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THE 8IDSPHER Foreword by Lynn Margulis Mauro Ceruti Stjepko Golubic Ricardo Guerrero Nubuolkeda Natsuki Ikezawa Wolfgang E

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THE 8IDSPHER Foreword by Lynn Margulis Mauro Ceruti Stjepko Golubic Ricardo Guerrero Nubuolkeda Natsuki Ikezawa Wolfgang E THE 8IDSPHER Foreword by Lynn Margulis Mauro Ceruti Stjepko Golubic Ricardo Guerrero Nubuolkeda Natsuki Ikezawa Wolfgang E. Krumbein Andrei lapo Antonio Lazcano David Suzuki Crispin Tickell Malcolm Walter Peter Westbroek Introduction by Jacques Grinevald Translated by David B. Langmuir Revised and Annotated by Mark A. S. McMenamin A Peter N. Nevraumont Book COPERNICUS © 1998 Far West Institute Annotations and translation revisions © 1998 Mark A. S. McMenamin Foreword © 1998 Lynn Margulis ~NtJ Introduction and chronology © 1997 Jacques Grinevald Got-' All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, 3~\3 in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, . , photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ,4 Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data Vernadskif, V. I. (Vladimir Ivanovich), 1863-1945. "!5?­ [Biosfera. English] The biosphere/by Vladimir I. Vernadsky; forward by Lynn Margulis and colleagues; introduction by Jacques Grinevald; \,q~~ b translated by David B. Langmuir; revised and annotated by Mark A.5. McMenamin. p. cm. "A Peter N. Nevraumont book." Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-387-98268-X (alk. paper) 1. Biosphere. I. McMenamin, Mark A. II. Title. QH343·4·V4713 1997 333.95-dc21 97-23855 Published in the United States by Copernicus, an imprint of Springer-Verlag New York, Inc. Copernicus Springer-Verlag New York, Inc. 175 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10010 A Pet~r N. Nevraumont Book Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper. Designed by Jose Conde, Studio Pepin, Tokyo Photograph ofV.1. Vernadsky on jacket and pages 4-6 courtesy of Mark McMenamin o 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN 0-387-98268-X SPIN 10557091 Produced by Nevraumont Publishing Company New York, New York President: Ann J. Perrini • Foreword to the English-Language Edition 14 PART TWO • The Domain of Life Introduction: The Invisibility of the Vernadskian Revolution 20 The Biosphere: An Envelope of the Earth 91 Translator's Preface 33 Living Matter of the First and Second Orders in the Biosphere 103 Editor's Note on Translation and Transliteration 34 The Limits of Life 113 The Limits of Life in the Biosphere 117 The Biosphere Life in the Hydrosphere 126 Geochemical Cycles of the Living Concentrations and Author's Preface to the French Edition 38 Films of the Hydrosphere 134 Author's Preface to the Russian Edition 39 Living Matter on Land 142 The Relationship Between the Living Films and Concentrations of the Hydrosphere and Those of Land 148 PART ONE. The Biosphere in the Cosmos The Biosphere in the Cosmic Medium 43 The Biosphere as a Region ofTransformation of Cosmic Energy 47 Appendix I: A Biographical Chronology 151 The Empirical Generalization and the Hypothesis 51 Appendix 1/: Vernadsky's Publications in English 159 Living Matter in the Biosphere 56 Bibliography 160 Acknowledgments 183 The Multiplication of Organisms and Geochemical Energy in Living Matter 60 Index 185 Photosynthetic Living Matter 72 Some Remarks on Living Matter in the Mechanism of the Biosphere 85 Foreword to the English-Language Edition , scientific works are able to do, The Biosphere has remained 6 Seuss, 1875. fresh and current for over a half-century. The descent of what Winston Churchill called the "iron cur­ tain" and the subsequent cold war substantially reduced the flow ofscientific information from Russia to Western Europe and beyond. This prolonged trans-European barrier deprived Eng­ lish-speaking scientific audiences of Vernadsky's imaginative and insightful books for most of this century. Vernadsky's Just as all educated westerners have heard of Albert Einstein, 1 In reviewing Bailes' book, Stephen obscurity in the West is surely one of the great examples in his­ M. Rowland of the University of Gregor Mendel, and Charles Darwin, so all educated Russians Nevada, Las Vegas, writes tory of a political impediment to the spread of scientific infor­ know of Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863-1945). He is widely "...Vernadsky symbolizes personal mation. But like the periodic table of elements, which, in the integrity and Slavic native ability. celebrated in Russia and the Ukraine. A Vernadsky Avenue in In the years to come, as the Russian United States, is still seldom credited to its Russian inventor Moscow is rivaled by a monument in his memory in Kiev. His and Ukrainian people look for Dimitri Mendeleev, Vernadsky's ideas became widely know~ sources of cultural pride, portrait appears on Russian national stamps, air letters, and Vernadsky's stature is certain to even though they were not attributed to their author. even memorial coins.1 A mineralogist and biogeologist, Vernad­ grow. Already named in his honor Although the Viennese geologist Eduard Seuss (1831-1914) are a mineral (vernadite), a geologic sky maintained his scholarly activity and laboratory at Moscow museum, the Ukrainian central had coined the term biosphere for the place on Earth's surface University through much revolutionary turmoil. He resigned, science library, several mountain where life dwells,6 and the word has since been used in various peaks and ranges, a peninsula in with most other scientists, in 1911. His previous part-time East Antarctica, a submarine contexts by many scientists, it is Vernadsky's concept of the employment as adjunct member of the Academy of Sciences volcano, a crater on the back side biosphere, as set forth in this book, that is accepted today. of the moon, a mine in Siberia, a and director of the Mineralogical Museum in St. Petersburg per­ scientific research vessel, a Three empirical generalizations exemplify his concept of the mitted him to take on these activities full-time by the end of that steamship, a village in Ukraine biosphere: 2 (Vernadovka), a street in Moscow year. (Vernadsky Prospektl, and a species When World War I broke out Vernadsky was leading an expe­ of diatoms." See Rowland, 1993. 1 Life occurs on a spherical planet. Vernadsky is the first person in dition to seek radioactive minerals in Siberia; by May 1917 he 2 Bailes, 1990. history to come grips with the real implications of the fact that was elected head of his old department of Mineralogy and Geol­ Earth is a self-contained sphere. 3 Vernadsky, 1924. ogy at Moscow University. III health forced him to travel south 2 Life makes geology. Life is not merely a geological force, it is the and settle with his family in the Ukraine, until he left for Paris. 4 Vernadsky, 1926a. geological force. Virtually all geological features at Earth's sur­ He returned to the Soviet Union from France in 1926 and 5 Vernadsky, 1929. face are bio-influenced, and are thus part of Vernadsky's bios­ remained there until his death in 1945. Through the political phere. morass of the Stalinist Soviet Union, Vernadsky remained vigi­ 3 The planetary influence of living matter becomes more exten­ lant towards honesty, indifferent to politics, and devoted to sive with time. The number and rate of chemical elements trans­ open scientific inquiry. The last part of his long career was also formed and the spectrum of chemical reactions engendered by immensely productive: he continued to publish, lecture, attend living matter are increasing, so that more parts of Earth are conferences, organize institutes, express his opinions-popular incorporated into the biosphere. or not. Indeed Vernadsky's entire life was dedicated to fostering the international scientific enterprise. His lectures at the Sor­ What Vernadsky set out to describe was a physics of living mat­ bonne in 1922-23 were known to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and ter. Life, as he viewed it, was a cosmic phenomenon which was Edouard Le Roy. They were pUblished in 1924 under the title La to be understood by the same universal laws that applied to Geochimie. 3 In 1926 his greatest work, The Biosphere, the first s~ch constants as gravity and the speed of light. Still, Vernadsky full English translation of which you now hold in your hands, himself and many of his fundamental concepts remained large­ was published in Russian in 1926.4 Vernadsky with great help ly unknown. from his wife and French colleagues then prepared a French lan­ His ideas first began to enter postwar Western science in the guage edition in 1929.5 As only the most important and seminal form of hybrid activities called "biogeochemistry," "geomicrobi- FOREWORD 15 ology," or studies of ecosystems, ecology, a~d "environmental 7 Vernadsky, 1944, 1945· made available to others for scientific research. This facility, 11 Broecker, 1996. chemical cycles." Observation and measurement today of the presently the largest greenhouse in the world, is currently 8 Hutchinson. 1954· 12 Vernadsky, 1986. flow of carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen through the hydrosphere, administered by Columbia University of New York City. Wallace 9 lovelock, 1988. lithosphere, atmosphere, and biota are practices based on the S. Broecker, Director of the Lamont Geophysical Laboratory in 13 lapo, 1979. style of thought invented by Vernadsky. 10 Munn, 1971-1996. Palisades, New York, which houses the geology department of 14 lapo, 1982. A statement of the major themes of V.1. Vernadsky's life work Columbia, describes in a lively account the history and current 15 lapo, 1987. Athird edition l1 was coaxed from him by the great English-American ecologist G. status of Biosphere 2 of which he was the first director. The is planned to be published by Evelyn Hutchinson (1903-1991), of Yale University. Translated current president and executive director of Biosphere 2 is the Copernicus/Springer Verlag in 1999. with the aid of Vernadsky's son, George Vernadsky, who taught former assistant director of mathematics and physical science 16 Bailes, 1990.
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