Earth Systems Overview
Earth is a system of three mutually interacting components that maintains its existence:
- Energy flows (the transforming of energy from one form to another as it interacts with the system’s materials),
- Matter cycles (matter moving cyclically through the system’s reservoirs as it changes physically or chemically), and
- Life webs (all life within a system interacting through a complex web of connections).
Earth Systems Science is studying how Earth’s processes have interacted to create and sustain life on Earth for at least the last 3.8 billion years. This course explores the connections between three essential processes: energy flows, matter cycles, and life webs, which bring together physics, chemistry, and biology.
Importance of Energy
Energy flows drive everything – without it, there are no matter cycles or life webs. All planets have some energy, either arriving from its surroundings or generated on and within the planet, so there will be some types of matter cycles. But not many planets have complex life. Plants have altered Earth in ways that have made it habitable for many other forms of life, including animals.
Concept map of the three fundamental components of Earth systems.
Another way to think about Earth Systems is that it integrates Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. So it may be an excellent course that ties these topics together after studying each first, or Earth Systems can be an excellent first course that shows the need to learn these fundamental science disciplines.
Earth Over Time
Time is an important dimension to consider in Earth Systems – what we see around us today is not what Earth was like in the past, nor will it be exactly like this in our future. It is changing at rates ranging from almost negligible to incredibly rapid ones during our lifetime. To understand the complexity of the response of the Earth system, the key is to study how the Earth’s system responded to any changes in its energy flows, matter cycles, and life webs during the past.
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