International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

The global space occupied on our planet by living systems within their total environment.

The term "Biosphere" was introduced by the Russian geochemist Vladimir VERNADSKY (1863-1945) in 1926 (see 1929)

In 1935, A.G. TANSLEY introduced the closely related concept of "Ecosystem”.

The biosphere is merely a “… thin covering of the planet that contains and sustains life" (UNESCO-UNEP, 1983, p.6)

The existence of the biosphere is the result of the ability of living beings to construct and maintain complex structures by dissipating electromagnetic energy, at the high cost of major global entropy production. However, it seems that globally, through what LOTKA called the world engine, this process tends to respect PRIGOGINE's theorem of minimum entropy production… save the puzzling fact that, at present, mankind seems to be violating this principle on a massive scale.

According to J. LOVELOCK, the biosphere is an integrated system wherein energy, mineral elements – gaseous, liquid and solid – and living beings find themselves enmeshed in a global symbiosis in continuous evolution through time. This is the so-called GAIA hypothesis (1979).

A deeper understanding of the numerous symbiotic exchanges within the biosphere seems to be an urgent condition of survival for mankind.

Recently, E. ODUM proposed a parasitic model of the relation of mankind with the biosphere (1997).

Such a model seems indeed close to the actual and present ways of man's relations with our planet. Possibly our challenge is now to shift from a parasitic relation at least to a commensalist one and, hopefully to a symbiotic one. In fact, the idea is not new: It was proposed (in 1935!) under the guise of an "Interdependence declaration" (between plants and animals - among them, men of course) and an "Ecological Constitution", by W.P. TAYLOR, at the time President of the American Society of Ecology.

… So many significant ideas lost in the mists of the past!