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Our Effort to Save Our Planet by Understanding the EcosphereWhat is the Ecosphere?The Ecosphere is a highly interactive subsystem with matter and energy flowing between and within its components (individual ecosystems) in interconnected Biogeochemical Cycles. These cycles are the framework by which substances/elements/nutrients in the environment are globally transported and transformed through life (bio/ecosphere), air (atmosphere), oceans (hydrosphere), land (litho/geosphere), and ice (cryosphere) upon which life and the earth's climate and ecological processes depend. "Ecosystems are the natural holistic units of the landscape that can be identified and mapped over wide areas or locally Each ecosystem (e.g. Coral reefs, agricultural land, forests, estuaries, wetlands, etc) can be conceptualized as a layered volumetric segment of the biosphere (Rowe 1984b), consisting of an air layer over a landform or water layer, with organisms sandwiched near the sun-energized interface. The largely invisible climatic and hydrologic dimension, imposed on the various Earth surface substrates, produces the land's ecological mosaics "(Rowe and Sheard 1981). South African Fire-Atmosphere Research Initiative 2000
Aug - Sept, 2000 The goal of SAFARI 2000 was to identify and understand the relationships between the physical, chemical, biological and anthropogenic processes that underlie the biogeophysical and biogeochemical systems of southern Africa. Particular emphasis was placed upon biogenic, pyrogenic and anthropogenic emissions. Safari studied the characterization and quantification, transport and transformation in the atmosphere, influence on regional climate and meteorology, the eventual deposition and its effect on the ecosystem by these emissions. For more information on Ecosphere go to: |
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