Variant – 13

1. Hydrosphere as a part of biosphere

The hydrosphere is the liquid water component of the Earth. It includes the oceans, seas, lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. The hydrosphere covers about 70% of the surface of the Earth and is the home for many plants and animals.There are superficial and underground hydrosphere.

The superficial hydrosphere is a water layer of a superficial part of the Earth. Its structure includes waters of oceans, the seas, lakes, the rivers, water basins, bogs, glaciers, snow covers, etc. Superficial hydrosphere covers a terrestrial surface on 70,8 %.

The underground hydrosphere includes the waters which are being the top part of the earth's crust. They are called underground. From above the underground hydrosphere is limited by a surface of the Earth.

The hydrosphere, like the atmosphere, is always in motion. The motion of rivers and streams can be easily seen, while the motion of the water within lakes and ponds is less obvious. Some of the motion of the oceans and seas can be easily seen while the large scale motions that move water great distances such as between the tropics and poles or between continents are more difficult to see. These types of motions are in the form of currents that move the warm waters in the tropics toward the poles, and colder water from the polar regions toward the tropics. These currents exist on the surface of the ocean and at great depths in the ocean (to about 4km).

2. Theory of the Biosphere and the Noosphere.

Vernadsky defined the future evolutionary state of the biosphere as the Noosphere, the sphere of reason. The term "Noosphere" was first coined by the French mathematician and philosopher, Edouard Le Roy (1927). "Le Roy, building on Vernadsky's ideas and on discussions with Teilhard de Chardin [they both attended Vernadsky's lectures on biogeochemistry at the Sorbonne in 1922-1923], came up with the term "noosphere", which he introduced in his lectures at the College de France in 1927 (Le Roy, 1927)... Vernadsky saw the concept as a natural extension of his own ideas predating Le Roy's choice of the term" (Smil, 2002, p. 13). Le Roy understood the noosphere as a shell of the Earth or a "thinking stratum", including various components, such as industry, language, and other forms of rational human activity (Arbatov and Bolshakov, 1987). Le Roy's concept was developed by De Chardin, who considered the noosphere as something external to the biosphere - a progression from biological to psychological and spiritual evolution. Teilhard based his conception based on philosophical writings, and was completely ignorant of Vernadsky's biogeochemical approach. Vernadsky developed his concept of the noosphere out of his theory of the biosphere, combining his biogeochemical works with his own work in philosophy of science (Grinevald, 1998, p. 24-25):

Both Vernadsky and Teilhard were cosmic prophets of globalization. If Teilhard was a "cosmic mystic", Vernadsky defined himself as a "cosmic realist"... They shared a belief in science and technology as a universal, peaceful and civilizing force... But in The Biosphere and in all his work, Vernadsky's scientific perspective is radically different from that of Teilhard. The divergence is perhaps best expressed as an opposition between the anthropocentric view of life (Teilhardian biosphere) and the biocentric view of the nature's economy (Vernadskian Biosphere)...

3. Concept of a community.

Concept of a community.

Totality of the individuals possessing hereditary similarity of morphological, physiological and biochemical features, capable to interbreeding with formation of the prolific posterity, adapted for the certain life conditions and occupying in the nature the certain area is called a species. Species often occupy the big area within the limits of which species are distributed non-uniformly, with groups - populations. Integrity of the species is supported by communications between communities.

The community is a totality of individuals of one species capable to self-reproduction which long exists in the certain part of area rather separately from other totality of the same species. Contacts between individuals of one community more often, than between individuals of different communities. The community is structural unit of species and unit of evolution.

Area. A space on which the community or species as a whole meets during all ability to live is called an area of distribution. The area can be continuous or broken off (disjunctive), that is, if between its parts there are various barriers (water, orographical, etc.), the spaces are not populated by representatives of the given species. There are various centers of areas: the geometrical center; the center of species occurrence within the limits of an area; the center of abundance is a part of area to which the greatest quantity of individuals is concentrated.

Depending on size of area and character of distribution there are cosmopolitans, ubikvists and endemics. Cosmopolitans are species of plants and animals which representatives meet on a greater part of inhabitant areas of the Earth (for example, the room fly, grey rat). Ubikvists are species of plants and animals with wide ecological valency, they are capable to exist in various conditions of environment, have extensive areas (for example, a reed ordinary, the wolf). Endemics are species of plants and animals which have the small limited areas (often they are met on islands of an oceanic origin, in mountain areas and the isolated basin).

For animals there are trophic and reproductive areas between which there is a communication in the form of ways of flight for birds or ways of migration for some mammals and fishes.