title: Global human appropriation of net primary production doubled in the 20th century.
abstract: Global increases in population, consumption, and gross domestic product raise concerns about the sustainability of the current and future use of natural resources. The human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) provides a useful measure of human intervention into the biosphere. The productive capacity of land is appropriated by harvesting or burning biomass and by converting natural ecosystems to managed lands with lower productivity. This work analyzes trends in HANPP from 1910 to 2005 and finds that although human population has grown fourfold and economic output 17-fold, global HANPP has only doubled. Despite this increase in efficiency, HANPP has still risen from 6.9 Gt of carbon per y in 1910 to 14.8 GtC/y in 2005, i.e., from 13% to 25% of the net primary production of potential vegetation. Biomass harvested per capita and year has slightly declined despite growth in consumption because of a decline in reliance on bioenergy and higher conversion efficiencies of primary biomass to products. The rise in efficiency is overwhelmingly due to increased crop yields, albeit frequently associated with substantial ecological costs, such as fossil energy inputs, soil degradation, and biodiversity loss. If humans can maintain the past trend lines in efficiency gains, we estimate that HANPP might only grow to 27-29% by 2050, but providing large amounts of bioenergy could increase global HANPP to 44%. This result calls for caution in refocusing the energy economy on land-based resources and for strategies that foster the continuation of increases in land-use efficiency without excessively increasing ecological costs of intensification.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social Ecology Vienna, Alpen-Adria University, A-1070 Vienna, Austria. fridolin.krausmann@aau.at
authors.forename: Fridolin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Krausmann
authors.forename: Karl-Heinz
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Erb
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gingrich
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Haberl
authors.forename: Alberte
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bondeau
authors.forename: Veronika
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gaube
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lauk
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Plutzar
authors.forename: Timothy D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Searchinger
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000639:trends*; D018533:Biomass; D057486:Carbon Cycle; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000639:trends*; D003710:Demography / Q000639:trends*; D018534:Earth, Planet; D057217:Economic Development / Q000639:trends*; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans
keywords: agriculture; food; global carbon cycle; land use intensity; resource use