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The subsystems are finely balanced, complex systems; when a disturbance occurs or a change is induced, the system will react to that change, generally inducing further changes. Reactions to a disturbance typically involve the movement of material from one part of a system or reservoir to another. For example, sunlight shining on a lake causes evaporation, a process in which water moves from the lake to the atmosphere. This changes the state of moisture in the local atmosphere. Eventually that water will be transferred back out of the atmosphere, via the process of precipitation.

Amount of matter that enters or leaves the Earth system The place where Earth’s four reservoirs interact most is so minuscule compared with the mass of the system as intensively is a narrow zone that we might call the life a whole that for all practical purposes Earth is a closed zone because its most important characteristic—from a system. human perspective, certainly—is that it supports life and The fact that Earth is a closed system has two imporallows life to exist on this planet. The life zone is a region tant implications for those of us who occupy its surface.

In a closed system, energy but not matter can cross the boundary. In an open system, both energy and matter can pass through the boundary. 11. The geosphere is the solid Earth, composed principally of rock and regolith. 1 6. Scientists commonly study complex systems (and objects and processes) indirectly by using models—simplified physical, graphical, or numerical representations of real systems, constructed at a more manageable scale. Box models represent the essential features of systems graphically, as well as quantitatively.