Concepts: geographical envelope, landscape space, landscape envelope, natural territorial complex, biosphere, noosphere, vitasphere. Biosphere of the earth
Rental block
Biosphere- area of active life, covering bottom part atmosphere, hydrosphere and upper lithosphere. In the biosphere, living organisms (living matter) and their habitat are organically connected and interact with each other, forming an integral dynamic system. The doctrine of the biosphere as the active shell of the Earth, in which the total activity of living organisms (including humans) manifests itself as a geochemical factor of planetary scale and significance, was created by Vernadsky.
The areas of development of living matter on Earth can be limited by five parameters: quantity carbon dioxide and oxygen; the presence of water in the liquid phase; thermal regime; the presence of a “living wage” - elements of mineral nutrition; hypersalinity of waters. There are very few areas on the Earth's surface where the listed factors would impede the development of living organisms. The entire oceans of the world are populated by organisms. They are also in Mariana Trench, and under the ice Arctic Ocean and Antarctica. In the atmosphere, life has been detected not only within the troposphere, but also in the stratosphere: viable organisms have been discovered at an altitude of about 80 km. However, the active life of most organisms takes place in the atmosphere up to the heights where insects and birds exist. Above that there are bacteria, yeasts, fungal spores, mosses and lichens, viruses, algae, etc. Most of them at such altitudes are in a state of suspended animation. Within the continents, the lower boundary of the biosphere passes through varying depths, which are controlled mainly by the characteristics of groundwater. Active and diverse forms of microflora were found at depths of over 3 km, and living bacteria were present in waters with a temperature of 100 ° C.
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This topic belongs to the section:
Geochemistry
Geochemistry of geospheres. Lithosphere. Atmosphere. Hydrosphere. Pedosphere. Migration factors chemical elements in the earth's crust. Geochemistry of landscapes. Geochemical classification of landscapes.
Ecology has significantly expanded the scope of its research and currently examines the patterns of ecosystems in close connection with geography and human activity. This gives rise to general geoecological patterns at the biosphere level.
The basis of geographical patterns is relief, unity (integrity) of the biosphere, preservation of balance in nature, zonality and azonality, polar asymmetry and metabolism.
In 1974, the famous American ecologist B. Commoner combined the listed patterns into four laws:
1. Everything is connected to everything. A small shift in one place in an ecological system leads to unintended consequences for the entire ecosystem.
2. Nothing disappears without a trace and disappears into nowhere. The substance enters into metabolism and passes from one form to another.
3. Nature knows best. Man does not know that, while “improving” nature, he can disrupt the laws of development in it.
4. You have to pay for everything. Man, using natural resources freely and illiterately, pollutes the air, water, and soil. There must be a limit to human mismanagement. All human actions equal conditions must be decided in favor of nature. The future of the biosphere directly depends on the intelligence of the people living in it. Only by preserving the quality of the environment can humans protect themselves as a species.
The second way to preserve humanity is the ability to adapt to unfavorable environmental conditions. According to the biological laws of nature, in the absence of these two conditions, human society will gradually disappear. Therefore, maintaining balance on the planet, studying the laws of unity geographic envelope help carry out life processes within the biosphere.
Biosphere- field of ecology research, the largest ecological system globe. For a deeper study of the geographic envelope and biosphere, let us dwell on some geoecological concepts.
Biosphere- a favorable environment for the existence of living organisms on Earth. Its areas extend from small burrows, bird nests and anthills to large valleys, biocenoses and ecosystems (Fig. 64).
Rice. 64. A flower is the habitat of a butterfly
Geographical envelope- single territorial system occupies the entire outer layer globe. It covers all components of the biosphere. The total depth of the geographic shell is 35-40 km.
The structure, characteristics and area of study of the geographical envelope and the biosphere are similar; these are mutually complementary systems. Although the biosphere is inferior to the geographical envelope in volume and size, all organisms currently living on Earth are concentrated in it. Two large ecosystems are the subject of ecology research. The term “geographical envelope” was introduced into science by A. A. Grigoriev (1932), and “biosphere” by E. Suess (1875).
One of the main properties of the geographic shell is the heterogeneity of space. Spatial distribution earth's crust- the result of long and complex geobiological processes. For example, the main indicator of the geographic envelope is geosystems, or natural landscapes.
Ecosystems- a natural complex formed by a collection of living organisms and a continuous flow of substances and energy on Earth.
The size and biomass of an ecosystem can vary greatly - from small to huge areas. They cover aboveground (atmosphere), underground (lithosphere) and aquatic (hydrosphere) living environments. For example, the concept of “ecosystem” is applicable from a drop of water to the ocean. By their nature, ecosystems are divided into natural and anthropogenic.
One of the main properties of an “ecosystem” is its diversity of sizes. Highest, global scale, the ecosystem is the biosphere. Simple ecosystems (biogeocenoses) are characterized by relative homogeneity. How do plant communities interact in a single ecosystem? animal world, physical and geographical conditions, as well as a constant flow of energy and metabolism.
Biogeocenosis corresponds to the geographical concept of "facies". For example: ecosystems of birches, valleys, steppes, etc.
The main properties characteristic of an ecosystem are the circulation of substances and the stability of biological productivity.
Geosystem (geographical system)- a single complex of natural components developing in close relationship in time and space and complement each other as a material system. Although the geosystem and the ecosystem are close to each other, geosystems, compared to ecosystems, cover production, territorial complexes and the area of distribution of production sites.
The highest natural system of the geographic envelope is landscape (Fig. 65, 66).
Rice. 65. Mountain meadows
Rice. 66. Okzhetpes. Mountain landscape
Landscape- territories that are homogeneous in origin and history of development, with a single geographical period of formation, uniform soil, topography, climate, hydrothermal conditions, and biocenosis.
There are similarities and differences between ecosystems and geosystems (landscapes). It is based on concepts that describe natural complexes. But the ecosystem does not have firm territorial boundaries; they are arbitrary. For example, the forests of Charyn, Ili, the ecosystem of Zhetysu (Dzhungar) Alatau, etc.
Within the geographical envelope, the landscape environment is distinguished. This is a layer of earth that covers flora and fauna, the lower layers of air, aboveground and The groundwater. Only in this layer is a favorable environment created for all living organisms. If the landscape environment in the tundra zone occupies 5-10 m, then in tropical zones it reaches 100-150 m. The main reasons for this are related to the development of relief and the thickness of the organic layer.
Thus, what are the main differences between a geosystem and an ecosystem? The geosystem performs a polycentral function, and the ecosystem performs a biocentral function, where the basis is made up of living organisms.
Complete scientific definition geographical landscapes were given and described by the famous Russian scientist P. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky.
According to its taxonomy, primary, partially natural, cultural and restorative landscapes are distinguished.
If we take modern landscapes using the example of Kazakhstan, we can find natural, anthropogenic and cultural landscapes.
Natural landscapes- virgin natural complexes, where perhaps no human has set foot. Such landscapes in Kazakhstan can be found in the region of high mountains, in steppe desert and semi-desert natural zones.
Anthropogenic landscapes- these are altered lands associated with human impact on natural complexes directly and indirectly, for example, the appearance of pastures in the place of cleared forests. Sometimes such anthropogenic landscapes can be restored. But illiterate use of landscapes by humans turns them into deserts and takyrs. According to scientific data, the largest desert ecosystems of the planet Sahara, Gobi, Taklamakan, Central Asia are the result of direct or indirect influence person. These include thousands of hectares of unsuitable land in Central Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea regions, Southern Kazakhstan with soils susceptible to erosion (Fig. 67).
Rice. 67. Aral lands subject to erosion
The largest ecosystem on earth is the biosphere (sphere of life). Its developmental evolution and future are connected only with the Earth. The merit of creating a holistic doctrine of the biosphere belongs to Academician V.I. Vernadsky (1863-1945).
The foundations of his doctrine of the biosphere, set out in 1926 in the book “Biosphere,” retain their significance in modern science.
In the book, the scientist explored the development, formation and future of life in the biosphere, where the main driving force life is the energy of the Sun. In general, the formation, development and metabolism in the biosphere are considered from the point of view of the emergence of organic substances.
Geographical envelope. Ecosystem. Geosystem. Landscape.
1. The geographical envelope and the biosphere are mutually complementary single ecosystems.
2. There are natural patterns development of the geographical envelope and biosphere.
3. B. Commoner's laws.
1. What are geographical patterns?
2. What is the significance of V. Commoner’s laws?
3. What is natural balance?
1. What is the general description of the biosphere and its driving force?
2. What does the geographic envelope include?
3. What types of ecosystems do you know?
1. What are the similarities and differences between geo- and ecosystems?
2. Name the types of landscape and its functions.
3. Is there a future for unusable land?
The foundations of geoecological knowledge are outlined, the importance of an interdisciplinary scientific direction that studies interconnected geospheres in close integration with them is shown. social sphere. The natural and socio-economic consequences of changes in geospheres under the influence of the anthropogenic factor are covered. Natural and socio-economic factors of the ecosphere, problems of global changes, geoecological problems atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere. Geoecological aspects of natural-technogenic systems are given. Assessed from geoecological positions current state and sustainability of the biosphere.
For higher education students educational institutions, studying in environmental specialties.
In the scientific literature there are different interpretations of the concepts denoted by the word “biosphere”. According to one, broader one, the biosphere is the region of existence of living matter. In this sense, V.I. Vernadsky understood the biosphere and in this same sense it is often found in literature, especially popular literature. The concept of “biosphere” largely coincides with the concept of either the geographical envelope or the ecosphere, and therefore is not used in this sense in this book. In a narrower sense, the biosphere is one of the Earth’s geospheres. This is the area of distribution of living matter, and it is in this sense that we consider the biosphere.
The biosphere is concentrated mainly in the form of a relatively thin film on the land surface and predominantly (but not exclusively) in the upper layers of the ocean. It cannot function without close interaction with the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere, and the pedosphere simply would not exist without living organisms.
The presence of a biosphere distinguishes the Earth from other planets in the solar system. It should be especially emphasized that it was the biota, that is, the totality of living organisms of the world, that created the ecosphere in the form it is (or, more precisely, what it was before active work human), and it is the biota that plays vital role in stabilizing the ecosphere. oxygen atmosphere, the global water cycle and the key role of carbon and its compounds are associated with the activities of biota and are characteristic only of the Earth. Biota plays a significant, if not decisive, role in all global biogeochemical cycles. It is mainly thanks to biota that the homeostasis of the ecosphere is ensured, that is, the ability of the system to maintain its basic parameters, despite external influences, both natural and, increasingly, anthropogenic.
Classifications natural systems biospheres are based on the landscape approach, since ecosystems are an integral part of natural geographical landscapes that form the geographical (landscape) envelope of the Earth. Biogeocenoses (ecosystems) form the so-called biogeosphere, which is the basis of the biosphere, which V. I. Vernadsky called the “film of life”, and V. N. Sukachev called the “biogeocoenotic cover”.
“Biogeocenotic cover” by V.N. Sukachev is nothing more than a series of natural ecosystems that are spatial (chorological) units (parts, elements) of the biosphere. These units, as a rule, coincide with their boundaries with landscape elements geographic envelope Earth.
Landscape– a natural geographical complex in which all the main components (upper horizons of the lithosphere, relief, climate, water, soil, biota) are in complex interaction, forming a unified system that is homogeneous in terms of development conditions.
The landscape approach to ecology is, first of all, of great importance for environmental management purposes. Based on their origin, there are two main types of landscapes: natural and anthropogenic.
Natural landscape is formed solely under the influence natural factors and not converted economic activity person. Initially, the following natural landscapes were identified:
– geochemical– denotes an area identified on the basis of the unity of composition and quantity of chemical elements and compounds. The intensity of their accumulation in the landscape or, conversely, the rate of self-purification of the landscape can serve as indicators of its resistance to anthropogenic impacts;
– elementary landscape denotes an area composed of certain rocks located on the same relief element, under equal groundwater conditions, with the same nature of plant associations and the same type of soil;
– protected landscape, where all or certain types of economic activities are regulated or prohibited in accordance with the established procedure.
However, according to many scientists, anthropogenic landscapes now predominate on land, or, in any case, they are equal in prevalence to natural ones.
Anthropogenic landscape– this is a former natural landscape, transformed by economic activity so much that the connection of its natural components is changed. This includes landscapes:
– agricultural (agricultural)– the vegetation of which has been largely replaced by crops and plantings of agricultural and horticultural crops;
– man-made, the structure of which is determined by technogenic human activity associated with the use of powerful technical means (land disturbance, pollution industrial emissions and so on.); this also includes the landscape industrial, formed as a result of the impact of large industrial complexes on the environment;
– urban (urbanistic) – with buildings, streets and parks.
The boundaries of the geographical (landscape) shell of the Earth coincide with the boundaries biosphere, but since the geographical envelope also includes areas where there is no life, we can conditionally assume that the biosphere is part of it. In fact, this is an inextricable unity, as evidenced by the landscape approach when identifying types of natural ecosystems. One such example is the classification according to R.H. Whittaker, which he used to assess the productivity of the world’s ecosystems (Table 7.1).
Table 7.1 Primary biological productivity of the world's ecosystems (according to R. X. Whittaker, 1980)
The main source of energy for the landscape shell, as well as for the bisphere, is solar radiation. For the biosphere, solar energy is, first of all, the “driver” of the biogeochemical cycles of biophilic elements and the main component of photosynthesis, the source of primary production. As can be seen from table. 7.1, the productivity of the biosphere consists of the productivity of various natural ecosystems (at the same time, the energies of landscapes).
But the energy of the Sun, providing this productivity, is only 2–3% of all its energy that reached the surface of the Earth. The rest of the solar energy is spent on the abiotic environment, except for its fairly active participation in the processes of physicochemical decomposition, litter, etc. But abiotic factors together with biotic factors, they determine the evolutionary development of organisms and the homeostasis of ecosystems. In turn, the flora and fauna are such powerful natural components that they can influence the environment and “remake it for themselves,” creating a certain microenvironment (microclimate). All this indicates that living nature exists in a single energy field of the entire landscape. This is also evidenced by the distribution of primary production, on land and in the ocean (Fig. 7.1; Bigon et al., 1989).
As can be seen from Fig. 7.1, the productivity of different types of ecosystems is far from the same and they occupy different territories on the planet. Differences in productivity are associated with climatic zonality, the nature of the habitat (land, water), and the influence of local environmental factors. etc., information about which is presented below when characterizing natural ecosystems as chorological units of the biosphere, classified on the principles of the so-called biome approach. According to Y. Odum (1986), biome– “a large regional and subcontinental ecosystem characterized by a major type of vegetation or other characteristic feature landscape".
Based on these ideas, Yu. Odum proposed the following classification of natural ecosystems of the biosphere (in Fig. 7.2 - the global distribution of biomes):
I. Terrestrial biomes.
Tundra: arctic and alpine.
Boreal coniferous forests.
Temperate deciduous forest.
Temperate steppe.
Tropical steppes and savannas.
Chaparral – areas with rainy winters and dry summers.
Desert: herbaceous and shrubby.
Semi-evergreen tropical forest: pronounced wet and dry seasons.
Evergreen tropical rain forest.
I. Types freshwater ecosystems
Lentic (lat. lentes– calm): lakes, ponds, etc.
Lotic (lat. lotus - washing): rivers, streams, springs.
Wetlands: swamps and swampy forests.
III. Types of Marine Ecosystems
Open ocean (pelagic).
Water continental shelf(coastal waters).
Upwelling areas(fertile areas with productive fisheries).
Estuaries(coastal bays, straits, river mouths, salt marshes, etc.
The boundaries of the distribution of biomes are determined by the landscape components of the continents; the name usually includes the dominant vegetation (forest, shrub, etc.). In aquatic ecosystems plant organisms do not dominate, therefore, the physical characteristics of the habitat are taken as a basis (“standing”, “flowing” water, open ocean, etc.).
As is clear from the above, a biome is an ecosystem that coincides in its boundaries with landscapes at the regional level (Fig. 7.2). It consists of the same components as the landscape, but its main component is biota, and the main focus here is on the processes that create organic matter, and biochemical circulation of substances.
The subject of physical geography is the geographical shell, or landscape sphere, since it is a hollow ball (more precisely, an ellipsoid of revolution), and landscape geography - because it consists of landscapes or landscape, understood as the totality of the earth’s crust, the water shell (hydrosphere), the lower parts of the air envelope (troposphere) and the organisms inhabiting them. The geographical envelope has a high degree of unity; it receives energy both from the Sun and from intraterrestrial sources - radioactive elements contained in the earth's crust. All types of matter and energy penetrate each other and interact. Life in its natural manifestations (therefore, astronauts do not count) is possible on Earth only within the geographical envelope, only it is distinguished by the above-mentioned properties, and other spheres of the Earth, lying both inside and outside it, do not possess them.
The geographical envelope (landscape sphere) is a very thin film, but its significance for humans is immeasurably great. He was born in it, perfected himself, achieved the honorary title of “king of nature,” and until relatively recently he never left its boundaries. Therefore, it is natural that people should know the landscape sphere especially well and devote a special science to it - physical geography. They must know it entirely, in its main manifestations, in general patterns, diversity, all local combinations of conditions, all the forms that it takes, i.e., all types of landscape. Therefore, physical geography is divided into two parts - general geoscience and landscape science.
The boundary between the two parts of physical geography cannot be drawn precisely; there are intermediate areas of science that can be classified as one or the other.
General geoscience and landscape science are the core of physical geography that remained after the separation of private or branch sciences from it.
D.L. Armand (1968) understood the bewilderment of geologists about how geology, which is of greater importance for the national economy than all the geographical sciences taken together, could be included in the geographical sciences. Indeed, the practical significance of geology is very significant and it can be an independent science, but according to the laws of logic and systematics, it still remains a geographical science, since it studies the earth’s crust, and the earth’s crust is one of the four geospheres included in the landscape sphere (geographical envelope) and is the subject of physical geography. You can buy inflatable boats, frame boats and all the necessary equipment for boats on the website moto-mir.ru. There is also the possibility of choosing previously used equipment.
The possible bewilderment on the part of land geographers (or “physical regional geographers”) is also understandable. Their science is not included in this scheme at all. Describing “countries”, i.e. states, or their administrative parts, they are forced to fit within boundaries that are alien to nature, artificial, and constantly changing. They do something useful for educational process, for reference publications, for tourism, where descriptions within state borders are urgently needed. But to make scientific generalizations in relation to any country that divides into parts the mountains and plains among which it is located is illogical, based on the common development of the components of the geographical environment. The situation is different in economic geography. From the point of view of an economic geographer, state borders represent the real boundaries of various economic systems. Therefore, economic regional studies are certainly a logical branch of science.
The question of the external boundaries of physical geography, in fact, of its “controversial” boundaries with geophysics and geochemistry, also requires clarity. Firstly, from a spatial point of view, these sciences study the entire globe, extending both outward and inward immeasurably beyond the thin layer over which physical geography extends. Secondly, within this layer, physical geography considers both living and dead nature, while geophysics and geochemistry are mainly limited to the latter. Thirdly, geophysics and, to a lesser extent, geochemistry, respectively, study general physical and chemical phenomena regardless of the place and time in which they manifest themselves, and physical geography is interested precisely in a given place and time and the special imprint that specific combinations of local conditions leave on them. Of course, there are geophysicists and geochemists who, crossing the border, develop purely geographical problems, for which we, geographers, should only be grateful to them. In principle, the question of the boundary between geography and biology is resolved in the same way (with the exception of the first point). Only, of course, biology solves exclusively issues of living and inanimate nature together.
In a number of sciences that study nested material systems, physical geography has firmly found its place. This series (dividing astronomy into the three sciences of which it consists) is as follows:
More than once the question of admission to the composition was raised geographical sciences astrogeography (or planetology). Both of these names according to D.L. Armand (1988) are unsuccessful. The first is because we are not talking about stars at all, the second is because it is reasonable to call planetology a science similar to geology that studies the subsoil, solids planets. And a science similar to geography should be called “planetography,” keeping in mind that its tasks are not limited to just description, but to a comprehensive study of the landscape spheres of the planets, just as the tasks of geographies have long been no longer limited to describing the Earth.
Planetography is divided into lunarography, marsography, etc., although for some reason they are called selenology, areology, etc., using Greek names to the planets that are on European languages have names derived from Latin roots. But no matter what they are called, the study of the landscape spheres of the planets is such a grandiose task that it, of course, deserves to be singled out as a separate science. Although, undoubtedly, it will be geographers who will be the first suppliers of lunar survey personnel, at least until lunar departments are created in our universities.
There is also no doubt that local history is related to all branches of geography, but it is also related to ethnography, history, and archeology. Such wide front interests prevents him from rising to the level real science, maintaining a very important “title” for him social movement and the very necessary task of popularizing knowledge. Participation in the local history movement, in its geographical part, is an excellent applied area of work for geographers.
Despite the common characteristics, there is a difference between the geographical envelope and the landscape sphere.
The geographic envelope represents a relatively powerful (20-35 km) zone of interpenetration and interaction of the lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere, characterized by manifestations of organic life. Physical geography studies the geographic envelope of the Earth, its structure and development. The landscape sphere is a vertically limited (from several to 200-300 m) zone of direct contact and active interaction of the lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere, coinciding with the biological focus of the geographic envelope. On the oceans, the landscape sphere acquires a two-tier structure. Studying the landscape sphere of the Earth is engaged in special science— landscape science. Landscape science is one of the special physical-geographical sciences, similar to geomorphology, climatology and hydrology, and is not synonymous with regional geography.
Geographic environment is that part of the Earth’s landscape envelope within which life arose and is developing. human society(Anuchin, 1960).
Elements of interpenetration and interaction of the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere, as well as manifestations of organic life, are characteristic of the entire thickness of the geographical shell, but their immediate, direct contact, accompanied by an outbreak of life processes, is characteristic of only one landscape sphere.
The landscape sphere is a set of landscape complexes lining the land and oceans. Unlike the geographic shell, the landscape sphere has a small thickness - no more than a few hundred meters. The landscape sphere includes: modern weathering crust, soil, vegetation, animal organisms and ground layers of air. As a result of direct contact and active interaction of the atmosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere, specific natural complexes - landscapes - are formed here.
The thickness of the Earth's landscape sphere is assessed differently, but the consensus is that it increases from the poles to the equator. From one point of view, in the tundra and arctic deserts, its thickness on average does not go beyond 5-10 m under wet hylia, where it goes to a depth of 50-60 m, and above the soil surface the tree canopy rises to the same height or more, the thickness the landscape sphere reaches 100-150 m. In this increase in thickness from the poles to the equator, there is a well-known analogy between the landscape sphere and the geographical envelope of the Earth.
From another point of view, the upper boundary of the landscape sphere (as a subject of physical geography) is the tropopause - the surface of contact between the troposphere and the stratosphere. In the layers below the tropopause, the composition of the air is constant, the temperature generally decreases with height, variable winds blow, clouds of water vapor are located here, and the vast majority of meteorological phenomena occur. All this does not exist above, in the stratosphere and ionosphere. The tropopause lies at an altitude of
9 km (near the poles) to 17 km (near the equator) above ocean level.
Accordingly, the inner boundary of the earth’s crust, the so-called Mohorovicic limit (border), is taken as the lower boundary of the landscape sphere. Above it, processes of mixing of the earth's thickness occur during mountain building, juvenile waters (originating from deep rocks) circulate, local centers of melts are formed, giving rise to most volcanoes, and sources of local earthquakes. The Mohorovicic section is a plastic zone, in which the substance of the Earth is in a viscous state and external disturbances are damped, with the exception of longitudinal waves of earthquakes. The Mohorovicic limit is at depths from
3 km (under oceans) to 77 km (under mountain systems).
A peculiar two-tiered version of the landscape sphere arises in the World Ocean, where there are no conditions for direct contact and active interaction of all four main shells of the Earth at once: the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. In the ocean, there is direct interaction between only three geospheres and, unlike land, in two vertically separated places: on the surface of the ocean (atmosphere with hydrosphere and biosphere) and its bottom (hydrosphere with lithosphere and biosphere). However, elements of the lithosphere are also present on the ocean surface in the form of dissolved and suspended particles.
As a result of the interaction of the hydrosphere with the atmosphere and biosphere, the upper layers of water in the World Ocean are saturated with atmospheric gases and penetrated by sunlight, which creates favorable conditions on the surface of the oceans for the development of life. Absorption sunlight and especially the red part of its spectrum, necessary for photosynthesis, occurs relatively quickly in sea water, as a result of which, even in seas characterized by clear water, plant organisms disappear at depths of 150-200 m, and microorganisms and animals live deeper, for which the overlying layer of phytoplankton serves as the main source of nutrition. It is this lower limit of photosynthesis that should be considered the lower limit of the surface layer of the landscape sphere in the oceans.
The lower, bottom tier of the landscape sphere in the oceans is formed even in deep-sea depressions and trenches. IN life processes In the lower tier of the landscape sphere of the oceans, bacteria, which have enormous biochemical energy, play an exceptionally important role.
Along the edges of the oceans, within continental shallows and in the upper part of the continental slope, the upper and lower tiers of the landscape sphere merge with each other, forming one landscape sphere, saturated with organic life.
The landscape sphere is the subject of study of a special physical-geographical science - landscape science, which is on a par with the special physical-geographical sciences (hydrology, climatology, geomorphology, biogeography). All of them have individual components as the object of study - the components of the geographical shell: the hydrosphere, atmosphere, landscape sphere, relief, organic world. Therefore, we cannot agree with the widespread opinion that landscape science is synonymous with regional (private) physical geography.
The degree of variability of natural components of landscapes varies over time. The lithogenic base is distinguished by the greatest conservatism, especially its geological foundation, the largest features of the relief - geotextures, which owe their origin to forces on a planetary (cosmic) scale, and morphostructures that arose as a result of the interaction of endogenous and exogenous forces, with the leading role of the former - movements of the earth's crust. Morphosculptural features of the relief, which owe their origin to exogenous processes interacting with other relief-forming factors, are subject to much more rapid changes. Climate, soil, and especially biocenoses also exhibit rapid variability over time. The modern appearance of these components is the result of events mainly of the last geological epoch.
Features of the landscape sphere
The Landscape Sphere has one more characteristic feature- a complex and mobile structure: the thickness of the earth’s crust, and ocean water, and air masses constantly changing in space and time. Moreover, in organic world(the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom) manifestations of the most complex matter - living matter - are observed. The substance within the landscape sphere is extremely diverse; many chemical compounds exist in this thin film under the most critical conditions of temperature and pressure. Above and below the landscape sphere, a different picture is observed: homogeneous masses and conditions extend here over large spaces, their boundaries are few and gradual.
Although in the landscape sphere solid, liquid and gaseous bodies are quite sharply separated, they constantly penetrate each other: dust and water vapor saturate the atmosphere, groundwater and juvenile water and air penetrate the earth’s crust, sediments, dissolved solids and the same air is contained in the water of all oceans. And life penetrates into all spheres. No wonder A.A. Grigoriev called the landscape sphere “the sphere of interaction of the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, radiation and other categories of energy...”.
As for energy, there are two main types: electromagnetic (radiant) energy of the Sun, flowing to the outer boundary of the Earth with an intensity of 2 cal/cm 2 min, and energy radioactive radiation rocks that make up the earth's crust, the flow of which through the surface of the land and oceans, directed upward, reaches 0.0001 cal/cm 2 min. As we see, the second flow is extremely small compared to the first, but the manifestations internal energy The lands are large and comparable to the activities solar energy. It's all about the conditions in which the energy is released. Intraterrestrial energy, released in the form of heat in the thickness of massive rocks, produces fundamental changes in them. It melts some, causes others to expand, and since they are compressed by the layers above, they bend, form folds, swell, sometimes slowly, over millions of years, sometimes violently, discharging internal stresses devastating earthquakes. At the same time, they create the relief of the earth's surface, continents and oceans, mountains and tectonic depressions. They almost always work against gravity, lifting up trillions of tons of rock for kilometers.
Radiant energy, by its very nature, is unable to directly penetrate opaque media. Therefore, it enters the solid crust only to a depth of
20 m, due to the thermal conductivity of rocks, and deeper - along with buried combustible fossils. On the surface of the Earth, it heats masses of water and air, which float to the upper layers, causing, in turn, currents to replace them in the atmosphere and ocean. These currents in the form of wind, sea surf, and sediments carried away with air currents and re-overthrown constantly grind and process the earth's crust. Their efforts are always expressed in the denudation of this latter, i.e., smoothing, flattening of mountains, filling and silting of basins and oceans. Always working in the direction of gravity, they strive to give the Earth a uniform spheroid of rotation.
But tectonic movements again and again disrupt the flat surface, preventing solar energy from completing its work. Moreover, internal (endogenous) forces lift the earth's crust in large masses without disturbing the integrity of its surface (with the exception, however, of volcanoes), and external (exogenous) forces tend to level it out, constantly renewing this surface.
There are other sources of energy on Earth: tidal energy - the converted energy of the Earth’s rotation in the gravitational field of the Moon and the Sun, which, constantly being consumed, slows down this rotation, the energy of the heaviest rocks sinking to the center of the Earth, the energy of exothermic (heat-emitting) chemical reactions, which acts together with radioactive decay, and some others that do not play a big role.
During the 20th century, our ideas about the distribution of heat over the Earth's surface were refined. Through the works of V.V. Dokuchaeva, A.I. Voeikova and L.S. Berg not only brought together a picture of the thermal zones of the zonal structure of the Earth, but also explained mainly the origin of each zone, associated with the distribution of solar energy over the surface of the ball and the general circulation of the atmosphere.
The following clarification to the theory of zoning was introduced by A.A. Grigoriev, drawing attention to the alternation of wet and dry zones on Earth. Zones of high humidity are repeated three times in each hemisphere. Particularly high precipitation falls around 70º and 30º, as well as near the equator (Fig. 2). And the temperature from the pole to the equator rises almost continuously. Various combinations of heat and moisture determine different conditions development of vegetation, and it develops the better, the richer and more abundant, the greater the correspondence between heat and moisture, and also the more total energy received by the area. M.I. Budyko found a quantitative expression for this pattern. He showed that the prosperity of vegetation depends on the value of the radiation dryness index R / Lr, where R is solar radiation, r is precipitation, L is the coefficient of latent heat of evaporation. From the poles to the equator this ratio first increases (due to the increase solar radiation R ), then falls (where the zone of increased precipitation begins and r increases), then increases again to a level higher than in the previous case, falls again, etc. Moreover, where the ratio is less than unity, i.e. . less heat is supplied than can be evaporated (R
But what about the World Ocean? Is there? latitudinal zonation? There are, of course, thermal zones, but a more fractional division can hardly be identified, but the vertical layering is clearly expressed. Life extends to a much greater depth than on land, and some of its forms are located above others. A somewhat similar situation exists in the mountains, but there high-altitude landscapes are placed, as it were, on different steps of a ladder and can still be depicted on a map, while sea landscapes can only be depicted on a profile.
Geographer I.M. Zabelin advises to always remember that the landscape sphere (in his terminology, the biogenosphere) is three-dimensional because it has depth. He divides it into volumetric rather than area units; especially a lot of I.M. Zabelin finds them in the sea.
Unfortunately, geographers are still little involved in the volumetric zoning of the ocean, although the future of the ocean, as the main breadwinner of humanity, subject to careful conservation, deserves closer attention. In the meantime, the interests of geographers relate primarily to the land, which they divide, that is, they zone it to a first approximation, as a two-dimensional area.
Land zoning is one of the most important tasks physical geography in the field of landscape study. It is no longer possible to limit ourselves to simply dividing the Earth into natural zones, since not all factors in nature are zonal. For example, common features relief or rock composition may be the same across far north and below the equator. When a natural area passes through mountain range, all its properties change. If the mountains are high, it may even give way to another natural zone, which on the plain runs at much higher latitudes. When a natural zone crosses sandy spaces, its soils change, they become sandy loam, the vegetation changes, for example, spruce forests are replaced by pine forests, slight hilliness appears - the result of the formation of dunes, the whole appearance of the area becomes drier due to the fact that rainwater do not stagnate on sand. In a word, we are entering a sandy version of the same natural area. In this case, they say that azonal factors were superimposed on the zonal factors. The action of the latter must also be studied, and for this it is necessary to first map them. When zoning, it is necessary to adhere to a certain order, determined by the subordination of the components (components) of the landscape. A change in some components has an extremely strong effect on others; on the contrary, the reverse effect is only weak and indirect. Therefore, not all components have equal importance in nature; they are divided into determining (leading) and determined (slave).
The components of the landscape can be placed in approximately such a row. Each overlying element of this scheme is decisive in relation to the underlying one. The earth's crust and atmosphere have equal rights because each of them has independent source energy and is formed relatively independently. The soil is placed at the very bottom under the animal world, because approximately 9/10 of the latter consists of lower organisms living in the soil and creating it in the course of their metabolism.
In physical-geographical zoning, areas are always identified that are somewhat similar, more related in natural conditions. For any economic undertaking, it is necessary to know to what territory this or that activity can be extended and where its natural boundaries lie. Physico-geographical zoning is necessary, for example, for the placement of agricultural crops and livestock breeds throughout the country, for the allocation of land for reclamation, for the selection of forests to be felled, for the fight against erosion, for the construction of resorts, for the selection of areas for new settlement, for scientific purposes and much more. For each event you have to pay attention to its own special features of nature. It would be absurd to choose climatic conditions for tuberculosis patients based on the same criteria as for growing watermelons. Therefore, zoning for each individual purpose will be different in each case.
Some geographers think that zoning is inherent in nature itself, that you only need to look carefully to “notice” the boundaries. This is a misconception that is based on the natural desire of people to schematize and simplify nature. Many changes in nature, e.g. climate change, do not occur abruptly, but rather gradually. Therefore, all zonal characteristics also gradually change: soils, vegetation, depending on climate. The relief is azonal and superimposes on that zonality in the most unpredictable (whimsical) way. Many of its boundaries are also gradual: for example, areas of glacier or sea retreat. And those boundaries that seem sharp turn out to be so only on a small scale. When you enlarge the maps, they become blurred; for example, the coasts - the boundaries of the seas - are depicted as a line only on those maps on which the ebb and flow zone can be neglected. Under such conditions, it is impossible to say with certainty where one type of landscape ends and where another begins, whether it is necessary to distinguish 5 types or 7 in the area. To avoid uncertainty, they resort to quantitative characteristics. It is agreed, for example, to distinguish treeless lowlands covered with black earth soil as a special type of area. Areas in which forest occupies no more than 3% of the area are considered treeless; lowlands are plains no higher than
200 m above sea level, and chernozems are soils containing at least 4% humus. Then the selected territory receives certainty and can be established with an accuracy that depends only on the degree of its study. Of course, this is achieved thanks to the conventions we have introduced. If we had agreed to consider not 4, but, say, 5% as the lower limit of the richness of chernozem, then the border drawn by the soils and the entire zoning map would have turned out to be somewhat different. Usually, those that have economic or other significance are chosen as limiting figures, and if these are unknown, then simply round figures.
As a rule, the boundaries for the characteristics we have taken do not coincide with each other and we have to zone them in stages - say, first separate lowlands from highlands (1st stage), then within the lowlands identify treeless areas, separating them from forests (2nd stage ), then subdivide by soil into chernozems, chestnut soils, solonetzes, etc. (3rd stage). Having completed these operations, we seem to gradually grow into the landscape. If the object of zoning is the entire globe, then we go approximately from the defining components to the definable ones. First, we identify belts that have unity only in thermal terms, then within their borders - countries that have unity in both thermal and tectonic terms, then segments of zones within countries - this is the unity of heat, moisture and tectonics, then provinces according to geomorphological characteristics; Here, relief is added to the number of components that have become unified, then vegetation, soils, etc., until we get completely complex landscape units.
Thus, nature exists objectively, and its division is always a generalization made by man, the result of the activity of his mind. This, of course, does not exclude the possibility that in some places nature tells the geographer what types of landscape it makes sense to distinguish. When some area, relatively homogeneous, stretches over a long distance, it is clear that it deserves to be singled out as special type, relevant for most goals that can be set. We can then confidently map the focus or core of a given type, and then we can agree on the characteristic by which we draw the boundary between this and neighboring types.
However, not all geographers act as described above. Sometimes boundaries are drawn immediately, “according to a set of characteristics.” But a complex is an indefinite concept; the zoning turns out to be inconsistent and arbitrary, depending on the author’s intuition and eye.
Another misunderstanding concerns the so-called "major" and "smallest" taxonomic units. There is an idea that the Earth's landscape is like a tiled floor. They can be large or small, but they are always of the same rank and fit exactly right next to each other. Borders more large areas, which combine several adjacent “tiles” and the smaller ones into which they are broken, are not so important and not so noticeable. At the same time, they refer to an analogy: all organisms are built from cells, and chemical substances- from molecules. There is, moreover, a limit of division below which geographers do not go. They accept some units as further indivisible and turn a blind eye to the internal differences that exist in them. These ideas are again a simplification. Comparison is not proof; the cells do not fit here. The landscape sphere consists of the earth's crust, the world's oceans, and the atmosphere, which do not have a cellular structure. And if they don’t have it separately, then they certainly won’t have it together, intertwining into complex combinations that form the landscape. Their weaves vary in size, degree of complexity and severity, and degree of clarity of boundaries. Therefore, it is impossible to single out any “main” level of zoning on the Earth; on the map, both the largest and the smallest objects are equally important, they all deserve study and together they form a motley carpet, which we call the face of the Earth.
As for the smallest units, the parts of the smallest of them always differ from each other in some way. In the swamp, hummocks and windows can be identified water surface, areas with peculiar vegetation, and on the slope of a ravine, each horizon differs from the next in the degree of moisture, the amount of material washed away or washed away. Famous forest scientist and botanist V.N. Sukachev initially considered the biogeocenosis to be the smallest homogeneous and indivisible unit, and when he studied it in more detail, he had to introduce a new unit - the “parcel”, and there were a dozen or more such units in the biogeocenosis. Of course, those scientists who say that we need to stop somewhere are right. But where exactly is again determined not by nature itself, but only by the level of development of science and the demands of practice, whose demands for detailed study of nature are ever increasing.
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