A Measurable Planetary Boundary for the Biosphere
@article{Running2012AMP, title={A Measurable Planetary Boundary for the Biosphere}, author={Steven W. Running}, journal={Science}, year={2012}, volume={337}, pages={1458 - 1459} }
Terrestrial net primary (plant) production provides a measurable boundary for human consumption of Earth's biological resources. Forty years ago, Meadows et al. published a landmark first analysis of global limits to human activity (1). Based on a primitive computer model of the Earth system, they concluded that by the early decades of the 21st century, tangible limits to key global resources would begin to emerge. A reanalysis of the original results in 2008 found that the original global…
233 Citations
Terrestrial ecosystem loss and biosphere collapse
- Environmental Science
- 2014
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a measurable terrestrial ecosystem boundary to answer the question: what extent of landscapes, bioregions, continents, and the global Earth System…
Constraints on natural global atmospheric CO2 fluxes from 1860 to 2010 using a simplified explicit forward model
- Environmental Science, GeographyScientific reports
- 2015
The modeling indicates that the global carbon isotope fractionation has not changed significantly during the last 150 years, and increased uptake of carbon by the ocean and increasing temperatures does not yet appear to have resulted in increasing the global gross ocean-to-atmosphere carbon fluxes.
An ecologically-based approach to terrestrial primary production
- Environmental Science
- 2018
1 Terrestrial gross primary production (GPP) is both the largest and most uncertain flux within the 2 global carbon cycle. Much of this uncertainty results from the fact that GPP is onerous to…
Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet
- Environmental ScienceScience
- 2015
An updated and extended analysis of the planetary boundary (PB) framework and identifies levels of anthropogenic perturbations below which the risk of destabilization of the Earth system (ES) is likely to remain low—a “safe operating space” for global societal development.
Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production: From a Planet to a Pixel
- Environmental ScienceSustainability
- 2021
Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) is a substantial improvement upon 20th century attempts at developing an ecological footprint indicator because of its measurability in relation…
Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production: Patterns, Trends, and Planetary Boundaries
- Environmental Science
- 2014
Economic and population growth result in increasing use of biophysical resources, including land and biomass. Human activities influence the biological productivity of land, altering material and…
No Proportional Increase of Terrestrial Gross Carbon Sequestration From the Greening Earth
- Environmental ScienceJournal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences
- 2019
Terrestrial vegetation, as the key component of the biosphere, has a greening trend since the beginning of this century. However, how this substantial greening translated to global gross carbon…
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 14 REFERENCES
Global Bioenergy Capacity as Constrained by Observed Biospheric Productivity Rates
- Environmental Science
- 2012
Virtually all global energy forecasts include an expectation that bioenergy will be a substantial future energy source. However, the scale of this potential resource remains poorly understood because…
Quantifying and mapping the human appropriation of net primary production in earth's terrestrial ecosystems
- Environmental ScienceProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 2007
A comprehensive assessment of global HANPP based on vegetation modeling, agricultural and forestry statistics, and geographical information systems data on land use, land cover, and soil degradation that localizes human impact on ecosystems suggests large-scale schemes to substitute biomass for fossil fuels should be viewed cautiously.
HUMAN APPROPRIATION OF THE PRODUCTS OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS
- Environmental Science
- 1986
The figures reflect the current patterns of exploitation distribution and consumption of a much larger population; there must be limits to growth.
Climate-Driven Increases in Global Terrestrial Net Primary Production from 1982 to 1999
- Environmental ScienceScience
- 2003
It is indicated that global changes in climate have eased several critical climatic constraints to plant growth, such that net primary production increased 6% (3.4 petagrams of carbon over 18 years) globally.
Human Domination of Earth's Ecosystems
- Environmental Science
- 1997
Human alteration of Earth is substantial and growing. Between one-third and one-half of the land surface has been transformed by human action; the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has…
Drought-Induced Reduction in Global Terrestrial Net Primary Production from 2000 Through 2009
- Environmental ScienceScience
- 2010
Satellite data used to estimate global terrestrial NPP over the past decade found that the earlier trend has been reversed and that NPP has been decreasing, and combined with climate change data suggests that large-scale droughts are responsible for the decline.
Global threats to human water security and river biodiversity
- Environmental ScienceNature
- 2010
The first worldwide synthesis to jointly consider human and biodiversity perspectives on water security using a spatial framework that quantifies multiple stressors and accounts for downstream impacts is presented.
Solutions for a cultivated planet
- EconomicsNature
- 2011
It is shown that tremendous progress could be made by halting agricultural expansion, closing ‘yield gaps’ on underperforming lands, increasing cropping efficiency, shifting diets and reducing waste, which could double food production while greatly reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture.
Beneficial Biofuels—The Food, Energy, and Environment Trilemma
- Medicine, EconomicsScience
- 2009
Exploiting multiple feedstocks, under new policies and accounting rules, to balance biofuel production, food security, and greenhouse-gas reduction and to accept the undesirable impacts of biofuels done wrong.