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Photosynthesis

A Short Introduction

It seems that photosynthesis is at least 3,84 billion years old on the planet. The proofs are seen e g here1 and here2.

Global photosynthesis fix annually and spontaniously in a fully sundriven process 120 Gt of C from the atmosphere.  Photosynthesis is thereby the biggest mass balance process on the planet.

About 44 weight % of the completely dry biomass is carbon (C).

In many areas prolonged periods of low light intensity, local drought or too low temperatures are limiting the photosynthetic process on land.

About 2/3 of global photosynthesis comes today from land based plants and 1/3 from mainly sea based photosynthesis - inspite of the sea currently covers 71% of the planet surface.

In spite of photosynthesis is still stopped, inhibited and counteracted in several ways by mankind  the photosynthesis has still a mass flow on C fixation that is still ~15 times higher than the total human use of fossil C on 9 Gt C in 2009.

The global annual spontanious photosynthesis is also even annually 10 Gt C higher than is currently totally left in the global atmosphere after 150 years of fossil burning that raises the CO2 content from 280 ppm (in 1850) to currently 390 ppm. The fossil C amount still remaining in the atmosphere  after 150 years of fossil C burning is 110 Gt C. This is the major amount that has to be C sequestered within 30 years to stop a cataclysmic global heat shick in the centuries to come.

About 2/3 of the global photosynthesis is land based. Below is shown monthly averages for global photosynthesis measured by an ESA satellite in wavelengths highly correlated to Leaf Area Index (LAI) - the green scale below the continents. Below is shown the photosynthetically most active regions based on satellite data compiled by ESA. Below is seen animated monthly averages during three consequtive years - during 1999 - 2002. Animation below: Courtesy by ESA LAI

In the global CO2 reset crop model a crop will be presented that when applied 20 kg seeds/ha in spring You can easily harvest ~80% of 20 - 30 tonnes dry matter/ha for sequestering 150 days later annually. - that means intensified photosynthesis. The crop needs no spraying but fertilizer optimization adapted to each soil. By such a harvest level it will be enough with less than 1 Gha land to be cultivated during 20 years of the 16,7 Gha landmass we have today at the current sea level. This is a Project AgroChall calculation. This harvest level is connected to an efficient commercial sequestering logistics resulting in the complete global_CO2 _reset within 25 years. To this must be added an acreage corresponding to the intended actual fossil fuel burning of C during this 25 year period from the start of the project - a level determined by the UN Copenhagen political conference meeting in December 2009, where political honesty is confronted with stoechiometry within the natural law system.

Such a Project AgroChall solution is a most natural consequence of the anticipated effects of what was published by Peter Cox et al.(Nature, 2000) in their frequently cited article where it is explicitely said that after 2050 the rain forest will otherwise changing from having been the biggest annual sink of CO2 from the atmosphere to become a heavy sources of CO2 into the atmosphere due to continued global warming, drying of rainforest and deliberate or non-intended combustion. Thereby already  by 2050 a big fraction of the dark green tarte piece above can be included in the atmospheric pool of CO2 contributing to further accelerated global warming including of new additions of huge amounts of methane from thawing permafrost regions. The temperature chock will be further boosted by perhaps 50 Gt C from methane comming out from thawing permafrost tundra land ( Walter, K.M. et al 2006 ) in the northern cold hemisphere. This will give a quick temperature increase to a ~12 °C as expected from Hadley Center (Peter Cox, BBC 2005).

As we all know from primary school the reverse of combustion, respiration(Your breathing) is the reverse of photosynthesis, so urban people with many exotic behaviours causing the global warming have today forgot that...

The Global Warming Solution  - is mainly a matter of photosynthetic optimization of the annually most efficient "top yielding crops" for each region followed by a new dedicated harvest followed by a new asserted logistics for commercial C sequestering(=store carbon for very long time stably) the annual production(See below) .

Photosynthesis is the dominating sun driven process on Planet Earth (above green areas). However, deserts -  photosynthetic free areas due to water deficiency - covers today 31% of the planet land area(= 5,1 Gha) of totally 16,7 Gha land above current sea level.  Picture data compilation & courtesy by NASA.

The most efficient plant species in the world are - at least in the tropical region where there is a high insolation the whole year - capable to yield ~200 tonnes dry matter/ha annually if photosynthesis is optimized at their standing point and growth is not limited there by water or fertilizer during the season. Some of the species with potentially that yield capacity are listed below and there practical annual yield on different latitudes. In the temperate region only about 1/3 of the year these conditions are fullfilled due to limiting temperatures and or very low light insolation. In the figure below is shown the highest yields recorded during practical farming conditions from some of the most efficient annual plant/crop species grown around the world. Figures are quantitatively ranked irrespective of growing latitude in the respective case which is assumed to have been under humid conditions in fertile soils of different compositions not specified here. The water hyacint is grown floating on the water surface of ponds with municipal sewage sludge. The other species are growing in conventional soil - sometimes irrigated.  Roughly 44 weight-% of the dry biomass is carbon(C) of stoechiometrical reasons (=the function of carbon in the plant) irrespective of species. A major reason why the potentially really high yielding annual crops deviates from the theoretical yield is a mix of limiting factors unique for each growing environment. Mostly the crops have simply got to littlse water and or ferilizer of some kind - most frequently nitrogen(N), phosphorus(P) and potassium(K). In the  case of sugar cane it is simply not fully fertilized to its adequate level due to limitations in the process regulation of photosynthesis in practical cultivation. The needed fertilizer amount is of course proportional to the yield - nothing else. The compilation below is done from several scientific or official verifiable sources by Rune Ekman, "Project AgroChall".

Some candidates to be the most photosynthetically efficient annual crops are shown above. In all cases exept for water hyacinth the total above ground biomass/ha  are represented in dry(0% water biomass). In the case of water hyacinth also the root is included, so we talk about total biomass dry matter/ha in practical field conditions. In the Project AgroChallenge models is assumed the lowest annual level of yield potential of 20 tonnes of dry matter biomass/ha & year as an average annual yield.

There is currently in the atmosphere ~110 Gt C in the atmosphere that respresent the amount of fossil C still left in the atmosphere that has to be eliminated. This fraction is  the causal agent behind that the CO2 has raised from 280  - 390 ppm since 1860. To this is now added a few ppm of CO2 annually in an accelerated speed due to unstringencies in the dynastic (political and economic) systems.

The slight increase in temperature of ~0,7°C that now heats up the polar region with about 5°C has increased the warming of these regions in a way hat is now triggering thawing of the permafrost areas. Recently is has been found by Walters(2005) that copious amounts of methane is now leaching out in the air from thawed methane hydrates in the permafrost areas coming from fossil stored photosynthesis energy in e g peat. The methane is produced during nonaerobic conditions by bacteria breaking down the biomass, but having been hampered by the former cold. Therefore thera are hughe amounts of conserved methane in the permafrost accumulated since up to 50 000 years in the peat "sedimenting from the annualphotosynthesis in these polar areas mainly in the North hemisphere. 

The global warming solution must therefore be a complete counterbalancing of also these fossil C threats, which puts an extra push on mankind so we´re gonna make the time perspective = START  NOW !

Photosynthesis is indeed the most dominant process on the planet driven fully by sun energy in a an "overdose" about 4 - 10 000 times higher than all human energy consumption - a technological challenge in itself. The photosynthesis is today annually fixing an amount of C which is 10 - 20 times bigger than all human energy consumption or at least the fossil burning in spite of all human missmanagement of the most efficient ecosystems. Efficient photosynthesis is today performed just by a minor fraction of professional growers utilizing the potential it really has.

That is why photosynthesis is indeed the massiv and perfect way to a counterbalancing of the respiration and/or combustion process.

The annual global photosynthetic fixation of C (light gren tarte fraction above)is actually of principally the same size (120 Gt C) as the total amount of C that has to be eliminated from the atmosphere (red fraction of the tarte minus dissolved in the sea=110 Gt C (currently).

 

Through an adequate international program here called "Project AgroChall" the Charles Keeling curve - shown above - will be mirrored back stoechiometrically to the 1950:ies level of ~300 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere. This is possible to achieve about 25 years after full stoechiometric implementation including the proposed commercial sequestering products.  

The continuation of the Keeling curve for a mankind in continued prosperity, population size and kept technologization level should therefore ideally look like the simplified diagram below.

 

Cultivation Example - Temperate Region

French professional plant breeders during a visit to Swedish farmers fields in mid September 2007. The yield 150 days after sowing was this year 25 - 30 tonnes dry matter/ha of total dry above ground biomass in several fields in Sweden. With 44 weight % C in biomass this corresponds to 40 - 50 tonnes of CO2 fixed/ha in one growing season in gross standing crop on latitude 56.
See further
www.bionic.nu Photo & copyright: Rune Ekman, Project AgroChall.

 

A temperate climate zone best candidate for CO2 fixing in the humid areas up to the polar circle: drug free EU-hemp. This is from Sweden 2007. Annual harvesta of hemp within EU have a yield potential of at least 40 tonnes dry matter/ha within 150 days after sowing. "Lodging is an unknown phenomenon in hemp" as professor Kurhansky, Poznan, Poland said. Annual harvest during conventional cultivation without irrigation in Sweden has officially documented frequently reached 22 - 30 tonnes/ha in conventional farmers fields if adequately fertilized on non-oxygen deficient soils for achieving high root respiration during nutrient uptake. Details how to get these results are given at www.bionic.nu .

Above is seen Dr Olivier Beherec, from FNPC/CCPSC, France - a professional plant breeder behind several drug free certified hemp cultivars within EU - one of the crucial photosynthetically and genetical and highly scientific "service men" of crucial importance to achieve the goals set within "Project AgroChallenge". Hemp is frequently producing between 50 - 250% higher total above ground biomass annually7/ha than the toal wheat plant on most soil.

The hemp crop seen above has a annual growth of the same speed as the average in a jungle if the farmer manipulate plant density by the sowing machine and fertilizer application, sowing time in an optimised way. This is possible on organogenic soils very high up in the north under professional conditons.

Today we know all limiting parameters behind plant growth and its best general model equations applied day for day for optimizing photosynthesis on every place of the planet if You show us where it should grow to a higher yield level. We know the importance of standing point climate, soil composition & treatment, fertility, and the difference between species, genotypic and phenotypic expression - and we know how to apply it sustainably commercial for the best of mankind. Below is shown how we get jungle growth on 56:th latityde with these perspectives: 30 tonnes of dry matter biomass/ha only 150 days after sowing in Sweden - this is ten times more then the forest is spontaniously growing on the same farm in the region.

 

Two annual crops sown professionally the same day - here pictured 70 days after sowing 2007(=half time of the growing season here): Spring wheat and  (the most photosynthetically efficient industrial crop for the region in south Sweden (an EU subsidiced drug free monoicious) - hemp - Futura 75. The official annual yield for this crop was here 30 tonnes dry matter/ha in mid September 2007. For further details click www.bionic.nu. The wheat crop had a total above ground biomass of ~12 tonnes/ha and gave the farmer 6 tonnes of grain/ha. In the Mediteranean region non dwarf forms of sorghum have reached 51 tonnes/ha of dry matter. Elephant grass in south UK has given 55 tonnes/ha. Similarly In the tropical region sugarcane is a challenging alternative with a very high yield potential(below).

   

 


Biomes of the world. Courtesy by Wikipedia and for further information and definitions.

 

 

2009-10-23

Rune Ekman

Project AgroChall

 

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