biosphere
/ˈbʌɪə(ʊ)sfɪə
/noun
1The regions of the surface and atmosphere of the earth or another planet occupied by living organisms.The totality of living organisms is the biosphere, although this term is also used to denote the environment inhabited by living organisms....
- Human activities have dramatically altered the Earth's biosphere and atmosphere during the past few hundred years.
- Of course, it was snuffed out because Mars is tectonically dead, so the recycling of chemicals that you get on Earth which keeps things going and supplies the surface biosphere would have actually ceased on Mars a lot earlier.
2An artificial structure enclosing a self-contained ecosystem or ecosystems: the elliptical domed biosphere is the largest single-span glasshouse in the world...
- These brave soldiers will be maintained in self-contained biospheres, like giant lizards from another star, which given the moral status of their behavior, they might as well be.
- In Arizona, scientists built an artificial biosphere, called Biosphere 2.
- The second were generation ships, which had self-contained biospheres where the crew was not in stasis pods, but alive.
Derivatives
biospheric
- Earth observing satellites are paving the way to find out if these biospheric responses are going to hold for the future, ‘adds Steve Running, another co-author from the University of Montana.’
- The observational record from Mauna Lao since the International Geophysical Year in 1957/8 shows an increase, but what is lost in this record is the increased flux sequestered by the ocean and the terrestrial biospheric carbon pools.
- He analyzed and noted a remarkable homeostasis of atmospheric composition and surface temperature over the past three billion years, and concluded that this could only be attributed to a biospheric regulatory mechanism.
Origin
Late 19th century: coined in German from Greek bios 'life' + sphaira (see sphere).