地球生物学已经引起了人们的广泛关注, 目前面临着机遇与挑战并存的发展局面。得益于现代技术方法的大发展, 地球生物学的研究对象经历了从宏体动植物向微体古生物再向地质微生物和地质病毒的发展, 研究主题从气候环境对生物演化的影响进一步拓展到生物演化如何影响气候环境乃至深地过程, 进而回答生命是如何塑造地球的宜居性这个地球科学的根本性难题。研究对象和研究主题的拓展也提升了地球生物学服务人类社会的能力, 资源能源安全的保障、气候—环境—生物多样性危机的协调应对等都需要地球生物学的支撑。同时, 地球生物学的发展也面临着诸多挑战。它首先需要技术方法的进一步革新来带动认识的创新, 其次需要回答生物演化的驱动力问题, 更需要破解生物演化如何影响深地过程, 包括板块运动、火山活动等地质过程, 只有这样才能全面而正确地评估生物是否改变了宜居地球的演化方向, 以及如何应对当前人类所面临的诸多全球性难题。

At the present time, geobiology has attracted a great attention and faces both opportunities and challenges for its disciplinary development. The innovation of technology and methodology in modern days has led to the progressive shift in the study objects from macrofossils to microfossils and finally to geomicrobes and geoviruses. Meanwhile, the themes of geobiology have shifted from environmental impacts on biotic evolution to biotic impacts on paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental changes and even on the deep processes, which enable us to decipher the fundamental issues related to the Earth’s habitability. The broadening of both the study objects and the disciplinary themes has greatly enhanced the support for societal services from the perspective of geobiology, including the supply of resources and energy, and the coordinated resilience to the crises in climate, environments, and biodiversity in modern days. However, the deep-going disciplinary development of geobiology awaits the innovation of more techniques and methods. It is further needed for geobiology to decipher not only the underlying dynamics of biotic evolution but also the biotic impacts on the deep processes including the plate movements and volcanisms, which in turn helps to evaluate whether the biosphere changed the directions or routines of the evolution of the habitable Earth, and to provide implication for coping with the crises of climate, environments, and biodiversity loss in modern days.

国家自然科学基金创新研究群体项目(41821001)资助