Transport of Energy, Information, and Material Through the Biosphere

A variety of transport processes operate within the biosphere at all temporal and spatial scales. Temporary events or chronic conditions, both scale-dependent, instigate the transport of entities having material, energetic, or informational properties via several different transport vectors. The fluxes and influences imparted by these transport phenomena shape the physical environment, underlie gene flow, facilitate animal communication, and constrain the nature of local systems. These transport phenomena have been highly altered in the last century as humankind has become an ever more potent force in the earth system. As a result, issues of environmental and earth system science are, to a considerable extent, aspects of transport phenomena. A general appreciation for transport phenomena, broadly defined, is vital to gaining an appropriate perspective on the fluid nature of the earth system and to defining system structure and function through present and past events.