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Quantitative Evaluation of Global Primary Productivity Models Generated by Computers

  • Chapter
Primary Productivity of the Biosphere

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 14))

Abstract

That net plant production plays a key role in ecologic, environmental, and planning considerations requires little supporting discussion. In addition to its implication for the upper limit to the Earth’s sustainable human population, knowledge of the Earth’s production and its spatial distribution permits us to estimate such characteristics of our planet as

  1. 1.

    Geographic distribution of the Earth’s potential food resources

  2. 2.

    Sizes and geographic distribution of the various reservoirs in the Earth’s carbon and oxygen cycles

  3. 3.

    Limits toward which we might be able to increase regional productivity levels artificially, assuming that such grandiose projects were environmentally desirable

  4. 4.

    Effects of the destruction of major vegetation formations, such as the Amazon rain forest, on the Earth’s atmospheric composition and climate

  5. 5.

    Potential and actual productivity levels of individual countries, hence the maximum carrying capacities of their national and regional ecosystems

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References

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Authors
  1. Elgene Box
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, University of North Carolina, 27514, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

    Helmut Lieth

  2. Section of Ecology and Systematics Langmuir Laboratory, Cornell University, 14850, Ithaca, New York, USA

    Robert H. Whittaker

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© 1975 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Box, E. (1975). Quantitative Evaluation of Global Primary Productivity Models Generated by Computers. In: Lieth, H., Whittaker, R.H. (eds) Primary Productivity of the Biosphere. Ecological Studies, vol 14. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-80913-2_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-80913-2_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-80915-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-80913-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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