biosphere

Meanings

1. 1nounsingularbiology

   All the regions of Earth, including land, water and air, where living things can exist.

   Grammar: Usually the biosphere with the: damage to the biosphere.

   Patterns

   • the biosphere of something

   Pollution can harm the entire biosphere.

   Plants, animals and microbes together make up the biosphere.

   Scientists track carbon moving between the atmosphere and the biosphere.

2. 2nouncountablespecialist

   A sealed, self-contained structure built to copy Earth's living systems for study.

   Grammar: Used for artificial habitats: a research biosphere.

   The experiment sealed eight people inside an artificial biosphere.

   The engineers designed a small biosphere to test growing food in space.

   A biosphere must recycle its own air and water.

Word forms

Common combinations

Earth's biosphere

Earth's biosphere stretches from the ocean floor to the lower atmosphere.

damage the biosphere

Industrial waste can damage the biosphere.

protect the biosphere

Treaties aim to protect the biosphere from further harm.

biosphere reserve

The valley is now a biosphere reserve.

the global biosphere

Warming oceans affect the global biosphere.

Synonyms and how they differ

ecosphere

Ecosphere is a rarer term that emphasizes life interacting with its environment, but it means almost the same thing.

ecosystem

An ecosystem is one community and its surroundings, while the biosphere includes all of them together.

environment

Environment is much broader and everyday, covering surroundings of any kind.

Word family

biological adjective

relating to living things

biology noun

the study of living things

atmosphere noun

the layer of gases around Earth

hydrosphere noun

all of Earth's water

lithosphere noun

Earth's solid outer shell

Commonly confused: biosphere or biome?

Practice

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Write a sentence using “biosphere”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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