Biomass

Discussion of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how these properties are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment

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BDBEAGLE
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Biomass

Post by BDBEAGLE » Mon Sep 04, 2006 3:08 am

I have what I thought should be a simple question; but I can't find any definitive answers to. Is there more biomass on the planet today than there was 100 years ago? A thousand years ago? Put another way, is the planet more or less organic than it was in the past?
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Linn
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Post by Linn » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:23 am

I really dont know,if there is an official count or not but it would be my guess tht due to global warming, (some claim), pollution, decreasing habitat etc, that there may be a decrease. Of course bacteria seem to be increasing :?
"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these".

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Beetle
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Post by Beetle » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:33 am

Hmmmmm, that is quite an interesting question. We can se by looking into far past that biomass is accumulating cause primeval Earth was inorganic. But the question is "Is Earth reached it`s maximum biomass capacity?". Are we now just recycling existing biomass? I think it would be difficult to determine that in global scale. We could say that cause of major global eutophication of everything biomass is incrising but on the other hand some parts of the world surfice are becoming unhospitable for life on larger scale. Though I would say that global eutorphiation has greater influence so I think that biomass is still increasing.
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vodka
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Post by vodka » Wed Sep 06, 2006 8:42 am

'matter can neither be created nor be destroyed...'

lot of inorganics have been converted to organics...so organic content increases comparatively..
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Post by vodka » Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:38 am

oops, what i meant what organic content degrades to inorganic content!, so inorganic content is more
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bugman
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biomass

Post by bugman » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:31 pm

biomass is a funtion of cycling inorganic materials through organic systems-since the planet as a whole is generally considered a closed system biomass can fluxuate, but remains in a fairly steady state based on the fact that the material on the earth cannot be exported or imported (unless the big comet hits). Some material gets buried 9think coal) as new material forms-but it is a generally even exchange. Now if you consider the earth as a whole since the beginning of the planets formation, biomass did increase over the long haul as life expanded.
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Linn
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Post by Linn » Wed Sep 27, 2006 2:22 am

Sorry, I was thinking about the other biomass definition :? :oops:
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