Where do they come from?
The main source is the corn; in the US it is used to produce ethanol which is
then blended with gasoline to make a greener fuel that produces less CO2. After the extraction of ethanol some byproducts were wastes but recent research has found out that those might have energetic properties as well.
Methods of production
•Combustion- biomass is burned to produce energy.
•Pyrolysis- Biomass materials decompose.
•Gasification- turns into gas some parts of the solid biomass.
•Digestion and fermentation- Bacteria in power plants convert wastes into gas.
Common Uses
•Ethanol
•Methanol
•Fertilizers
•Biogas
•Bioethanol
•Biobutanol
•Biodiesel
Sources-
•"Where is biomass energy found?." Centre of Energy. Centre of Energy TM, n.d. Web. 9 Nov 2010. <http://www.centreforenergy.com/AboutEnergy/Biomass/Overview.asp?page=5>.
•"How biomass energy works." Clean Energy. Union of conserned scientists, n.d. Web. 9 Nov 2010. <http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/technology_and_impacts/energy_technologies/how-biomass-energy-works.html>.
•"Biomass energy – Part Of A Sustainable Future?." Alternate Energy Sources. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Nov 2010. <http://www.alternate-energy-sources.com/biomass-energy.html>.
In order to understand the relationship between the resources production and the population growth we can use one of this theories:
Malthus Theory
· Based on population explosion, evident in the 18th century.
· States that the population will grow faster than the food supply.
· Population will grow until overpopulation is reached, and any further population growth will result in a population crash due to famine, disease, or war.
· Stated that the only solution was birth control
· It doesn’t mention the relationship between population and subsistence, in which when the population grows, the subsistence decreases and when the population decreases the subsistence increases.
· The equation for the total population is been added a lot of factors in the resent years such as technological improvements, biotechnology, the unpredictability of nature, and sheer luck.
The Malthusian Theory assumes that all the factors that have an effect on the population remains the same over time.
Boserups`s Theory
- · Wrote on 1968
- · An increasing population will make technologist to increase the production on food.
- · War and famine will be prevented by solutions proposed by humans.
- · Raise population= Increase on demand of foodà change agrarian technology to increase the amount of food.
- · ¨Necessity is the mother of invention¨
- · Assumes that as the population grows, new inventors will solve the problems cause by the over population and will create a sustainable world for a growing population.
- · Its limitation is that the theory is only based on closed communities, which do not exist because of the emigration and immigration of species in a community.
"Compare and contrast the population theories of Malthus and Boserup ." Thinkgeogwiki . N.p., Oct 2008. Web. 29 Sep 2010. <http://thinkgeogwiki.wikispaces.com/Malthus+vs+Boserup>.
Wolfgram, Ann. "Malthusian theory explained." Population resources and environment. Population Research Institute, n.d. Web. 29 Sep 2010. <http://www.voxfux.com/features/malthusian_theory/malthusian_theory.htm#1.%20MalthTheory>
You can measure the changes in an ecosystem using biotic or abiotic factors...but...what´s the difference between this 2?
Abiotic factors are factors that don´t include living things.
Some examples are:
- Temperature
- Sunlight
- Water
- Soil
- Natural Disasters
On the other side we have biotic factors, that are the ones involving living things.
Some examples are:
- NPP
- GPP
- Biomass
- Biodiversity