The Diversity of Life

Diversity of Life Essay

The biosphere the sphere of life was named by Eduard Suess in 1875 but not fully described as a concept until the work of Vladimir Vernadsky in the 1920’s. The biosphere is made up of biomes, or biophysical zones, and is filled with many different types of ecosystems. Each ecosystem is made up a complicated set of species that adapts to the prevailing conditions from below the oceans floors and the land surface to even above the highest mountains. These life forms can include life forms ranging in size from, microscopic bacteria to as big as a whale. Billions of years ago, the biosphere was hit by five mass extinctions in the geologic past and now faces the same threats in response to human activity.“The totality of life, known as the biosphere to scientists a creation to theologians, is a membrane of organisms wrapped around earth so thin it cannot be seen edgewise from a space shuttle. Yet so internally complex that most species composing it remain undiscovered. The membrane is seamless. From Everest’s peak to the floor of the Mariana Trench, creatures of one kind or another inhabit virtually every square inch of the planetary surface. They obey the fundamental principle of biological geography, that wherever there is liquid water, organic molecules, and an energy source, there is life” (Wilson 2002). The biosphere is a global ecosystem composed of living organisms (biota) and the abiotic (non-living) factors from which to drive nutrients.
The biologist Edward O. Wilson who coined the term “biodiversity” estimated conservatively that in the late 20th century at least 27,000 species are becoming extinct each year(biosphere. (2012). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/66191/biosphere. Biosphere “the zone of life” an energy diverting skin that uses the matter of earth to make a