What does living matter depend on? The living matter of the planet

Lecture #2

Biosphere: definition and structure. Living matter

Definition and structure of the biosphere

Living matter of the biosphere

Laws of biogenic migration of atoms and irreversibility of evolution, laws of ecology by B. Commoner

Spaceship Earth is unique among the planets solar system. In a thin layer where air, water and earth meet and interact, amazing objects live - living beings, among which we are. According to modern ideas, The biosphere is a kind of shell of the Earth, containing the totality of living organisms and that part of the planet's substance that is in continuous exchange with these organisms.

By physical natural conditions the biosphere can be subdivided into three environments: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the lithosphere (Fig. 2.1).

Rice. 2.1. General structure of the Earth.

The main components of the Earth's geosphere are presented in Table 2.1.

The limits of the biosphere are determined, first of all, by field of life(V..I. Vernadsky, 1926). Vernadsky called the entire set of organisms on the planet living matter, considering the total mass, chemical composition and energy as its main characteristics.

inert substance, according to Vernadsky, - the totality of those substances in the biosphere, in the formation of which living organisms do not participate.

Main components of the Earth's geosphere Table 2.1

Nutrient created and processed by life, aggregates of living organisms. It is a source of extremely powerful potential energy ( coal, bitumen, limestone, oil). After the formation of the nutrient alive organisms in it are inactive.

A special category is biomaterial. VI Vernadsky (1926) wrote that it "is created in the biosphere simultaneously by living organisms and inert processes, representing systems of dynamic balance of both." Organisms in bioinert matter play a leading role.

The bio-inert substance of the planet, therefore, is the soil, the weathering crust, everything natural waters, whose properties depend on the activity of living matter on Earth. Hence, biosphere - this is the area of the Earth that is covered by the influence of living matter. Life on Earth is the most outstanding process on its surface, receiving the life-giving energy of the Sun and putting into motion almost all the chemical elements of the periodic table.

The biosphere as a place of modern habitat of organisms, together with the organisms themselves, can be divided into three subspheres (Fig. 2.2): aerobiosphere, inhabited by aerobionts, the substrate of which is the moisture of the air;

hydrobiosphere - the global world of water (the water shell of the Earth without groundwater), inhabited by hydrobionts;

geobiosphere - upper part earth's crust(lithosphere), inhabited geobionts.

hydrobiosphere breaks up into a world of continental, mostly fresh, waters - aquabiosphere (with aquatic animals)

and the region of the seas and oceans - marinobiosphere (with marinobionts).

The general structure of the biosphere is shown in Figure 2.2

Geobiosphere consists of: the area of life on the surface of the land - terrabiosphere(with terrabionts), which is subdivided into:

phytosphere(from the ground to the tops of the trees)

pedosphere(soils and underlying subsoils, often including the entire weathering crust) with pedobionts;

knottobiosphere - life in the depths of the Earth (with lithobionts living in the pores of rocks).

The lithobiosphere is divided into two layers:

hypoterrabiosphere - a layer where aerobic life is possible (or subterrabiosphere),

tellurobiosphere - a layer where anaerobes can live (or the deep biosphere). Life in the thickness of the lithosphere exists mainly in groundwater.

In the hydrobiosphere, the layers are mainly related to the intensity of light. There are three layers:

photosphere- relatively brightly lit

dysphotosphere- always very twilight (up to 1% solar insolation),

aphotosphere - absolute darkness, where photosynthesis is impossible.

The limiting factor in the development of life in aerobiosphere is the presence of water droplets and positive temperatures, as well as solid aerosols rising from the surface of the Earth.

From the tops of the trees to the height of the most frequent location of cumulus clouds extends tropobiosphere(with tropobionts). Space is a thinner layer than the atmospheric troposphere.

Above the tropobiosphere lies a layer of extremely rarefied microbiota - altobiosphere(with altobionts).

Above it stretches a space where life penetrates only occasionally and infrequently, where organisms do not multiply, - parabiosphere.

At high altitudes in the mountains, where life is no longer possible higher plants and in general producing organisms, but where the winds bring organic matter from lower vertical belts and where, at negative air temperatures, there is still enough heat from direct solar insolation for the existence of life, the high-altitude part of the terrabiosphere is located - aeolian zone .

This is the kingdom of arthropods and some microorganisms - eolobionts.

Life in the oceans reaches their bottom. Beneath it, in the basalts, it is hardly possible. In the depths of the lithosphere there are two theoretical level the spread of life isotherm 100°С, below which under normal atmospheric pressure water boils and proteins coagulate, and isotherm 460°С, where, at any pressure, water turns into steam, i.e. into liquid state it can not be.

Life in the depths of the Earth actually does not go further than 3-4 km, a maximum of 6-7 km, and only accidentally in inactive forms can penetrate

deeper into hypobiosphere("sub-biosphere" - an analogue of the parabiosphere in the atmosphere).

It should be noted that here, where biogenic rocks lie, figuratively speaking, traces of former spheres, there is metabiosphere.

The metabiosphere, starting from the surface of the Earth, extends far into the depths of the lithosphere, getting lost where the processes of metamorphosis of rocks erase the signs of life.

Between the upper boundary of the hypobiosphere and the lower parabiosphere lies the biosphere itself - dentition.

Its most saturated layer is called biofilm, or, according to V. I. Vernadsky (1926), "film of life".

Above the parabiosphere is apobiosphere, or "above-biosphere", where biogenic substances are relatively abundant (its upper limit is elusive).

Below the metabiosphere is abiosphere("nebiosphere").

The entire layer of the current or past impact of life on the nature of the Earth is called megabiosphere, and together

with artebiosphere(the space of human expansion into near-Earth space) - panbiosphere.

Thus, the “field of existence of life”, especially active, according to the latest data, is limited in the vertical limit to a height of about 6 km above sea level, up to which positive temperatures remain in the atmosphere and chlorophyll-bearing plants can live (6.2 km in the Himalayas).

Above in eolian zone, only beetles, springtails and some mites live, feeding on grains of plant pollen, plant spores, microorganisms and other organic particles blown by the wind, etc.

Living organisms get even higher only by chance (microorganisms can survive in the form of spores).

The lower limit of the existence of active life is traditionally limited by the ocean floor and the 100° isotherm With in the lithosphere, located respectively at marks of about 11 km and, according to ultra-deep drilling on the Kola Peninsula, about 6 km. In fact, life in the lithosphere is distributed to a depth of 3-4 km. Thus, the vertical thickness of the biosphere in the oceanic region of the Earth reaches more than 17 km, in the land region - 12 km.

Parabiosphere is even more asymmetric, since its upper boundary is determined by the ozone screen.

More significant fluctuations in the thickness of the megabiosphere, covering sedimentary rocks, but it does not fall on the continents deeper than the marks of the greatest depths of the ocean, i.e. 11 km (here the temperature reaches 200 ° C), and does not rise above the highest densities of the ozone screen (22-24 km), therefore, its maximum thickness 33-35km.

Theoretically, the limits of the biosphere are wider, since organisms at temperatures up to 250 ° C have been found in the hydrotherms of the ocean floor (they were called "black smokers" because of the dark color of the erupting waters) at depths of about 3 km (Fig. 2.3).

Rice. 2.3. "Black Smoker", its height is about 120 m (for comparison, the silhouette of the "Admiralty" in St. Petersburg is shown)

At a pressure of about 300 atmospheres, water does not boil here (the limits of life are limited by the points of turning water into steam and folding proteins). Superheated liquid water has been found in the lithosphere down to depths of 10.5 km. Deeper than 25 km, according to estimates, there should be a critical temperature of 460 ° C, at which, at any pressure, water turns into steam and life is fundamentally impossible.

Living matter of the biosphere

For a long time it was believed that alive differs from inanimate properties such as metabolism, mobility, irritability, growth, reproduction, adaptability. However, separately all these properties are also found among inanimate nature, and, therefore, cannot be considered as specific properties of the living.

Features of the living B. M. Mednikov (1982) formulated in the form axioms of theoretical biology:

1. All living organisms turn out to be the unity of the phenotype and the program for its construction (genotype), which is inherited from generation to generation (A. Weisman's axiom)*.

2. The genetic program is formed in a matrix way. The gene of the previous generation is used as a matrix on which the gene of the future generation is built. (axiom of N.K. Koltsov).

3. In the process of transmission from generation to generation, genetic programs as a result various reasons change randomly and non-directionally, and only by chance can such changes be successful in a given environment (1st axiom of Ch. Darwin).

4. Random changes in genetic programs during the formation of the phenotype are greatly amplified (axiom of N. V. Timofeev-Resovsky).

5. Repeatedly enhanced changes in genetic programs are subject to selection by conditions external environment (2nd axiom of Ch. Darwin).

From these axioms one can derive all basic properties of living nature, and especially as discreteness and integrity - two fundamental properties of the organization of life on Earth. Among living systems there are no two identical individuals, populations and species. This uniqueness manifestations of discreteness and integrity based on the phenomenon of convariant reduplication.

Convariant reduplication (self-reproduction with changes) carried out on the basis of the matrix principle(the sum of the first three axioms). This is probably the only property specific to life, in the form of its existence known to us on Earth. At the core its lies unique the ability to self-reproduce the main control systems (DNA, chromosomes, genes).

6. Reduplication is determined by the matrix principle (N. K. Koltsov's axiom) of the synthesis of macromolecules (Fig. 2.4).

This concept should not be confused with the concept of "biomass", which is part of the biogenic substance.

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✪ Biogenic, bio-inert, living matter

✪ Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky living substance

✪ Biosphere

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Characteristics of living matter

Some organic matter contain atoms with a variable degree of oxidation (compounds of iron, manganese, nitrogen, etc.). At the same time, biogenic processes of oxidation and reduction prevail on the Earth's surface. Usually, the oxidative function of living matter in the biosphere is manifested in the conversion by bacteria and some fungi of relatively oxygen-poor compounds in the soil, weathering crust, and hydrosphere into oxygen-rich compounds. The reducing function is carried out by the formation of sulfates directly or through biogenic hydrogen sulfide produced by various bacteria. And here we see that this function is one of the manifestations of the environment-forming function of living matter;

- transport function - the transfer of matter against gravity and in the horizontal direction. It has been known since the time of Newton that the movement of matter flows on our planet is determined by the force of gravity. Inanimate matter itself moves along an inclined plane exclusively from top to bottom. Rivers, glaciers, avalanches, screes move only in this direction.

Living matter encompasses and restructures everything chemical processes biosphere. Living matter is the most powerful geological force, growing with the passage of time. Paying tribute to the memory of the great founder of the doctrine of the biosphere, A. I. Perelman proposed to call the following generalization “Vernadsky’s law”:

"Migration chemical elements on the earth's surface and in the biosphere as a whole is carried out either with the direct participation of living matter (biogenic migration) or it takes place in an environment whose geochemical features (O 2, CO 2 , H 2 S, etc.) are mainly due to living matter as the one that currently inhabits this system, as well as the one that has operated on Earth throughout geological history.

Due to active movement, living organisms can move various substances or atoms in a horizontal direction, for example, due to various kinds migrations. Relocation or migration chemical substances living matter Vernadsky called biogenic migration of atoms or matter.

2. Chemical properties of living matter.

Self-regulation, self-reproduction, high speed of chemical reactions, active and passive movement.

3.Physical properties of living matter

High adaptability, irritability, growth, development, variability.

4. Forms of organization of living matter: concept, varieties.

Living matter is the totality of the bodies of living organisms in the biosphere. It develops where life can exist, that is, at the intersection of the atmosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere. Under unfavorable conditions, living matter passes into a state of anabiosis.

In the process of evolution, 2 main forms of organization of living things have been developed: cellular and non-cellular, which is a derivative of cell activity. Among non-cellular, symplastic, syncytial forms of organization and intercellular substance are distinguished.

5. Intercellular substance (extracellular matrix): concept, characteristics, example.

The extracellular matrix refers to the extracellular structures of the tissue (interstitial matrix and basement membranes). The extracellular matrix forms the basis of connective tissue, provides mechanical support to cells and transport of chemicals. In addition, connective tissue cells form intercellular contacts with matrix substances (hemidesmosomes, adhesive contacts, etc.), which can perform signaling functions and participate in cell locomotion. Thus, during embryogenesis, many animal cells migrate, moving along the extracellular matrix, and its individual components play the role of markers that determine the migration path.

The main components of the extracellular matrix are glycoproteins, proteoglycans and hyaluronic acid. Collagen is the predominant glycoprotein of the extracellular matrix in most animals. The composition of the extracellular matrix includes many other components: proteins fibrin, elastin, as well as fibronectins, laminins and nidogens; the composition of the extracellular matrix of bone tissue includes minerals such as hydroxyapatite; can be considered an extracellular matrix and components of liquid connective tissues - blood plasma and lymphatic fluid.

Example: Intercellular substance of loose irregular connective tissue

Introduction

Biosphere - outer shell land, the development of which is determined by the constant influx of solar energy. The complex organization of the biosphere is associated with the activity of living matter - the totality of all individuals of each species of living beings.

Living matter exists on Earth in the form of a continuous alternation of generations. Due to this, modern living matter turns out to be genetically related to the living matter of all past geological epochs. Living matter is associated with inert matter - the atmosphere (up to the level of the ozone screen), completely with the hydrosphere and lithosphere, mainly within the boundaries of the soil, but not only.

The atmosphere, hydrosphere and soil influence the living matter of the biosphere, providing it with mineral nutrition, water and air. For example, the nature of vegetation depends on the degree of soil moisture.

The living matter of the biosphere is heterogeneous and has three types of trophic interactions: autotrophy, heterotrophy, mixotrophy. Trophic ecological interactions contribute to the transformation of inorganic (inert) matter into organic matter and the reverse rearrangement of organic matter into mineral matter. Representatives of each kingdom, type and class perform their functions in ecological interactions at the level of the biosphere.

Cosmic radiation in the biosphere is converted into various kinds energy. The transformation of energy occurs in the process of its circulation between the planet's matter and the living organisms of the biosphere - the biogeochemical circulation of substances: the movement of huge masses of chemical elements, the redistribution of energy accumulated in the process of photosynthesis, and the transformation of information. The biogeochemical circulation of substances ensures the continuity of life in the biosphere with a finite amount of matter and constant flow solar energy, transforms the face of the planet, the physico-chemical habitat of living beings, including humans.

Nature management - an objective assessment of the state and optimization of use natural resources and environmental conditions natural environment, their protection and reproduction.

Living matter

According to V.I. Vernadsky, the substance of the biosphere consists of:

· Living matter- biomass of modern living organisms;

· Nutrient- all forms of detritus, as well as peat, coal, oil and gas of biogenic origin;

· bioinert substance- mixtures of biogenic substances with mineral rocks of non-biogenic origin (soil, silts, natural waters, gas and oil shale, tar sands, part of sedimentary carbonates);

· Inert substance - rocks, minerals, sediments not affected by the direct biogeochemical impact of organisms.

Central to this concept is the concept of living matter, which V.I. Vernadsky defines as a set of living organisms. In addition to plants and animals, V.I. Vernadsky includes here also mankind, whose influence on geochemical processes differs from the influence of other living beings, firstly, by its intensity, which increases with the course of geological time; secondly, by the impact that human activity has on the rest of living matter.

This impact is primarily reflected in the creation of numerous new species. cultivated plants and pets. Such species did not exist before and without human help either die or turn into wild breeds. Therefore, Vernadsky considers the geochemical work of living matter in the inseparable connection of the animal, plant kingdom and cultural humanity as the work of a single whole.

According to V.I. Vernadsky, in the past they did not attach importance to two important factors, which characterize living bodies and their metabolic products:

Pasteur's discovery of the predominance of optically active compounds associated with the dissymmetry of the spatial structure of molecules, as distinguishing feature living bodies.

· The contribution of living organisms to the energy of the biosphere and their influence on inanimate bodies was clearly underestimated. After all, the composition of the biosphere includes not only living matter, but also a variety of inanimate bodies, which V.I. Vernadsky calls inert (atmosphere, rocks, minerals, etc.), as well as bio-inert bodies formed from heterogeneous living and inert bodies (soils, surface water etc.). Although living matter in terms of volume and weight is an insignificant part of the biosphere, associated with a change in the appearance of our planet.

Since living matter is the defining component of the biosphere, it can be argued that it can exist and develop only within the framework of the integral system of the biosphere. It is no coincidence that therefore V.I. Vernadsky believes that living organisms are a function of the biosphere and are closely connected materially and energetically with it, they are a huge geological force that determines it.

The initial basis for the existence of the biosphere and the biogeochemical processes occurring in it is the astronomical position of our planet, and first of all, its distance from the Sun and the inclination of the earth's axis to the ecliptic, or to the plane of the earth's orbit. This is spatial arrangement The Earth is mainly determined by the climate on the planet, and the latter, in turn, determines life cycles all organisms that exist on it. The sun is the main energy source of the biosphere and the regulator of all geological, chemical and biological processes on our planet. This role was figuratively expressed by one of the authors of the law of conservation and transformation of energy, Julius Mayer (1814-1878), who noted that life is the creation of a sunbeam.

The decisive difference between living matter and inert matter is as follows:

· Changes and processes in living matter occur much faster than in inert bodies. Therefore, to characterize changes in living matter, the concept of historical time is used, and in inert bodies - geological time. For comparison, we note that a second of geological time corresponds to approximately one hundred thousand years of historical time;

· In the course of geological time, the power of living matter and its impact on the inert matter of the biosphere increase. This impact, points out V.I. Vernadsky, manifests itself primarily "in the continuous biogenic flow of atoms from living matter to the inert matter of the biosphere and vice versa";

· Qualitative changes of organisms occur in the course of geological time only in living matter. The process and mechanisms of these changes were first explained in the theory of the origin of species by natural selection C. Darwin (1859);

Living organisms change depending on the change environment, adapt to it and, according to Darwin's theory, it is the gradual accumulation of such changes that serves as the source of evolution.

IN AND. Vernadsky suggests that living matter may also have its own process of evolution, which manifests itself in changes with the course of geological time, regardless of changes in the environment.

To confirm his idea, he refers to the continuous growth of the central nervous system animals and its importance in the biosphere, as well as the special organization of the biosphere itself. In his opinion, in a simplified model, this organization can be expressed in such a way that not a single point of the biosphere "falls into the same place, the same point of the biosphere, as it has ever been before." In modern terms, this phenomenon can be described as the irreversibility of changes that are inherent in any process of evolution and development.

The continuous process of evolution, accompanied by the emergence of new species of organisms, has an impact on the entire biosphere as a whole, including natural bio-inert bodies, for example, soils, terrestrial and The groundwater etc. This is confirmed by the fact that the soils and rivers of the Devonian are completely different than those of the Tertiary, and even more so of our era. Thus, the evolution of species gradually spreads and passes to the entire biosphere.

Since evolution and the emergence of new species presuppose the existence of their own beginning, the question naturally arises: does life have such a beginning? If there is, then where to look for it - on Earth or in Space? Can life arise from non-life?

Over the centuries, many religious figures, representatives of art, philosophers, and scientists have thought about these questions. IN AND. Vernadsky examines in detail the most interesting points of view put forward by prominent thinkers different eras, and concludes that there is no convincing answer to these questions. He himself, as a scientist, at the beginning adhered to an empirical approach to solving these issues, when he argued that numerous attempts to find traces of the presence of any transitional life forms in the ancient geological layers of the Earth were unsuccessful. In any case, some remains of life have been discovered even in the Precambrian layers, numbering 600 million years. These negative results, according to V.I. Vernadsky, make it possible to suggest that life as matter and energy exists in the Universe forever and therefore has no beginning. But such an assumption is nothing more than an empirical generalization based on the fact that traces of living matter have not yet been found in the earth's layers. To become a scientific hypothesis, it must be consistent with other results. scientific knowledge, including with broader concepts of natural science and philosophy. In any case, one cannot but reckon with the views of those naturalists and philosophers who defended the thesis about the emergence of living matter from non-living matter, and at the present time even put forward a substantiation of the hypothesis and model of the origin of life.

Assumptions regarding the abiogenic, or inorganic origin of life, were made repeatedly in ancient times, for example, by Aristotle, who allowed the possibility of the emergence of small organisms from inorganic matter. With the advent of experimental natural science and the emergence of such sciences as geology, paleontology and biology, this point of view was criticized as not justified by empirical facts. Back in the second half of the 17th century. The principle proclaimed by the famous Florentine physician and naturalist F. Redi, that all living things arise from living things. The assertion of this principle was facilitated by the studies of the famous English physiologist William Harvey (1578-1657), who believed that every animal comes from an egg, although he admitted the possibility of the emergence of life in an abiogenic way.

Later, as penetration physical and chemical methods in biological research, again and more persistently, hypotheses about the abiogenic origin of life began to be put forward. Above, we have already spoken about chemical evolution as a prerequisite for the emergence of the prebiotic, or prebiological stage in the emergence of life. V.I. Vernadsky, and therefore his views on these issues did not remain unchanged, but, relying on the soil of precisely established facts, he did not allow either divine intervention or the earthly origin of life. He transferred the emergence of life beyond the Earth, and also allowed the possibility of its appearance in the biosphere under certain conditions. He wrote: "The Redi principle ... does not indicate the impossibility of abiogenesis outside the biosphere or when establishing the presence in the biosphere (now or earlier) of physicochemical phenomena that were not accepted in the scientific definition of this form of organization of the earth's shell."

Despite some contradictions, Vernadsky's theory of the biosphere represents a new major step in understanding not only living nature, but also its inseparable connection with the historical activity of mankind.

The concept of the biosphere is based on the idea of living matter. More than 90% of all living matter falls on terrestrial vegetation (98% of land biomass). living matter- the most powerful geochemical and energy factor, the leading force of planetary development. The main source of biochemical activity of organisms is solar energy used in the process of photosynthesis by green plants and some microorganisms to create organic matter. Organic matter provides food and energy to other organisms. Photosynthesis led to the accumulation of free oxygen in the atmosphere, the formation of an ozone layer that protects against ultraviolet and hard cosmic radiation, it supports modern gas composition atmosphere. Life on Earth has always existed in the form of complexly organized complexes of various organisms (biocenoses). At the same time, living organisms and their habitat form integral systems - biogeocenoses. Nutrition, respiration and reproduction of organisms and the processes of creation, accumulation and decay of organic matter associated with them provide a constant circulation of matter and energy. This cycle is associated with the migration of atoms of chemical elements through living matter. So, all atmospheric oxygen turns around through living matter in 2000 years, carbon dioxide for 300 years. Great variety organic and chemical compounds characterized by the composition of the organisms themselves. Thanks to living matter, soils and organic mineral fuels (peat, coal, perhaps even oil) were formed on the planet.

Exploring the processes of migration of atoms in the biosphere, V.I. Vernadsky approached the question of the genesis (origin) of chemical elements in the earth's crust, and then the need to explain the stability of the compounds that make up organisms. Analyzing the problem of atomic migration, he came to the conclusion that there are no organic compounds anywhere that are independent of living matter. “Under the name of living matter,” wrote V.I. Vernadsky in 1919, “I will mean the totality of all organisms, vegetation and animals, including man.”

Thus, living matter is the totality of living organisms of the biosphere, numerically expressed in elementary terms. chemical composition, mass and energy. In the 1930s IN AND. Vernadsky from total weight living matter distinguishes humanity as its special part. This separation of man from all living things became possible for three reasons.

First, humanity is not a producer, but a consumer of biogeochemical energy. Such a thesis required a revision of the geochemical functions of living matter in the biosphere. Secondly, the mass of humanity, based on demographic data, is not a constant amount of living matter. And thirdly, its geochemical functions are characterized not by mass, but by production activity.

If a person had not stood out from the natural animal world, then his number would have been about 100 thousand. Such protohumans would live in a limited area, and their evolution would be determined by slow processes occurring as a result of population-genetic changes characteristic of speciation. However, with the advent of man there was a qualitative leap in the development of nature on Earth. There is every reason to believe that this new quality is associated with the mind and consciousness of homo sapiens. Thus, the main species difference of a person is his mind, and it was thanks to consciousness that humanity developed in its own way. This was also reflected in the process of human reproduction, since the formation of socially mature forms of consciousness requires a long time - at least 20 years.

What characteristics inherent in living matter? First of all, this huge free energy. During the evolution of species, the biogenic migration of atoms, i.e. The energy of the living substance of the biosphere has increased many times over and continues to grow, because the living substance recycles the energy of solar radiation, the atomic energy of radioactive decay and the cosmic energy of scattered elements coming from our Galaxy. Living matter also has high rate of chemical reactions compared with inanimate matter, where similar processes are thousands and millions of times slower. For example, some caterpillars per day can process food 200 times more than they weigh themselves, and one tit eats as many caterpillars per day as it weighs itself.

Living matter is characterized by its constituent chemical compounds. the most important of which are proteins, stable only in living organisms. After the completion of the life process, the original living organic substances decompose to chemical constituents.

Living matter exists on the planet in the form of a continuous alternation of generations, thanks to which the newly formed generation is genetically connected with the living matter of past eras. This is the main structural unit of the biosphere, which determines all other processes on the surface of the earth's crust. Living matter is characterized presence of an evolutionary process. The genetic information of any organism is encrypted in each of its cells. These cells are originally destined to be themselves, with the exception of the egg, from which the whole organism develops. Thus, living matter is essentially immortal.

IN AND. Vernadsky noted that living matter is inseparable from the biosphere, is its function and at the same time "one of the most powerful geochemical forces of our planet." Circulation of substances V.I. Vernadsky called biogeochemical cycles. These cycles and circulation provide the most important functions of living matter as a whole. The scientist identified five such functions:

Gas function - carried out by green plants that release oxygen in the process of photosynthesis, as well as all plants and animals that release carbon dioxide as a result of respiration;

Concentration function - manifests itself in the ability of living organisms to accumulate many chemical elements in their bodies (in the first place is carbon, among metals calcium);

Redox function - expressed in the chemical transformations of substances in the process of life. As a result, salts, oxides, new substances are formed. This function is associated with the formation of iron and manganese ores, limestones, etc.;

Biochemical function - is defined as reproduction, growth and movement in space of living matter. All this leads to the circulation of chemical elements in nature, their biogenic migration;

The function of human biogeochemical activity - associated with the biogenic migration of atoms, which increases many times under the influence of economic activity person. Man develops and uses for his needs a large number of substances of the earth's crust, including such as coal, gas, oil, peat, shale, and many ores. At the same time, anthropogenic entry into the biosphere of alien substances takes place, and in quantities exceeding permissible value. This led to a crisis confrontation between man and nature. main reason impending ecological crisis considered a technocratic concept that considers the biosphere, on the one hand, as a source of physical resources, on the other, as sewer for waste disposal.