How to sustain the terrestrial biosphere in the Anthropocene? A thermodynamic Earth system perspective

TL;DR

This paper presents a holistic thermodynamic approach to understanding and sustaining the terrestrial biosphere amidst human impacts by analyzing free energy flows from photosynthesis and human activities.

Contribution

It introduces a thermodynamic Earth system perspective that distinguishes beneficial and detrimental human impacts based on free energy dynamics.

Findings

Enhanced human consumption reduces free energy available to the biosphere.

Technological innovations can increase free energy generation in the biosphere.

Global datasets support the thermodynamic framework for assessing biosphere sustainability.

Abstract

Many aspects of anthropogenic global change, such as land cover change, biodiversity loss and the intensification of agricultural production, threaten the natural biosphere. These aspects seem somewhat disjunct and specific so that it is hard to obtain a bigger picture of what these changes imply and to distinguish beneficial from detrimental human impacts. Here I describe a holistic approach that provides such a bigger picture and use it to understand how the terrestrial biosphere can be sustained in the presence of increased human activities. This approach focuses on the free energy generated by photosynthesis, energy needed to sustain either the dissipative metabolic activity of ecosystems or human activities, with the generation rate being set by the physical constraints of the environment. We can then distinguish two kinds of human impacts on the biosphere: detrimental effects caused by enhanced human consumption of this free energy, and empowering effects that allow for more photosynthetic activity and therefore more dissipative activity of the biosphere. I use examples from the terrestrial biosphere to illustrate this view as well as global datasets to show how this can be estimated. I then discuss how certain aspects of human-made technology can act to enhance the free energy generation of the terrestrial biosphere, which can then facilitate sustaining the biosphere in times at which human activity increasingly shapes the functioning of the Earth system.