History of hygiene in Russia

The doctrine of the biosphere and the basics of ecosystems

Russian science has made a huge contribution to understanding the relationship between humans and the environment. Central to this is the concept of the biosphere, developed by V.I. Vernadsky. The main postulate of his doctrine states that living organisms play a decisive role in transforming the face of the Earth.

The life activity of flora and fauna maintains a continuous cycle of critically important substances: oxygen, water, nitrogen, and carbon. It is this process that ensures a stable equilibrium in the biosphere.

Any habitat represents an ecosystem, the scale of which can range from a small aquarium or forest patch to the size of an entire sea. The largest ecosystem is the entire biosphere as a whole. A prerequisite for the stability of any ecological system is a continuous balance between the processes of synthesis of new organic compounds and their subsequent decomposition.

Components of the biosphere and the organization of life

For normal functioning, any ecosystem must include four basic components that closely interact with each other:

• Abiotic (non-living) environment: water resources, mineral components, and dead organic matter.
• Producers: producers of primary organic matter from inorganic raw materials. A prime example is green plants, which use photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide, minerals, and water into organics, releasing oxygen necessary for respiration.
• Consumers: consumers of already formed organic substances. They are subdivided into primary consumers (exclusively herbivorous animals) and secondary consumers (carnivorous predators).
• Deducers (decomposers): organisms responsible for the decomposition of animal carcasses and dead plants back into baseline inorganic elements. These include bacteria, fungi, various worms, and larvae.

The totality of all living inhabitants of a territory with homogeneous conditions is called a biocenosis. If non-living factors (atmosphere, soil) are added to this system, it is termed a biogeocenosis (synonymous with the term "ecosystem").

Anthropogenic impact and environmental crisis

Prior to the era of large-scale civilization intervention, nature successfully maintained its internal equilibrium. However, the intensification of human influence disrupted the global cycle of matter.

The most destructive and damaging factors include:

1. Massive destruction of taiga and tropical forests.
2. Burning colossal volumes of fossil fuels.
3. Pollution of the world's oceans with petroleum products.
4. Drastic landscape alteration (e.g., construction of large reservoirs).
5. Destruction of mountain ranges during mineral extraction.

These actions lead to severe consequences: global climate change, local microclimate shifts, rising carbon dioxide concentrations, and reduced oxygen volumes. When the natural balance is unable to adapt to external pressure, it collapses. An environmental crisis occurs—a state of acute mismatch between the productive forces of society and the planet's actual resource-ecological limits.

Interaction of society and nature

The system of human-environment relations is built on two closely linked subsystems:

• Economic: aimed at exploiting natural resources for material gain.
• Ecological: reflects man's vital need to preserve a healthy environment.

Humans act simultaneously as subjects of impact on nature and as objects reaping the fruits of this impact. American ecologist B. Commoner formulated four laws describing these relationships:

• Everything is connected to everything else.
• Everything must go somewhere (the necessity of waste disposal).
• There is no such thing as a free lunch (deteriorating health requires paying for medicines, soil depletion requires fertilizers).
• Nature knows best (humans must not conquer nature, but cooperate with it, recognizing themselves as merely one biological species).

Laws of dialectics in nature management

The development of the "society-nature" system strictly obeys the philosophical laws of dialectics. Society is obliged to apply a comprehensive approach when solving any environmental problems, taking into account the carrying capacity of the environment.

• Transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones: the gradual accumulation of toxicants over time renders the environment completely uninhabitable.
• Unity and struggle of opposites: the conflict between the thirst for economic growth and the need for a biologically clean environment. Ignoring this conflict leads to an ecological deadlock.
• Negation of the negation: irrational human activity threatens his own future existence. The degradation of the biosphere causes an increase in the number of children with developmental abnormalities and leads to the inevitable degradation of humanity itself.

Briefly: answers to topical questions

Class and exam questions

What else to study on this topic

• Features of bacterial and protozoan survival in extreme environmental conditions without light and oxygen
• Specific patterns for assessing the ecological carrying capacity of the natural environment
• Criteria for the constancy and immutability of the quality of natural ecological systems
• Mechanisms of adaptation of the ecological balance to external impacts

Other topics in the section "Introduction. Subject, History, Modern Environment"

Prepared by WhiteCoat Pro faculty in accordance with the medical school curriculum. For educational purposes only.