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The tectonic plates of the lithosphere on Earth Earth cutaway from center to surface, the lithosphere comprising the crust and lithospheric mantle (detail not to scale). A lithosphere (from Ancient Greek λίθος (líthos) 'rocky' and σφαίρα (sphaíra) 'sphere') is the rigid, [1] outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite.
Changes to cycles can impact human health. The cycles are interconnected and play important roles regulating climate, supporting the growth of plants, phytoplankton and other organisms, and maintaining the health of ecosystems generally. Human activities such as burning fossil fuels and using large amounts of fertilizer can disrupt cycles ...
Such biogeochemical cycles are important in geology because they affect many minerals. Biochemical cycles are also important for life because sulfur is an essential element, being a constituent of many proteins and cofactors, and sulfur compounds can be used as oxidants or reductants in microbial respiration. [46]
In Earth science, it is common to conceptualize the Earth's surface as consisting of several distinct layers, often referred to as spheres: the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere, this concept of spheres is a useful tool for understanding the Earth's surface and its various processes [30] these correspond to rocks ...
Humans depend on Earth's biosphere and natural resources for their survival, but have increasingly impacted the planet's environment. Humanity's current impact on Earth's climate and biosphere is unsustainable, threatening the livelihood of humans and many other forms of life, and causing widespread extinctions. [23]
Earth System science has articulated four overarching, definitive and critically important features of the Earth System, which include: Variability: Many of the Earth System's natural 'modes' and variabilities across space and time are beyond human experience, because of the stability of the recent Holocene.
Life may also be said to be simply the characteristic state of organisms. In biology, the science of living organisms, "life" is the condition which distinguishes active organisms from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, functional activity and the continual change preceding death. [32] [33]
The five components of the climate system all interact. They are the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere. [1]: 1451 Earth's climate system is a complex system with five interacting components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things).