biomass

Examples of biomass in the following topics:

• Abiotic Factors Influencing Plant Growth

  • This means that a large percentage of plant biomass which exists underground is not included in this measurement.
  • Very productive biomes have a high level of aboveground biomass.
  • Annual biomass production is directly related to the abiotic components of the environment.
  • Conversely, dry and cold environments have lower photosynthetic rates and, therefore, less biomass.
  • However, warm and wet climates have the greatest amount of annual biomass production.

• Ecological Pyramids

  • Ecological pyramids, which can be inverted or upright, depict biomass, energy, and the number of organisms in each trophic level.
  • Another way to visualize ecosystem structure is with pyramids of biomass.
  • The plants (primary producers) of the Silver Springs ecosystem make up a large percentage of the biomass found there.
  • However, the phytoplankton in the English Channel example make up less biomass than the primary consumers, the zooplankton.
  • Ecological pyramids depict the (a) biomass, (b) number of organisms, and (c) energy in each trophic level.

• Productivity within Trophic Levels

  • Productivity, measured by gross and net primary productivity, is defined as the amount of energy that is incorporated into a biomass.
  • Productivity within an ecosystem can be defined as the percentage of energy entering the ecosystem incorporated into biomass in a particular trophic level.
  • Biomass is the total mass in a unit area (at the time of measurement) of living or previously-living organisms within a trophic level.
  • Ecosystems have characteristic amounts of biomass at each trophic level.
  • For example, in the English Channel ecosystem, the primary producers account for a biomass of 4 g/m2 (grams per meter squared), while the primary consumers exhibit a biomass of 21 g/m2.

• Viral Roles in Ecosystems

  • Viruses are immensley important to the turnover of biomass in many ecosystems.
  • Microorganisms constitute more than 90% of the biomass in the sea.
  • It is estimated that viruses kill approximately 20% of this biomass each day, and that there are 15 times as many viruses in the oceans as there are bacteria and archaea.

• Hyperthermophiles from Submarine Volcanic Habitats

  • Hyperthermophiles live in dark regions of the oceans and use chemosynthesis to produce biomass from single carbon molecules.
  • Many microorganisms in dark regions of the oceans also use chemosynthesis to produce biomass from single carbon molecules.
  • In the rare sites at which hydrogen molecules (H2) are available, the energy available from the reaction between CO2 and H2 (leading to production of methane, CH4) can be large enough to drive the production of biomass.

• Establishing Why Your Claims Matter

  • Claim in context: This passage describes the current conversation about sustainable energy, uses pragmatic evidence to make a contribution to that conversation, and infers a larger conclusion about the future impact on energy usage: "The contemporary debate about renewable energy is still fragmented: solar energy has its loyal defenders, but so do wind energy, biomass energy, and hydropower.
  • Solar power is easier for individuals to adopt than wind energy or hydropower, and it doesn't have the negative effects on the environment that biomass energy can cause.
  • Claim in Context: This passage describes the current conversation about sustainable energy, uses pragmatic evidence to make a contribution to that conversation, and infers a larger conclusion about the future impact on energy usage: "The contemporary debate about renewable energy is still fragmented: solar energy has its loyal defenders, but so do wind energy, biomass energy, and hydropower.
  • Solar power is easier for individuals to adopt than wind energy or hydropower, and it doesn't have the negative effects on the environment that biomass energy can cause.
  • Solar power is easier for individuals to adopt than wind energy or hydropower, and it doesn't have the negative effects on the environment that biomass energy can cause.

• Units of Measurement for Microbes

  • This is especially important for biomass studies where the units of measurement are in units like picog, 10-12 of a kilogram (Kg), nanogram 10-9 of a Kg, and microgram, 10-6 of a Kg (a kilogram is a little over 2 pounds).
  • The measurement of an exponential microbial growth curve in batch culture was traditionally a part of the training of all microbiologists; The basic means requires bacterial enumeration (cell counting) by direct and individual (microscopic, flow cytometry), direct and bulk (biomass), indirect and individual (colony counting), or indirect and bulk (most probable number, turbidity, nutrient uptake) methods .

• World Energy Use

  • Potential renewable energy sources include: solar energy at 1600 EJ (444,000 TWh), wind power at 600 EJ (167,000 TWh), geothermal energy at 500 EJ (139,000 TWh), biomass at 250 EJ (70,000 TWh), hydropower at 50 EJ (14,000 TWh) and ocean energy at 1 EJ (280 TWh).
  • This includes energy from water, wind, the sun, and biomass.

• Alkyl Halide Occurrence

  • Furthermore, the ocean is also estimated to supply 10-20% of atmospheric methyl chloride, with other significant contributions coming from biomass burning, salt marshes and wood-rotting fungi.

• Boreal Forests and Arctic Tundra

  • The aboveground biomass of boreal forests is high because these slow-growing tree species are long-lived, accumulating standing biomass over time.
  • There is little species diversity, low net primary productivity, and low aboveground biomass.