The Biological Effects of Geomagnetic Field

In our planet Earth’s system, the geomagnetic field plays a key role on near-Earth space environments. It protects life on Earth by shielding it from harmful solar wind and galactic cosmic ray radiation and acts as a global positioning system for orientation and navigation for organisms. Therefore, understanding how and to what extent the geomagnetic field and its variatiability influence life is a fundamental scientific question, and is becoming an interdisciplinary branch, i.e., biogeomagnetism. The interdisciplinary nature and remarkable complexity and breadth of the research scope, coupled with the scarcity of data, present both challenges and opportunities. I will discuss some recent discoveries, future research directions and potential breakthroughs in biogeomagnetism.