biosphere

• And just as the biosphere has been severely eroded, so too is the ethnosphere -- and if anything at a far greater rate. —  Wade Davis on endangered cultures
• Some folks would say that the biosphere is a thin layer, distinct from the crust. —  Analog, July-August 2006
• From an ecological point of view, the biosphere is the "global ecosystem", comprising the totality of biodiversity on earth and performing all manner of biological functions, including photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, nitrogen fixation and denitrification. —  Featured Articles - Encyclopedia of Earth
• Ecology, where it serves as the highest level of biological organization, which begins with parts of cells and proceed to biodiversity within the biosphere are described using biomes. —  Featured Articles - Encyclopedia of Earth
• Since the late 1980s, international scientific research on the biosphere has been coordinated by the Biosphere II "experiments", which were conducted in the early 1990s in Arizona using private funding, enclosed a complex array of plants and animals together with humans in a sealed greenhouse complex which included a large "ocean". —  Featured Articles - Encyclopedia of Earth

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