Geographical Aspects of Biological Productivity

Bazilevich, N. I.; Rodin, L. Ye.; Rozov, N. N.

doi:10.1080/00385417.1971.10770248

Cited by 59 publications

(24 citation statements)

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“…Most of the estimates are within the ranges 90-130 x 109 t/year (dry matter) for the land areas and 50-60 x 109 t/year for the oceans (Golley, 1972;Box, 1975b;Cooper, 1975;Lieth, 1975;Lieth and Whittaker, 1975;Utkin et al, 1975;Whittaker, 1975;Whittaker and Likens, 1975). The convergence of these estimates suggests that they may not need major revision, even though higher estimates have also been presented (Bazilevich et al, 1971;Rodin et al, 1975).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Geographical dimensions of terrestrial net and gross primary productivity

Box

1978

Radiat Environ Biophys

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The paper presents a comparative summary of previous attempts by the author to assess and map global primary productivity using environmental parameters as predictors. The individual components of the productivity process, net production, gross production, dark respiration as well as their regional rates are computed for 10 degree latitudinal belts. A new version of the Miami Model (Lieth, 1973, 1975) is presented predicting net primary productivity from an increased number of averages of temperature and precipitation. Net primary productivity values in form of dry matter accumulation and caloric energy equivalents are compared.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Geographical dimensions of terrestrial net and gross primary productivity

Box

1978

Radiat Environ Biophys

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“…The distribution of the wetlands along 10 ° latitude belts is displayed in Figure la Other compilations comparable to our data set are less detailed with respect to wetlands (excluding Matthews and Fung, 1987) as they emphasie vegetation classification based on climate and plant form lEsser, 1984), on soil and climate (Bazilevich et al, 1971), or on phytomass (Olson et al, 1985). Due to these authors' specific interests, they do not always distinguish between 'wet' and 'dry' lands.…”

Section: Geographical Distribution Of Wetlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first two of these studies only consider swamps and marshes, whereas Ajtay et al (1979) also include an estimated peatland area of 1.6 × 10 6 km 2 in tundra regions. Yet, according to other studies, the area of peatlands alone ranges from 2.3 x 10 6 km 2 to about 4x 10 6 km 2 (Bazilevich et al, 1971;Moore and Bellamy, 1974;Kivinen and Pakarinen, 1981). Esser (1984), based on Schmithfisen's atlas of potential natural vegetation ('Atlas zur Biogeographie ', 1976) arrives at 4.4 x 10 6 km 2 for the global area of freshwater wetlands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global distribution of natural freshwater wetlands and rice paddies, their net primary productivity, seasonality and possible methane emissions

1989

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A global data set on the geographic distribution and seasonality of freshwater wetlands and rice paddies has been compiled, comprising information at a spatial resolution of 2.5 ° by latitude and 5 ° by longitude. Global coverage of these wetlands total 5.7 x l06 km 2 and 1.3 × i06 km 2, respectively. Natural wetlands have been grouped into six categories following common terminology, i.e. bog, fen, swamp, marsh, floodplain, and shallow lake. Net primary productivity (NPP) of natural wetlands is estimated to be in the range of 4-9 x 10 j5 g dry matter per year. Rice paddies have an NPP of about 1.4 x 10 is g y-l. Extrapolation of measured CH 4 emissions in individual ecosystems lead to global methane emission estimates of 40-160 Teragram (1 Tg= 1012 g) from natural wetlands and 60-140 Tg from rice paddies per year. The mean emission of 170-200 Tg may come in about equal proportions from natural wetlands and paddies. Major source regions are located in the subtropics between 20 and 30°N, the tropics between 0 and 10 ° S, and the temperate-boreal region between 50 and 70 ° N. Emissions are highly seasonal, maximizing during summer in both hemispheres. The wide range of possible CH 4 emissions shows the large uncertainties associated with the extrapolation of measured flux rates to global scale. More investigations into ecophysiological principals of methane emissions is warranted to arrive at better source estimates.

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“…However, ever more inventive societies developed new technologies based on harnessing new energy sources. Most importantly, the industrial revolution used wind and water mills to do (10,11,38,39). Where necessary, biomass is converted to energy assuming 1 t carbon ∼35 × 10 9 joules.…”

Section: Energy In Physics and Biologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Human domination of the biosphere: Rapid discharge of the earth-space battery foretells the future of humankind

Schramski

Gattie

Brown

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Earth is a chemical battery where, over evolutionary time with a trickle-charge of photosynthesis using solar energy, billions of tons of living biomass were stored in forests and other ecosystems and in vast reserves of fossil fuels. In just the last few hundred years, humans extracted exploitable energy from these living and fossilized biomass fuels to build the modern industrial-technological-informational economy, to grow our population to more than 7 billion, and to transform the biogeochemical cycles and biodiversity of the earth. This rapid discharge of the earth's store of organic energy fuels the human domination of the biosphere, including conversion of natural habitats to agricultural fields and the resulting loss of native species, emission of carbon dioxide and the resulting climate and sea level change, and use of supplemental nuclear, hydro, wind, and solar energy sources. The laws of thermodynamics governing the trickle-charge and rapid discharge of the earth's battery are universal and absolute; the earth is only temporarily poised a quantifiable distance from the thermodynamic equilibrium of outer space. Although this distance from equilibrium is comprised of all energy types, most critical for humans is the store of living biomass. With the rapid depletion of this chemical energy, the earth is shifting back toward the inhospitable equilibrium of outer space with fundamental ramifications for the biosphere and humanity. Because there is no substitute or replacement energy for living biomass, the remaining distance from equilibrium that will be required to support human life is unknown.energy | evolutionary biology | earth-space battery | sustainability | thermodynamics As depicted in Fig. 1, earth is a battery of stored chemical energy where the planet is the cathode (stored organic chemical energy) and space is the anode (equilibrium). We call this the earth-space battery. It took hundreds of millions of years for photosynthetic plants to trickle-charge the battery, gradually converting diffuse low-quality solar energy to high-quality chemical energy stored temporarily in the form of living biomass and more lastingly in the form of fossil fuels: oil, gas, and coal. In just the last few centuries-an evolutionary blink of an eye-human energy use to fuel the rise of civilization and the modern industrial-technological-informational society has discharged the earth-space battery, inducing flow between the terminals, degrading the high quality biomass energy to do the work of transforming the earth for human benefit, and radiating the resulting low-quality heat energy to deep space.The laws of thermodynamics dictate that the difference in rate and timescale between the slow trickle-charge and rapid depletion is unsustainable. The current massive discharge is rapidly driving the earth from a biosphere teeming with life and supporting a highly developed human civilization toward a barren moonscape. Consider as an example that the energy state of the earth is akin to the energy state of a house powere...

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Geographical Aspects of Biological Productivity

Cited by 59 publications

References 0 publications

Geographical dimensions of terrestrial net and gross primary productivity

Geographical dimensions of terrestrial net and gross primary productivity

Global distribution of natural freshwater wetlands and rice paddies, their net primary productivity, seasonality and possible methane emissions

Human domination of the biosphere: Rapid discharge of the earth-space battery foretells the future of humankind

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