La biosfera o biósfera es el sistema formado por el conjunto de los seres vivos del planeta Tierra y sus relaciones. Este significado de «envoltura viva» de la Tierra, es el de uso más extendido, pero también se habla de biosfera, en ocasiones, para referirse al espacio dentro del cual se desarrolla la vida. La biosfera es el ecosistema global. Al mismo concepto nos referimos con otros términos, que pueden considerarse sinónimos, como ecosfera o biogeosfera. Es una creación colectiva de una variedad de organismos y especies que interactuando entre sí, forman la diversidad de los ecosistemas. Tiene propiedades que permiten hablar de ella como un gran ser vivo, con capacidad para controlar, dentro de unos límites, su propio estado y evolución.

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The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. The two joined words are "bio" and "sphere". It can also be termed as the zone of life on Earth, a closed system (apart from solar and cosmic radiation and heat from the interior of the Earth), and largely self-regulating. By the most general biophysiological definition, the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. The biosphere is postulated to have evolved, beginning with a process of biopoesis (life created naturally from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds) or biogenesis (life created from living matter), at least some 3.5 billion years ago. The earliest evidence for life on Earth includes biogenic graphite found in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks from Western Greenland and microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone from Western Australia. More recently, in 2015, "remains of biotic life" were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. According to one of the researchers, "If life arose relatively quickly on Earth ... then it could be common in the universe." In a general sense, biospheres are any closed, self-regulating systems containing ecosystems. This includes artificial biospheres such as Biosphere 2 and BIOS-3, and potentially ones on other planets or moons.

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