A new study on functional biosphere integrity, or the plant kingdom\u2019s ability to co-regulate the state of the ecosystem, found that Earth is in trouble\u2014big trouble.<\/p>\n
Published in the renowned journal One Earth, <\/strong>the study \u2014 led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) together with BOKU University in Vienna \u2014 investigated whether the plant world is getting enough energy to perform the processes necessary to ensure planetary equilibrium.<\/p>\n The majority of the world\u2019s land is in a \u201cprecarious state,\u201d according to researchers who mapped the Earth\u2019s functional biosphere integrity. That refers to the plant\u2019s ability to photosynthesize to maintain the material flows of carbon, water, and nitrogen that support ecosystems.<\/p>\n Lead author Fabian Stenzel, member of the PIK research group, emphasized in a press release the enormous need \u201cwe have to utilize the biosphere \u2014 for food, raw materials and, in the future, also climate protection.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur demand for biomass continues to grow, so it\u2019s becoming even more critical to quantify the strain we\u2019re already putting on the biosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n Recent research is paving the way to understanding how we\u2019re impacting the planet so we can take the necessary and appropriate action steps.<\/p>\n How far have we crossed the planet\u2019s boundaries? <\/p>\n The study builds on the latest update from the Planetary Boundaries framework published in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cThe framework now squarely puts energy flows from photosynthesis in the world\u2019s vegetation at the centre of those processes that co-regulate planetary stability\u201d, explained Wolfgang Lucht, head of PIK\u2019s Earth System Analysis department and coordinator of the study.<\/p>\n \u201cThese energy flows drive all of life \u2013 but humans are now diverting a sizeable fraction of them to their own purposes, disturbing nature\u2019s dynamic processes.\u201d<\/p>\n Based on the global biosphere model LPJmL, which simulated water, carbon, and nitrogen flows on a daily basis at a resolution of half a degree of longitude\/latitude, the study provides a detailed inventory of each individual year since 1600, the press release continues.<\/p>\n According to this model, worrying developments began as early as 1600 in mid-latitudes.<\/p>\n The Earth is hurting <\/p>\n By 1900, the proportion of global land area where ecosystem changes went beyond the locally defined safe zone, or were even in the high-risk zone, was 37 and 14 percent, respectively, compared to today\u2019s 60 and 38 percent, according to the study.<\/p>\n In other words, industrialization was already taking a toll, and land use was already putting significant pressure on the Earth\u2019s system much earlier than the onset of climate warnings<\/a>. Right now, researchers can say that the biosphere boundary has been transgressed on almost all land surfaces, mainly due to agriculture.<\/p>\n Though the news might sound troubling, researchers describe the map as a \u201cbreakthrough from a scientific perspective\u201d because it reveals the relationship between the human need to extract resources<\/a> from the environment and the impact that\u2019s having. The map concerns itself with \u201cplanetary boundaries,\u201d and it seems they\u2019ve been crossed. <\/p>\n However, the information gleaned provides \u201can important impetus for further international climate<\/a> policy development. This is because it points to the link between biomass and natural carbon sinks, and how they can mitigate climate change. Governments must treat it as a single overarching issue: comprehensive biosphere protection together with strong climate action,\u201d concluded<\/a> Johan Rockstr\u00f6m, PIK Director and one of the co-authors of the study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new study on functional biosphere integrity, or the plant kingdom\u2019s ability to co-regulate the state of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[442,18,440,5785,5786,19,17,5787,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-5647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-functional-biosphere-integrity","12":"tag-global-land","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-land-in-risk","16":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}