The Earth as an open ecosystem
The most important factor that determines the existence and development of the Earth ecosystem (i.e., the climate) is the Earth-Sun interaction (Kondratyev and Ivlev, 1995 ; Kondratyev et al., 1995 ; Krapivin and Kondratyev, 2002 ). The variations in the
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15.1
INTRODUCTION
The most important factor that determines the existence and development of the Earth ecosystem (i.e., the climate) is the Earth±Sun interaction (Kondratyev and Ivlev, 1995; Kondratyev et al., 1995; Krapivin and Kondratyev, 2002). The variations in the Earth±Sun interaction cause gradual or periodic changes of climatological conditions, commonly known as Milankovich cycles, as well as catastrophic phenomena. The cycles which correspond to the ice ages and the intervening interglacial periods were originally studied by James Croll, the son of a Scottish crofter, who had very little formal education, in the 1860s and 1870s; however, his work was largely ignored and the theory was revived and expanded by Milutin Milankovitch, a Serbian civil engineer and mathematician, in the early 20th century and they are now named after him. Catastrophic changes do not follow such a cyclical pattern. In choosing the direction for further development of our civilization the importance of the Earth±Sun interaction must be understood in emerging global changes of the environment, particularly those concerning the Earth's biosphere. In order to be able to separate anthropogenic eects on the Earth's biosphere from natural eects, it is necessary to understand the physical aspects of the formation and evolution of environmental conditions, of evolutionary processes under external in¯uences of varied intensity and duration; this involves understanding the current statusÐnot only of the environmentÐbut of the Earth as a planet and of space (particularly the Earth's near space) with its physical processes. The concept of the Earth as an open ecosystem in space has developed gradually, although it has always been clear that the most important factor of the existence of this ecosystem (the climate) is determined primarily by interactions between the Earth and the Sun. Changes in our understanding of the climate and of the role of the
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The Earth as an open ecosystem
[Ch. 15
ecosystem in its evolution are particularly obvious when comparing today's studies with those made in the 1970s (Kondratyev et al., 2006). The essential role in the development of the concept of the Earth as an open ecosystem was emphasized by Kirill Kondratyev (1990) through his scienti®c and organizational work; in particular, in his support of Gorschkov's ideas of feedback eects of ecosystems in¯uencing the climate in such a way that initiates changes which are favorable for the ecosystem (Gorschkov et al., 2006). Equally important for understanding the role of the Earth±Sun interaction in this problem were annual scienti®c seminars on ``Space ecology'' held in St. Petersburg by Kondratyev and transformed in 2001 to the ``Ecology and space'' workshop (Ivlev, 2001a, b, 2005, 2007; Reznikov, 2007a, c), as well as ``Aerosol and climate'' section meetings at ®ve international conferences on ``Natural and anthropogenic aerosols'' (Ivlev and Chvorostovsky, 2000a, b; Ivlev et al., 2003). In this chapter we con®ne ourselves to a brief statement of so
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