The history of the living organisms conquering land

The history of the living organisms conquering land • The situation in the primordial sea, 400 millon years ago Nutrients in food CREATCEAN SEA Elementary nutrients Nutrients in urine

What happened when the living organisms conquered land ? 2 The situation after the first organisms had conquered land Nutrients in food Nutrients in urine

After just a few tousand years:

Where are the green fields my ancestors were bragging about?

Interlude: What are ’nutrients’ ? ’Nutrients’ are the essential elements needed to construct a body These elements need to be attainable in right proportions E.g.: You need four times more tires than steering wheels to build a car

10 times more common in the body than in the Earth crust Nutrients The constituents of an animal (or vegetable) body: H O C N S P Na K Ca …64 H O C N S With gaseous phases — can be transported by the air P P Without gaseous phases — must be transported as solids or liquids Na K Ca …64 More common in the Earth crust than in the body – phosphorus is the most important nutrient !

Nutrients are essential for life -- but phosphorus is the most crucial

We need a method to use the phosphorus molecules several times, without losses, so we can retain phosphorus on land! !

If we could transfer the phosphorus seamless from organism to organism without losses to sea, we might solve it !

The regenerative cycle, basic for living systems -- ecosystem level: DNA Reconstruction Consumption PO4 Urine A seamless transport of phosphorus from organism to organism! Recycling

Petrified newspaper found in the Cretaceous – Devon geosynclinal

The regenerative cycle Reconstruction DNA High exergy Consumption Urine PO4 Recycling Low exergy

A v a i l a b l e s o l a r e x e r g y Ecosystem maturation Mature system • High diversity • Perennial plants • Co-operation • Mutualism • Nutrient circulation • On-site consumption • Slow change • Water export by evaporation • Low diversity • Annual plants • Competition • Parasitism • Nutrient leakage • Export • Fast change • Water export by drainage Maturation Immature system

Present times

In preindustrial times, the farmland nutrients came from the meadows N Phosphorus and nitrogen were collected by the meadow plants A certain amount of meadows were needed to feed the farmland Meadows Manure Feed Farmland Food PO4 PO4

During industrialisation, people moved into cities

In the cities, they also needed food, food from the farms The food contained nutrients N The nutrients that went away to the cities never came back The nutrients were collected by the meadow plants The export led to an impoverishment of the agricultural land Manure Feed Food Food PO4 PO4 PO4

PO4 Food The impoverished land produced insufficient harvests This triggered emigration The industrialisation process might have been halted by the loss of nutrients from farmland

PO4 PO4 Food Food The situation was solved by the invention of artificial fertilizers By that, the nutrients from the meadows became unnecessary Even more food could be produced

PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 Food Pollu-tion Pollu-tion Pollu-tion Pollu-tion Pollu-tion But in the cities, the situation was becoming problematic

PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 Food Pollu-tion Pollu-tion Pollu-tion Pollu-tion Pollu-tion But the invention of the piping system eased the problems

PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 Pollu-tion Pollu-tion Pollu-tion Pollu-tion Pollu-tion However, at the end of the pipe, new problems were encountered Plancton algae multiplied gladly from the new phosphorus

PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 Pollu-tion Pollu-tion Pollu-tion Pollu-tion Pollu-tion Already 50 years after the introduction of the process, it was realised that it was the phosphorus that caused the problems in the water Therefore, the politicians asked the technicians for a way to remove the phosphorus from the waste water

The problem Problem solved! Naturally, they solved the problem in their usual expedient way Large particle filtration Sedimentation Sedimentation Aeration Sludge Air Flocculation Rotation Aluminum sulphate Filtering

The problem Problem solved! The problem to be solved was: ”How to get (moderately) clean water from the polluted water?” This problem was solved .

However, the question not asked was: ”How to recycle the phosphorus to avoid the problem?” A large part of the phosphorus is contained in the sludge Sludge

City Food Food Most of the food to the city comes from very large distances ..while the phoshorus in the sludge is placed on a much smaller area PO4 PO4 PO4 Food

Food Food This means that there will be an accumulation of phosphorus around the city The larger the amount accumulated, the larger the leakage After some time, the leakage from this heap will equal what is put on PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 Food

Food Food At that time, the investment in water purification plants becomes meaningless PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 Food

City The HEAP-effect, in a saturated system Food Food When saturated, the system leaks at the same rate as it is loaded PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 PO4 With effiecient waste water treatment methods (P precipitation), this state is attained faster

Hampered Effluent Accumulation Process The HEAP trap

The HEAP trap: Hampered Effluent Accumulation P rocess Q (stored amount) kQ (stored amount) Leakage = input kQ=J J Q (leakage)

The HEAP effect-- diffuse nutrient leakage • Is an inevitable effect of urban agglomerations • Is an inevitable effect of deficient nutrent recycling • Can be solved by a changed settlement infrastructure • (or an extremenly expensive transportation system)

RIP risk analysis can be a good tool • We assume two different futures: • Energy will always be cheap (somebody invents a little black box with a plug and gives it to everybody for free) • Energy will become expensive • Our assumptions can prove • Right • Wrong The different combinations will create different outcomes We plan our society accordingly In an insecure situation (as in speculations of the future) Right Wrong Expensive energy OK OK Embarrasing? Cheap energy OK Back

The history of the living organisms conquering land