BIOLOGY 20 HELP PLEASE!! How is the biosphere maintained by solar energy?

Question

I can't find the answer anywhere's else and i hate resorting to this but i really have no other choice

Answer 1

There are two main ways the sun maintains our biosphere, and probably hundreds of smaller ways.

1. It provides us with energy in the form of heat.  This heat keeps our atmosphere at a relative constant temperature which allows organisms to live.  The temperature can change to a certain degree, and organisms will adapt to it, but if the sun goes away, the planet goes cold, and nothing will live here.

2.  Back to the energy thing.  We need that energy to live.  Producers (plants, other things with chlorophyll), use the solar energy to process sugars, which everything else on the planet relies on.

Of course, there are some ecosystems that do not rely on the sun whatsoever.  However, they also have a need to heat and energy to support them.  They usually just get it from a different source, like hydrothermal vents.

Think about it terms of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that everything moves towards the more random, or greater entropy.  Basically, everything is falling apart.  However, with a source of energy (like our sun), that law can be temporarily reversed in a small system (like our planet).

Hope that helps!  :)