page_title: Biogeochemistry
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Biogeochemistry / History
caption_attribution_description: Русский: 130-летие со дня рождения В.И.Вернадского
context_page_description: Biogeochemistry is the scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment. In particular, biogeochemistry is the study of the cycles of chemical elements, such as carbon and nitrogen, and their interactions with and incorporation into living things transported through earth scale biological systems in space through time. The field focuses on chemical cycles which are either driven by or influence biological activity. Particular emphasis is placed on the study of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, iron, and phosphorus cycles. Biogeochemistry is a systems science closely related to systems ecology.
context_section_description: The founder of biogeochemistry was Russian and Ukrainian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky  whose 1926 book The Biosphere, in the tradition of Mendeleev, formulated a physics of the Earth as a living whole. Vernadsky distinguished three spheres, where a sphere was a concept similar to the concept of a phase-space. He observed that each sphere had its own laws of evolution, and that the higher spheres modified and dominated the lower:
  Abiotic sphere – all the non-living energy and material processes
  Biosphere – the life processes that live within the abiotic sphere
  Nöesis or noosphere – the sphere of human cognitive process
  Human activities (e.g., agriculture and industry) modify the biosphere and abiotic sphere.  In the contemporary environment, the amount of influence humans have on the other two spheres is comparable to a geological force (see Anthropocene).
caption: Vladimir Vernadsky
exif: {}