Vladimir I. Vernadsky’s concepts of the evolution of biosphere and their development in Russia: facts and hypotheses

Vernadsky’s ideas about the evolution of biosphere laid the foundations for subsequent research in this country that made possible quantitative estimation of the degree, in which organic evolution affects the chemical composition of the biosphere, its biomass, productivity, biogeochemical functions and energy. At the same time we are still situated at an early stage of the transition from natural philosophy to exact quantitative expression of the main trends and patterns in the evolution of biosphere.