AND And V and I'm about b o l o h To A h e m l And
Everywhere on Earth, wherever you turn your gaze, life reigns. Everywhere you can find some plants and animals. And how many more organisms are there that are invisible to the naked eye! The simplest single-celled animals and microscopic algae, numerous fungi, bacteria, viruses...
Nowadays, up to 500 thousand species of plants and about 1.5 million species of animals are known. But not all species have yet been discovered and described. And if you imagine how many individuals each species has!.. Try to count the number of fir trees in the taiga, or dandelions in a meadow, or ears of wheat in one field... How many ants live in one anthill, how many cyclops or daphnia crustaceans in one puddle, how many squirrels are there in the forest, how many pikes, perches or roaches are there in one lake?.. And truly fabulous numbers are obtained when trying to count microorganisms. 
So, in1 gram On average, forest soil contains:
bacteria -400,000,000,
mushrooms - 2,000,000,
algae - 100,000,
protozoa - 10,000.
Microbiologists from the University of Georgia believe that there are only 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 on Earth (5 nonillion) bacteria . This amounts to 70% of the mass of all life on the planet.
All this innumerable multitude of living beings is not located chaotically and randomly, but strictly naturally, in a certain order, according to the laws of life historically established on Earth. Here is what the American biologist K. Willie writes about this: “At first glance, it may seem that the world of living beings consists of an unimaginable variety of plants and animals, different from each other and each going their own way. However, a more detailed study shows that all organisms, both plant and animal, have the same basic life needs, they face the same problems: obtaining food as a source of energy, conquering living space, reproduction, etc. In the course of solving these problems, plants and animals formed a huge variety of different forms, each of which is adapted to life in given environmental conditions. Each form has adapted not only to the physical conditions of the environment - it has acquired resistance to fluctuations within certain limits of humidity, wind, lighting, temperature, gravity, etc., but also to the biotic environment - to all plants and animals living in the same zone.
Regularly distributed on Earth, the entire set of organisms forms the living shell of our planet - the biosphere. The credit for developing the concept of “biosphere” and clarifying its planetary role belongs to the Russian academician V.I. Vernadsky, although the term itself was used at the end of the last century. What is the biosphere and why is it given so much importance?
The surface parts of the Earth consist of three mineral, inorganic shells: the lithosphere - the hard rock shell of the Earth; hydrosphere - a liquid, non-continuous shell, including all seas, oceans and internal waters - the World Ocean; atmosphere is a gaseous shell.
The entire hydrosphere, the upper parts of the lithosphere and the lower layers of the atmosphere are inhabited by animals and plants. The modern biosphere was formed in the process of the emergence and further historical development of living matter. Since the origin of life on Earth, according to various estimates, from 1.5-2.5 to 4.2 billion years have passed. V.I. Vernadsky came to the conclusion that during this time all the outer layers of the earth’s crust were processed by the vital activity of organisms by 99 percent. Consequently, the Earth as we perceive it, on which we live, is to a large extent a product of the activity of organisms.
Life, having arisen on Earth as a result of the natural development of matter, over the course of many millions of years of its existence in the form of various organisms, changed the appearance of our planet.
All organisms in the biosphere collectively form biomass, or “living matter,” which has powerful energy that changes the earth’s crust and atmosphere. The total weight of plant mass is about 10,000 billion, and animal mass is about 10 billion tons, which is approximately 0.01 percent of the weight of the entire biosphere with its solid, liquid and gaseous habitats. It is estimated that the biomass of all living beings inhabiting the Earth, approximately a billion years after the appearance of life, should have been many times greater than the mass of our planet. But that did not happen.
Why doesn't biomass accumulate significantly? Why is it held at a certain level? After all, biomass as living matter tends to continuous development, improvement and constant accumulation in the process of this development, in the process of reproduction and growth of living beings.
But this does not happen because each element from which the body of an organism is built is taken from the environment, and then through a number of other organisms it again returns to the surrounding, inorganic environment, from which it again enters into the composition of living matter, biomass. Consequently, every element that makes up living matter is used by it many times.
However, this should not be understood in an absolute sense. On the one hand, some of the elements leave the cycle of substances, since on Earth the accumulation of organic compounds in the form of deposits of coal, oil, peat, oil shale, etc. occurs on Earth. On the other hand, man, through his activities, can ensure a more intensive process of biomass accumulation, which is manifested in a continuous increase in crop yields and the productivity of domestic animals.
But all this does not at all reject the general rule. Biomass on Earth still does not accumulate significantly, but is constantly maintained at some certain level, although this level is not absolute and constant. This happens because biomass is continuously destroyed and recreated from the same building material; a continuous circulation of substances takes place within its boundaries. V.I. Vernadsky writes: “Life captures a significant part of the atoms that make up the matter of the earth’s surface. Under its influence, these atoms are in continuous intense motion. From them millions of diverse compounds are created all the time. And this process lasts without interruption for tens of millions of years, from the most ancient Archeozoic eras to our time. There is no chemical force on the earth's surface more constantly active, and therefore more powerful in its ultimate effects, than living organisms taken as a whole. 
This cycle, which occurs as a result of the vital activity of organisms, is called the biological cycle of substances. It took on a modern character with the advent of green plants that carry out the process of photosynthesis. Since that time, the conditions for the evolution of living matter on Earth have acquired a completely different character.
The course of the circulation of substances can be briefly considered using the example of carbon, the atoms of which are part of a complex protein molecule. It is with the protein molecule that life and metabolism are connected.
Each hectare of Earth contains up to 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). As calculations have shown, crops of, for example, sugar cane absorb up to 8 tons of carbon per hectare, which is used to build the body of these plants. As a result, green plants were used for about several hundred years
Would be the entire carbon reserve. But this does not happen, because organisms, in the process of respiration, release significant amounts of carbon dioxide. And even more carbon is released by putrefactive bacteria and fungi, destroying carbon compounds contained in the dead bodies of animals and plants. Some part of the carbon still leaves the sphere of “circulation”, being deposited in the form of deposits of oil, coal, peat, etc., into which dead plants and animals are transformed. But this loss of carbon is compensated by the destruction of rock carbonates, and in modern conditions also by the combustion of huge amounts of extracted fuel. As a result, carbon seems to constantly flow from the atmosphere through green plants, animals, and microorganisms back into the atmosphere. Thus, the total carbon reserves in the biosphere remain approximately constant. It can be assumed with a high degree of certainty that almost every carbon atom in the biosphere, since the emergence of life on Earth, has repeatedly been part of living matter, passed into atmospheric carbon dioxide and again returned to the composition of living matter, biomass.
In modern conditions, carbon in the process of biological cycle of substances goes through the following stages: 1) green plants, creators of organic matter, absorb carbon from the atmosphere and introduce it into the composition of their bodies; 2) animals, or consumers, eating plants, build the carbon compounds of their body from their carbon compounds; 3) bacteria, as well as some other organisms, or decomposers, destroy the organic matter of dead plants and animals and release carbon, which again goes into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
Another important component of amino acids and proteins in biomass is nitrogen. The source of nitrogen on Earth is nitrates, which are absorbed by plants from soil and water. Animals, eating plants, synthesize their protoplasm from plant amino acids and proteins. Putrefactive bacteria convert nitrogen compounds from the dead bodies of these organisms into ammonia. Nitrifying bacteria then convert the ammonia into nitrites and nitrates. Some of the nitrogen is returned to the atmosphere by denitrifying bacteria. But on Earth, in the process of the evolution of living matter, organisms appeared capable of binding free nitrogen and converting it into organic compounds. These are some blue-green algae, soil algae, as well as nodule bacteria along with legume root cells. When these organisms die, the nitrogen in their body is converted into nitric acid salts by nitrifying bacteria.
A similar cycle is carried out by water, phosphorus, and many other substances that are part of living matter and the mineral shells of the biosphere. As a result, all elements, with rare exceptions, are drawn into the most grandiose in terms of their scale continuously moving flow - the biological cycle of substances. . “The cessation of life would inevitably be associated with the cessation of chemical changes, if not of the entire earth’s crust, then at least of its surface—the face of the Earth, the biosphere,” writes academician V. I. Vernadsky.
This idea of Vernadsky is especially clearly confirmed by the role that oxygen, a product of plant photosynthesis, plays in the process of its cycle. Almost all the oxygen in the earth's atmosphere originated and is maintained at a certain level by the activity of green plants. It is consumed in large quantities by organisms during respiration. But, in addition, possessing enormous chemical activity, oxygen continuously combines with almost all other elements.
If green plants did not produce such huge amounts of oxygen, it would completely disappear from the atmosphere in about 2000 years. The entire appearance of the Earth would be transformed, almost all organisms would disappear, all oxidative processes in the physical part of the biosphere would cease... The Earth would become a lifeless planet. It is the presence of free oxygen in the planet’s atmosphere that indicates that there is life, living matter, and a biosphere on it. And since there is a biosphere, almost all elements of the environment are drawn into a grandiose, endless cycle of substances.
It is estimated that in modern times all the oxygen in the atmosphere is cycled through organisms (bound by respiration and released by photosynthesis) every 2,000 years, that all carbon dioxide in the atmosphere cycles in the opposite direction every 300 years, and that all water on Earth decomposes and recreated through photosynthesis and respiration over 2,000,000 years. 
The doctrine of the biosphere is based on geochemical research, primarily the oxygen and carbon cycles studied by V.I. Vernadsky. He was the first to suggest that the oxygen contained in the modern atmosphere is formed as a result of the photosynthetic activity of plants.
The outstanding naturalist V.I. Vernadsky had an amazing ability to cover almost all areas of modern natural science with his sharp and brilliant thought. In his thoughts and concepts, he was far ahead of his contemporary level of knowledge and foresaw their development decades in advance. Back in 1922, Vernadsky wrote about man's imminent mastery of enormous reserves of nuclear energy, and at the end of the 30s he predicted the coming era of man's entry into space. He stood at the origins of many sciences about the Earth - genetic mineralogy, geochemistry, biogeochemistry, radiogeology and created the doctrine of the Earth's biosphere, which became the pinnacle of his creativity.
The scientific research of V.I. Vernadsky was constantly associated with enormous organizational work. He was the initiator of the creation of the Commission for the Study of the Natural Productive Forces of Russia, one of the organizers of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and its first president. On the initiative of Vernadsky, the Institute of Geography, the Institute of Mineralogy and Geochemistry named after M.V. Lomonosov, the Radium, Ceramic and Optical Institutes, the Biogeochemical Laboratory, which has now become the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry named after V.I. Vernadsky, and the Study Commission were created in the system of the USSR Academy of Sciences. permafrost, later transformed into the V. A. Obruchev Institute of Permafrost Science, the Commission on the History of Knowledge, now the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology, the Committee on Meteorites, the Commission on Isotopes, Uranium and many others. Finally, he came up with the idea of creating an International Commission to Determine the Geological Age of the Earth
FLOW OF ENERGY IN THE BIOSPHERE
The cycles of all substances are closed; the same atoms are used repeatedly in them. Therefore, no new substance is required to carry out the cycle. The law of conservation of matter, according to which matter never arises or disappears, is evident here. But the transformation of substances within the biogenic cycle requires energy. What kind of energy is used to carry out this grandiose process? 
The main source of energy necessary for life on Earth, and therefore for the implementation of the biological cycle of substances, is sunlight, i.e., the energy that arises in the depths of the Sun during nuclear reactions at a temperature of approximately 10,000,000 degrees. (The temperature at the surface of the Sun is much lower, only 6,000 degrees.) Up to 30 percent of the energy is dissipated in the atmosphere or reflected by clouds and the Earth's surface, up to 20 percent is absorbed in the upper layers of clouds, and approximately 50 percent reaches the land or ocean surface and is absorbed in the form of heat. Only a tiny amount of energy, only about 0.1 to 0.2 percent, is captured by green plants; It is this that ensures the entire biological cycle of substances on Earth.
Green plants accumulate the energy of the sun's rays and store it in their bodies. Animals, eating plants, exist due to the energy that entered their body along with food, with the eaten plants. Predators ultimately also exist due to the energy accumulated by green plants, because they feed on herbivores.
Thus, the energy of the Sun, originally used by green plants in the process of photosynthesis, is converted into the potential energy of the chemical bonds of those organic compounds from which the plant body itself is built. In the body of an animal that has eaten a plant, these organic compounds are oxidized, releasing the same amount of energy that was expended on the synthesis of organic matter by the plant. Part of this energy is used for the life of the animal, and part, according to the second law of thermodynamics, is converted into heat and dissipated in space.
Ultimately, the energy received from the Sun by a green plant is transferred from one organism to another. With each such transition, energy is transformed from one form (the life energy of a plant) to another (the life energy of an animal, microorganism, etc.). With each such transformation, the amount of useful energy decreases. Consequently, in contrast to the circulation of substances, which flows in a closed circle, energy moves from organism to organism in a certain direction. There is a one-way flow of energy, not a cycle.
It is not difficult to imagine that as soon as the Sun goes out, all the energy accumulated by the Earth will gradually, after a certain and relatively short period of time, turn into heat and dissipate in space. The circulation of substances in the biosphere will stop, all animals and plants will die. Quite a gloomy picture... The end of life on Earth...
However, we should not be confused by this conclusion. After all, the Sun will shine for several more billion years, i.e., at least as long as life already exists on Earth, which has developed from primitive lumps of living matter to modern man. Moreover, man himself appeared on Earth only about a million years ago. During this period, he went from a stone ax to the most complex electronic computers, penetrated into the depths of the atom and the Universe,
Any transition of energy from one form to another is accompanied by a decrease in the amount of useful energy. It has gone beyond the Earth and is successfully exploring outer space.
The appearance of man and such highly organized matter as his brain was and is of exceptional importance for the evolution of living mothers and the entire biosphere. Since its inception, humanity, as part of the biomass, has been completely dependent on the environment for a significant time. But as the brain and thinking develop, man conquers nature more and more, rises above it, subordinates it to his interests. Back in 1929, A.P. Pavlov, emphasizing the ever-increasing role of man in the development of the organic world on Earth, proposed calling the Quaternary period “anthropocene”, and then V.I. Vernadsky, believing that humanity is creating a new, intelligent shell of the Earth, or sphere mind, proposed the name “noosphere”.
Human activity significantly changes the cycle of substances in the biosphere. About 50 billion tons of coal were mined and burned; Billions of tons of iron and other metals, oil, and peat are mined. Man has mastered various forms of energy, including atomic energy. As a result, completely new chemical elements appeared on Earth and the opportunity arose to transform some elements into others, and a large amount of radioactive radiation entered the biosphere. Man has become a magnitude of cosmic order and with the power of his mind in the near future he will be able to master such forms of energy that we are not even aware of now.
In the age of scientific and technological progress, knowledge about life processes in general, occurring throughout the planet, acquires special importance. Space exploration has made it possible to view the Earth from the outside and study the spheres surrounding it. The increase in population on Earth requires the discovery of new food resources. Harmful waste from industry and transport raises the problem of protecting not only living organisms, but also the purity of water and air.
Download:
Preview:
Biosphere and properties of biomass of planet Earth
In the age of scientific and technological progress, knowledge about life processes in general, occurring throughout the planet, acquires special importance. Space exploration has made it possible to view the Earth from the outside and study the spheres surrounding it. The increase in population on Earth requires the discovery of new food resources. Harmful waste from industry and transport raises the problem of protecting not only living organisms, but also the purity of water and air. In this regard, it is necessary to understand the role of living nature in the cycle of substances on Earth. The main thing is to determine the significance of living nature as a carrier and transformer of energy. It is necessary to know the structure of life on the entire planet and the basis for its sustainability. When studying plants, animals, humans and general biology in previous classes, you became acquainted with living nature at all levels of its organization: molecular, cellular, organismal, population-species and biogeocenotic. When studying this topic, you will become acquainted with the highest level of organization of life on our planet - the biosphere.
Biosphere and its boundaries.The study of the diversity of forms of the organic world and the patterns of its development will not be complete without understanding the place and role of living organisms in general on the entire planet Earth.The totality of all living organisms constitutes the living matter, or biomass, of the planet.
The life activity of organisms has changed and is changing the earth's crust and atmosphere. Over billions of years, the plant part of the biomass has cleared the atmosphere of carbon dioxide, enriched it with oxygen and led to the deposition of carbon in limestone, coal, and oil. In the process of evolution, a special shell, or sphere, inhabited by living organisms was formed on Earth. This earthly shell, or region of life, is called biosphere (Greek “bios” - life, “sphere” - ball). This name was first given by J.B. Lamarck. The doctrine of the biosphere was created by Academician V.I. Vernadsky (1863 - 1945), the founder of a new science - biogeochemistry, which connects the chemistry of the Earth with the chemistry of life and established the role of living matter in the transformation of the earth's surface.
There are several geospheres on planet Earth.
Rice. 42. Lithosphere (Greek “lithos” - stone) - the outer hard shell of the globe. It consists of two layers: the upper one - sedimentary rocks with granite and the lower one - basalt. The layers are unevenly spaced. Granite comes to the surface in places.
All oceans, seas (their totality is called the World Ocean), constituting 70.8% of the Earth’s surface, as well as lakes and rivers form hydrosphere . The depth of the ocean is on average 3.8 km, in some depressions – up to 11.034 km.
Extends up to 100 km above the surface of the lithosphere and hydrosphere atmosphere . The lower layer of the atmosphere with an average height of 15 km is called troposphere (Greek “trope” - change). The troposphere includes water vapor suspended in the air, moving when the Earth's surface is unevenly heated. Above the troposphere there are stratosphere (Latin “stratum” - layer) up to 100 km high. Northern lights appear at its border. In the stratosphere at an altitude of 15–35 km, free oxygen under the influence of solar radiation is converted into ozone (O 2 → O 3 ), which forms a screen and reflects cosmic radiation harmful to living organisms and partly the ultraviolet rays of the Sun.
Among all the spheres of the Earth, it occupies a special placebiosphere - geological shell inhabited by living organisms. It covers the Earth's surface, the upper part of the lithosphere, the entire hydrosphere, and the lower part of the atmosphere, the troposphere. The biosphere manifests the activity of living matter: plants, animals, microorganisms and humanity. The boundaries of the biosphere are determined by the presence of conditions necessary for the life of various organisms. The upper limit of biosphere life is limited by the intense concentration of ultraviolet rays; lower high temperature of the earth's interior (over 100 ° C). Only lower organisms—bacteria—reach its extreme limits. Spores of bacteria and fungi fly to a height of 20 km, and anaerobic bacteria are found in the earth's crust at a depth of over 3 km, in the waters of oil fields.
Rice. 43.
The highest concentration of living mass in the biosphere is observed at the surface of land and ocean, at the boundaries of contact between the lithosphere and the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the lithosphere. These places have the most favorable living conditions - temperature, humidity, oxygen content and chemical elements important for the nutrition of organisms. Towards the upper layers of the atmosphere, deep into the ocean and the depths of the lithosphere, the concentration of life decreases. The accumulation of biomass is determined by the vital activity of green plants.
The mass of living matter is insignificant compared to the mass of the earth's crust. Nevertheless, many changes in the earth's crust are caused by the vital activity of biomass.
Properties of living matter.The organisms that make up biomass have a tremendous ability to reproduce—multiply and spread throughout the planet.
The energy of biomass is especially evident in reproduction. “Living matter - a collection of organisms - like a mass of gas, spreads over the earth’s surface and exerts a certain pressure in the environment, bypasses obstacles that impede its progress or takes possession of them, covering them. This movement is achieved byreproduction of organisms... Already K. Linnaeus clearly saw that this property should be considered fundamental for living things, that impassable line that separates it from dead, inert matter” (Vernadsky).
In some years, the reproduction of individual species flares up with such force that it leads to the invasion of huge masses of insects (locusts), rodents and other animals. The occupation of space by different organisms is determined by the intensity of their reproduction.
Small organisms, especially in aquatic environments, reproduce and spread very quickly. The number of some bacteria doubles every 22 minutes. Arthropods, which make up the bulk of land animals, multiply rapidly.
The reproduction and rapid spread of organisms, especially unicellular ones, determined the “everywhereness” (Vernadsky) of life - to the extreme limits of the biosphere.
The density of life depends on the size of the organisms and the area required for their life. For duckweed and chlorella algae, it is determined by an area equal to their size. An elephant requires an area of 30 km 2 , bee for collecting honey – 200 m 2 , herbaceous plants - an average of 30 cm 2 . The pressure of life creates a struggle among organisms for space, food, air, and water.
The peculiarity of every living organism and all biomass is the constant exchange of substances with the environment.
Various elements enter a living organism, accumulate in it and leave it, partly during life and partly after death. These are mainly oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, sodium, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, silicon and others - more than 20 elements. During the process of nutrition, energy is accumulated and transferred to other organisms along the food chain and through reproduction. Of particular importance in the biosphere is the release of oxygen and absorption of carbon dioxide during photosynthesis of green plants.
In the biosphere, plant mass is many times greater than animal mass. In general, biomass makes up only about 0.01% of the mass of the entire biosphere, but its role on the planet is enormous.
On average, the biomass on Earth, according to modern data, is approximately 2.423 × 1012 tons, with the mass of green land plants being 97%, animals and microorganisms being 3%.
Biomass is a term used to characterize any organic matter created through photosynthesis. This definition includes terrestrial and aquatic vegetation and shrubs, as well as aquatic plants and microorganisms.
Peculiarities
Biomass is the remains of animal activity (manure), industrial and agricultural waste. This product is of industrial importance and is in demand in the energy sector. Biomass is a natural product whose carbon content is so high that it can be used as an alternative fuel.
Compound
Biomass is a mixture of green plants, microorganisms, and animals. In order to restore it, a short period of time is required. Biomass of living organisms is the only source of energy that can release carbon dioxide during processing. Its main part is concentrated in forests. On land, it includes green shrubs and trees, and their volume is estimated at about 2,400 billion tons. In the oceans, the biomass of organisms is formed much faster; here it is represented by microorganisms and animals.
Currently, such a concept as an increase in the number of green plants is being considered. Woody vegetation accounts for approximately two percent. The majority (about seventy percent) of the total composition is made up of arable land, green meadows, and small vegetation.
About fifteen percent of the total biomass comes from marine phytoplankton. Due to the fact that the process of its division occurs in a short period of time, we can talk about a significant turnover of vegetation in the world's oceans. Scientists cite interesting facts according to which three days are enough to completely renew the green part of the ocean.
On land, this process takes about fifty years. Every year, the process of photosynthesis occurs, thanks to which about 150 billion tons of dry organic product are obtained. The total biomass generated in the world's oceans, despite its insignificant indicators, is comparable to the production generated on land.
The insignificance of the weight of plants in the world's oceans can be explained by the fact that they are eaten by animals and microorganisms in a short period of time, but the vegetation here is completely restored quite quickly.
Subtropical and tropical forests are considered the most productive in the continental part of the earth's biosphere. Ocean biomass is mainly represented by reefs and estuaries.
Among the bioenergy technologies currently used, we highlight: pyrolysis, gasification, fermentation, anaerobic fermentation, various types of fuel combustion.
Renewal of biomass
Recently, in many European countries, various experiments have been carried out related to the cultivation of energy forests, from which biomass is obtained. The meaning of the word is especially relevant these days, when close attention is paid to environmental issues. The process of obtaining biomass, as well as industrial processing of household solid waste, wood pulp, and agricultural boilers, is accompanied by the release of steam that drives the turbine. From an environmental point of view, it is absolutely safe for the environment.
Thanks to this, rotation of the generator rotor is observed, capable of generating electrical energy. Gradually, ash accumulates, reducing the efficiency of power generation, so it is periodically removed from the reaction mixture.
Fast-growing trees are grown on huge experimental plantations: acacias, poplars, eucalyptus. About twenty plant species have been tested.
Combined plantations, in which, in addition to trees, other crops are grown, were considered an interesting option. For example, barley is planted between rows of poplars. The duration of rotation of the created energy forest is six to seven years.
Biomass processing
Let's continue the conversation about what biomass is. The definition of this term has been given by different scientists, but they are all convinced that green plants are a promising option for obtaining alternative fuel.
First of all, it should be noted that the main product of gasification is a hydrocarbon - methane. It can be used as a feedstock in the chemical industry and also as an efficient fuel.
Pyrolysis
Rapid pyrolysis (thermal decomposition of substances) produces bio-oil, which is a flammable fuel. The thermal energy released in this case is used to chemically convert green biomass into synthetic oil. It is much easier to transport and store than solid materials. Next, the bio-oil is burned to produce electrical energy. By pyrolysis, it is possible to convert biomass into phenolic oil, used for the production of wood glue, insulating foam, and injection molding plastics.
Anaerobic fermentation
This process is carried out thanks to anaerobic bacteria. Microorganisms live in places where there is no access to oxygen. They consume organic matter, producing hydrogen and methane during the reaction. By feeding manure and wastewater into special digesters, introducing anaerobic microorganisms into them, the resulting gas can be used as a fuel source.
Bacteria are capable of decomposing organic substances contained in landfills and food waste, producing methane. To extract gas and use it as fuel, special installations can be used.
Conclusion
Biofuels are not only an excellent source of energy, but also a way to extract valuable chemicals. Thus, during the chemical processing of methane, a variety of organic compounds can be obtained: methanol, ethanol, acetaldehyde, acetic acid, and polymeric materials. For example, ethanol is a valuable substance used in various industries.
Biologists conducted a quantitative analysis of the global distribution of biomass on Earth, which totaled 550 billion tons of carbon. It turned out that more than 80 percent of this number comes from plants, the total biomass of terrestrial organisms is about two orders of magnitude greater than that of marine organisms, and the share of humans is about 0.01 percent, scientists write in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Quantitative data on the total biomass of all living organisms on Earth and its distribution between individual species is important information for modern biology and ecology: it can be used to study the general dynamics and development of the entire biosphere, its response to the climatic processes occurring on the planet. Both the spatial distribution of biomass (geographically, by depth and species habitats) and its distribution among different species of living organisms can serve as an important indicator in assessing the transport pathways of carbon and other elements, as well as ecological interactions or food chains. However, to date, quantitative estimates of biomass distribution have been made either for individual taxa or within some ecosystems, and reliable estimates of the entire biosphere have not yet been made.
To obtain such data, a group of scientists from Israel and the United States, led by Ron Milo from the Weizmann Institute, conducted a kind of census of all animal species, assessing their biomass and geographic distribution. Scientists collected all data from several hundred current scientific articles, and then processed this information using a developed integration scheme taking into account the geographical distribution of species. As a quantitative indicator of the biomass attributable to different species, scientists used information about the mass of carbon that falls on various taxa (that is, the mass of water, for example, was not taken into account). Now all the results obtained, as well as the programs used for the analysis, are publicly available and can be found on github.
Schematic diagram for obtaining data on the global distribution of biomass based on available incomplete data, taking into account the geographical distribution of environmental parameters
Y. M. Bar-On et al./ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018
Analysis of the data obtained showed that the total biomass of all living organisms on Earth is approximately 550 billion tons of carbon. At the same time, the vast majority of it is contained by representatives of the plant kingdom: 450 gigatons of carbon is more than 80 percent of the total. Bacteria come in second place: approximately 70 billion tons of carbon, while animals (2 billion tons) are also second to fungi (12 billion tons), archaea (7 billion tons) and protozoa (4 billion tons). Among animals, arthropods have the largest biomass (1 billion tons), and, for example, the total biomass of the species Homo sapiens is 0.06 billion tons of carbon - that's about 0.01 percent of all biomass on Earth.
Distribution of biomass between representatives of different kingdoms (left) and within the animal kingdom (right)
Y. M. Bar-On et al./ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018
Distribution of biomass between different habitats: total for all living organisms (left) and separately for representatives of different kingdoms (right)
Y. M. Bar-On et al./ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018
Interestingly, the maximum proportion of representatives of the main kingdoms in terms of biomass lives in different habitats. Thus, most plants are terrestrial species. The maximum biomass of animals lives in the seas and oceans, and, for example, most of the bacteria and archaea are found deep underground. Moreover, the total biomass of terrestrial organisms is approximately two orders of magnitude greater than that of marine organisms, which, according to the study authors, account for only 6 billion tons of carbon.
Scientists note that due to the lack of accurate information, the data obtained are calculated with very large uncertainties. Thus, we can confidently estimate only the biomass of plants on Earth, but for bacteria and archaea the data obtained may differ from the actual ones by a factor of 10. However, the uncertainty in data on the total biomass of all living organisms on Earth does not exceed 70 percent.
According to the authors of the work, their results are based on data from current scientific research, and therefore can be used for modern environmental and biological assessments, even despite the rather large error. Scientists also note that when analyzing the data, they were able to identify those geographic areas for which there is currently very little data and additional research is needed. The researchers hope that in the future, refined data will make it possible not only to conduct similar analyzes with sufficient geographic resolution, but also to monitor the dynamics of changes in such distributions over time.
More recently, scientists have distributed biomass into smaller systems by looking at large forests across the Earth. It turned out that more than half of the total forest biomass comes from just one percent of the largest trees, most of which exceed 60 centimeters in diameter. At the same time, for some animal species in certain geographical areas it is already possible to conduct dynamic analysis. For example, last year European ecologists studied the biomass of flying insects in German national parks and found that over 27 years it had decreased by 76 percent.
Alexander Dubov
