Biomass vs. Abundance

micro

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12 years ago

Biomass vs. Abundance

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using biomass over abundance?

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bio_man

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Educator

12 years ago

Advantages of Biomass

Growing these crops in abundance has the effect of reducing the carbon dioxide levels available in the environment. This is achieved through the natural photosynthesis process of plants, which sees them take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the environment. This process helps in reducing global over warming considerably.

The Ozone Layer formation is a natural process required to provide a blanket of warmth to earth making it habitable. However, when carbon dioxide levels are excessive in the environment they create holes in the ozone layer, which subjects earth to the direct rays of the sun resulting in global over warming.

The process of biomass creation utilizes wastes, which places into use the substances that would otherwise be occupying landfills. The world is faced with the problem of getting rid of wastes permanently using appropriate methods. Using the wastes to generate biomass fuel provides a solution catering for part of the world's waste disposal needs.

Incineration is required to generate energy from this fuel sources. It has been argued that the incineration process produces carbon dioxide, which is eventually released into the environment. The flip side of the argument is that growing biomass crops in large numbers ensures that the levels of carbon dioxide available in the environment are kept in check since the plants utilize the gas in their growth process.

Biomass fuel has been presented as a cost effective means of acquiring energy as opposed to acquiring energy from oil supplies. Not every country is blessed with their own supply of oil and most countries source for oil from countries that produce it. With oil supplies being depleted, the commodity has also become increasingly costly.

Disadvantages of Biomass

On the contrary, biomass crops are seen as occupying land, which could have been utilized in growing food crops. Hunger is still an issue that plagues most countries in the world. When it comes to prioritizing between feeding the nation and producing biomass fuel, feeding the nation will always win. At the same time, the production of the fuel is still quite costly since the technology is relatively new. Improved methods of generating the fuel efficiently and at reduced costs are still being looked after.

The incineration required by the fuel in its transformation process to energy still raises a few questions. The process releases carbon dioxide into the environment and it cannot be left upon the biomass crops to rid the environment of the excessive gas levels. The incineration process also poses a source of air pollution since like with any other burning process it involves the release of smoke into the environment.

The product of the incineration process may also have detrimental effects to the environment. The energy source requires a lot of effort to be placed into it. However, a lot of resources are extended to the fuel's generation, which would otherwise have been saved using other fuel sources.

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micro Author

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12 years ago

Thanks for your reply. By biomass I meant as a measuring technique in ecology. You can estimate vegetation by either percentage coverage or by measuring their dry/wet weight (biomass). Didn't realized about its 'other' meaning :/

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bio_man

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Educator

12 years ago

What does biomass over abundance give you? Is this some sort of equation?

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micro Author

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12 years ago

By "vs." I meant in comparison with. I should have specified. As a measure of plant abundance you can either estimate the plants percentage coverage in a quadrat or else a more destructive way...cut the plants in the quadrat, dry them and weight them. Need to know what are the advantages of one over the other.

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bio_man

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Educator

12 years ago

I'm learning here, thanks for the explanation. But wouldn't the more destructive way destroy biodiversity in the affected area? Or is this done in a controlled environment where things are grown for the sake of studying these properties.

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micro Author

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12 years ago

Biomass is used if conservation is the least of concerns and if accurate results are required because yes it does kill the plants but sometimes for example it is required to compare root mass and therefore one needs to dry them up first due to the high water content.

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kellogla

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12 years ago

I believe I understand the question, so I hope this is helpful. In field research, the use of biomass versus abundance in a study depends on the question. Biomass could be by species or by system. For example, my past research used overall plant biomass of the system because I was only interested in the biota in terms of nutrient uptake overall as compared to other pools. I have also analyzed biomass based on functional groups based on physiological characteristics of the plants. Because I work in ecosystems and am interested in overall nutrient cycles, I do not generally do any species analysis, but have colleagues that do in the same plots. But biomass can be based on species in order to indicate abundance of species. Abundance based on cover, as you have pointed out, is a relatively non destructive way to determine abundance, but gives limited information (% cover). I have colleagues that use this to determine the difference of cover over long-term treatments rather than risk experimental issues based on sampling different plots each year. But cover will not give you much in the way of production values unless there are good numbers that correlate production to % cover in that ecosystem. Also, if you plan to do any biogeochemical analysis, you have to use biomass.

Hope that helps.

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bio_man

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