Earth science (also known as geoscience, the geosciences or the Earth Sciences), is an all-embracing

term for the sciences related to the planet Earth.

The major historic disciplines (or major division of earth science) are physics, geography, mathematics,
chemistry, and biology. These are used to build a quantitative understanding of the principal areas
or spheres of the Earth system, namely

1. Atmosphere
2. Biosphere
3. Hydrosphere
4. Lithosphere or geosphere
5. Pedosphere
6. Systems
7. Others

Earth science generally recognizes 4 spheres, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and
the biosphere.
These correspond to rocks, water, air, and life. Some practitioners include the cryosphere (ice) as a
distinct portion of the hydrosphere and the pedosphere (soil) as an active, intermixed sphere as part of
Earth's spheres
Some might prefer the word ecosphere, coined in the 1960s, as all encompassing of both biological
and physical components of the planet.

So, in a nut shell combining gasses,water,life and earth's crust. You have the ecosystem which is a
natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms in an area functioning together with
all the non-living physical factors of the environment.
-OR-

Some life scientists and earth scientists use biosphere in a more limited sense. For example,
geochemists define the biosphere as being the total sum of living organisms (the "biomass" or "biota"
as referred to by biologists and ecologists). In this sense, the biosphere is but one of four separate
components of the geochemical model, the other three being lithosphere, hydrosphere, and
atmosphere. The narrow meaning used by geochemists is one of the consequences of specialization
in modern science. Some might prefer the word ecosphere, coined in the 1960s, as all encompassing
of both biological and physical components of the planet.

The atmosphere of Earth is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by
Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming
the surface through heat retention (greenhouse effect), and reducing temperatureextremes
between day and night (the diurnal temperature variation).

The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a
closed (apart from solar and cosmic radiation) and self-regulating system

A hydrosphere (from Greek - hydor, "water" and - sphaira, "sphere") in physical

geography describes the combined mass of water found on, under, and over the surface of a planet.

The lithosphere (Greek: [lithos] for "rocky" + [sphaira] for "sphere") is the
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rigid outermost shell of a rocky planet. On Earth, it comprises the crust and the portion of the
upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of thousands of years or greater.

The pedosphere (from Greek pedon "soil" or "earth" and sfara "sphere") is the
outermost layer of the Earth that is composed of soil and subject to soil formation processes