A new study maps the planetary boundary of “functional biosphere integrity” in spatial detail and over centuries.
A new study maps the planetary boundary of “functional biosphere integrity” in spatial detail and over centuries. It finds that 60 percent of global land areas are now already outside the locally defined safe zone, and 38 percent are even in the high-risk zone. The study was led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) together with BOKU University in Vienna and published in the renowned journal One Earth.
Functional biosphere integrity refers to the plant world’s ability to co-regulate the state of the Earth system. This requires that the plant world is able to acquire enough energy through photosynthesis to maintain the material flows of carbon, water and nitrogen that support the ecosystems and their many networked processes, despite today’s massive human interference. Together with biodiversity loss and climate change, functional integrity forms the core of the Planetary Boundaries analytical framework for a safe operating space for humanity.
“There is an enormous need for civilisation to utilise the biosphere – for food, raw materials and, in future, also for climate protection,” says Fabian Stenzel, lead author of the study and member of the PIK research group Terrestrial Safe Operating Space. “After all, human demand for biomass continues to grow – and on top of that, the cultivation of fast-growing grasses or trees for producing bioenergy with carbon capture and storage is considered by many to be an important supporting strategy for stabilising climate. It is therefore becoming even more important to quantify the strain we’re already putting on the biosphere – in a regionally differentiated manner and over time – to identify overloads. Our research is paving the way for this.”
Read More: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)
Photo Credit: SimonAlpha via Pixabay
