-ocean ridges occur on the ocean floor in abyssal zones.

Coral reefs are found in the warm, clear, shallow waters of tropical oceans around islands or along continental coastlines. They are mostly formed from calcium carbonate produced by living coral. Reefs provide food and shelter for other organisms and protect shorelines from erosion. Estuaries are partially enclosed areas where fresh water and silt from streams or rivers mix with salty ocean water. They represent a transition from land to sea and from freshwater to saltwater.

Estuaries are biologically very productive areas and provide homes for a wide variety of plants, birds and animals. Deserts are dry areas where evaporation usually exceeds precipitation.

Rainfall is low -- less than 25 centimeters per year -- and can be highly variable and seasonal. The low humidity results in temperature extremes between day and night. Deserts can be hot or cold. Hot deserts e. Cold deserts e. Deserts have relatively little vegetation and the substrate consists mostly of sand, gravel or rocks. The transition regions between deserts and grasslands are sometimes called semiarid deserts e. Grasslands cover regions where moderate rainfall is sufficient for the growth of grasses, but not enough for stands of trees.

There are two main types of grasslands: tropical grasslands savannas and temperate grasslands. Tropical grasslands occur in warm climates such as Africa and very limited regions of Australia. They have a few scattered trees and shrubs, but their distinct rainy and dry seasons prevent the formation of tropical forests. Lower rainfall, more variable winter-through-summer temperatures and a near lack of trees characterize temperate grasslands.

Prairies are temperate grasslands at fairly high elevation. They may be dominated by long or short grass species. The vast prairies originally covering central North America, or the Great Plains, were the result of favorable climate conditions created by their high elevation and proximity to the Rocky Mountains. Because temperate grasslands are treeless, relatively flat and have rich soil, most have been replaced by farmland.

Forests are dominated by trees and can be divided into three types: tropical forests , temperate forests and boreal forests.

Tropical forests are always warm and wet and are found at lower latitudes. Their annual precipitation is very high, although some regions may have distinct wet and dry seasons. Tropical forests have the highest biodiversity of this biome. Temperate forests occur at mid-latitudes i. Summers are warm and winters are cold.

The temperate forests have suffered considerable alteration by humans, who have cleared much of the forest land for fuel, building materials and agricultural use.

Boreal forests are located in higher latitudes, like Siberia, where they are known as " taiga.