Earth system science

The Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College, offers the following description: "Earth System science embraces chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics and applied sciences in transcending disciplinary boundaries to treat the Earth as an integrated system. It seeks a deeper understanding of the physical, chemical, biological and human interactions that determine the past, current and future states of the Earth. Earth System science provides a physical basis for understanding the world in which we live and upon which humankind seeks to achieve sustainability".{{cite web|url=http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/earthsystem/nutshell/|title=Earth System Science in a Nutshell|publisher=Carleton College |access-date=2009-03-10}}

Earth System science has articulated four overarching, definitive and critically important features of the Earth System, which include:

1. Variability: Many of the Earth System's natural 'modes' and variabilities across space and time are beyond human experience, because of the stability of the recent Holocene. Much Earth System science therefore relies on studies of the Earth's past behaviour and models to anticipate future behaviour in response to pressures.
2. Life: Biological processes play a much stronger role in the functioning and responses of the Earth System than previously thought. It appears to be integral to every part of the Earth System.
3. Connectivity: Processes are connected in ways and across depths and lateral distances that were previously unknown and inconceivable.
4. Non-linear: The behaviour of the Earth System is typified by strong non-linearities. This means that abrupt change can result when relatively small changes in a 'forcing function' push the System across a 'threshold'.

For millennia, humans have speculated how the physical and living elements on the surface of the Earth combine, with gods and goddesses frequently posited to embody specific elements. The notion that the Earth, itself, is alive was a regular theme of Greek philosophy and religion.{{cite news |last=Tickell |first=Crispin |url=http://www.le.ac.uk/ebulletin-archive/ebulletin/features/2000-2009/2006/11/nparticle.2006-11-20.html |title=Earth Systems Science: Are We Pushing Gaia Too Hard? |work= 46th Annual Bennett Lecture - University of Leicester |location=London |publisher=University of Leicester |year=2006 |access-date=2015-09-21 }}

Early scientific interpretations of the Earth system began in the field of geology, initially in the Middle EastFielding H. Garrison, An introduction to the history of medicine, W.B. Saunders, 1921. and China,{{cite book |title=The Age of Achievement: A.D. 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century : The Achievements |series=History of civilizations of Central Asia |editor1-first=M. S. |editor1-last=Asimov |editor2-first=Clifford Edmund |editor2-last=Bosworth |isbn=978-92-3-102719-2 |pages=211–214}} and largely focused on aspects such as the age of the Earth and the large-scale processes involved in mountain and ocean formation. As geology developed as a science, understanding of the interplay of different facets of the Earth system increased, leading to the inclusion of factors such as the Earth's interior, planetary geology, living systems and Earth-like worlds.

In many respects, the foundational concepts of Earth System science can be seen in the natural philosophy 19th century geographer Alexander von Humboldt.{{cite journal |journal=Science |title=Alexander von Humboldt and the General Physics of the Earth |first=Stephen T. |last=Jackson |year=2009 |volume=324 |issue=5927 |pages=596–597 |doi=10.1126/science.1171659 |pmid=19407186 |s2cid=206518912 |url=http://faculty.jsd.claremont.edu/dmcfarlane/bio176mcfarlane/pdf%20papers/Humboldt%20hsitory.pdf |access-date=11 November 2015 |archive-date=12 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412023559/http://faculty.jsd.claremont.edu/dmcfarlane/bio176mcfarlane/pdf%20papers/Humboldt%20hsitory.pdf |url-status=dead }} In the 20th century, Vladimir Vernadsky (1863–1945) saw the functioning of the biosphere as a geological force generating a dynamic disequilibrium, which in turn promoted the diversity of life.

In parallel, the field of systems science was developing across numerous other scientific fields, driven in part by the increasing availability and power of computers, and leading to the development of climate models that began to allow the detailed and interacting simulations of the Earth's weather and climate.{{cite journal |last=Edwards |first=P.N. |year=2010 |title=History of climate modelling |journal=Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change |volume=2 |pages=128–139 |doi=10.1002/wcc.95 |hdl=2027.42/79438 |s2cid=38650354 |url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79438/1/95_ftp.pdf |hdl-access=free }} Subsequent extension of these models has led to the development of "Earth system models" (ESMs) that include facets such as the cryosphere and the biosphere.{{cite journal |last1=Washington |first1=W.M. |last2=Buja |first2=L. |last3=Craig |first3=A. |year=2009 |title=The computational future for climate and Earth system models: on the path to petaflop and beyond |journal=Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. A |volume=367 |issue= 1890|pages=833–846 |doi=10.1098/rsta.2008.0219 |pmid=19087933 |bibcode=2009RSPTA.367..833W |doi-access=free }}

In 1983 a NASA committee called the Earth System Science Committee was formed. The earliest reports of NASA's ESSC, [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112104410706;view=1up;seq=3 Earth System Science: Overview] (1986), and the book-length [https://books.google.com/books?id=Vj4rAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA173 Earth System Science: A Closer View] (1988), constitute a major landmark in the formal development of Earth system science.{{cite journal| last1=Mooney| first1=Harold| title=Evolution of natural and social science interactions in global change research programs| journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences| date=26 February 2013| volume= 110| issue = Supplement 1, 3665–3672| pages=3665–3672| doi=10.1073/pnas.1107484110| display-authors=etal| pmid=23297237| pmc=3586612| bibcode=2013PNAS..110.3665M| doi-access=free}} Early works discussing Earth system science, like these NASA reports, generally emphasized the increasing human impacts on the Earth system as a primary driver for the need of greater integration among the life and geo-sciences, making the origins of Earth system science parallel to the beginnings of global change studies and programs.

Climatology and climate change have been central to Earth System science since its inception, as evidenced by the prominent place given to climate change in the early NASA reports discussed above. The Earth's climate system is a prime example of an emergent property of the whole planetary system, that is, one which cannot be fully understood without regarding it as a single integrated entity. It is also a system where human impacts have been growing rapidly in recent decades, lending immense importance to the successful development and advancement of Earth System science research. As just one example of the centrality of climatology to the field, the mission statement of one of the earliest centers for Earth System science research, the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, reads, "the Earth System Science Center (ESSC) maintains a mission to describe, model, and understand the Earth's climate system".{{cite web|title=Earth System Science Center|url=http://www.essc.psu.edu/|publisher=Penn State University|access-date=15 April 2025}}

{{excerpt|Climate system}}

Earth System science can be studied at a postgraduate level at some universities. In general education, the American Geophysical Union, in cooperation with the Keck Geology Consortium and with support from five divisions within the National Science Foundation, convened a workshop in 1996, "to define common educational goals among all disciplines in the Earth sciences". In its report, participants noted that, "The fields that make up the Earth and space sciences are currently undergoing a major advancement that promotes understanding the Earth as a number of interrelated systems". Recognizing the rise of this systems approach, the workshop report recommended that an Earth System science curriculum be developed with support from the National Science Foundation.{{cite web|url=http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/spheres/intro.htm |title=Shaping the Future of Undergraduate Earth Science Education |publisher=American Geophysical Union |access-date=2009-05-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080916214004/http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/spheres/intro.htm |archive-date=16 September 2008 }}

In 2000, the Earth System Science Education Alliance (ESSEA) was begun, and currently includes the participation of 40+ institutions, with over 3,000 teachers having completed an ESSEA course as of fall 2009".{{cite web|title=Earth System Science Education Alliance|url=http://essea.strategies.org/background.html|access-date=25 July 2015|archive-date=22 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922165412/http://essea.strategies.org/background.html|url-status=dead}}

The concept of earth system law (still in its infancy as per 2021) is a sub-discipline of earth system governance, itself a subfield of earth system sciences analyzed from a social sciences perspective.{{Cite journal |last=Petersmann |first=Marie-Catherine |date=2021 |title=Sympoietic thinking and Earth System Law: The Earth, its subjects and the law |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2589811621000185 |journal=Earth System Governance |language=en |volume=9 |pages=100114 |doi=10.1016/j.esg.2021.100114|doi-access=free}} 50px Text was copied from this source, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License]

{{Portal|Earth sciences|Ecology|Geography|Global warming|Systems science|Weather}}

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• {{annotated link|Earth science}}
• {{annotated link|Earth system governance}}
• {{annotated link|Earth System Science Partnership}}
• {{annotated link|Earth systems engineering and management}}
• {{annotated link|Earth's spheres|Ecosphere}}
• {{annotated link|Geosphere}}
• {{annotated link|Global change}}
• {{annotated link|Planetary boundaries}}
• {{annotated link|Systems geology}}

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{{Reflist}}

• {{Commonscatinline}}
• [https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-019-0005-6 Earth system science] at Nature.com

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Category:Global natural environment

Category:Complex systems theory