Biomass

Abstract

The richness is overwhelming—more than 200,000 terrestrial macrophyta, many thousands of aquatic plants and marine algae linked in intriguing complexities of energy, water, and nutrient flows with their environment, with each other, and with a multitude of heterotrophs ranging from decay microorganisms to large ungulates to man—but the genesis is always the same, starting with gravity fusing hydrogen nuclei within the star holding us in orbit, with solar radiation bridging the distance of roughly 150 million km in little over 8 min. A bit less than one-half of the total radiant flux is finally absorbed by the earth’s surfaces, with about the same fraction of it being on the right wavelength to set into motion an amazing process within the chloroplasts of green plants which sustains all life on this planet.

The Sun appears to be poured down,

and in all directions indeed it is diffused,

yet it is not effused.

For this diffusion is extension.…

—Marcus Aurelius Meditations (trans. G. Long)

Heaven and Earth exist forever:

Mountains and rivers never change.

But herbs and trees in perpetual rotation

Are renovated and withered by the dew’s frosts.…

—Tao Qian Substance, Shadow and Spirit (trans. A. Waley)