Primary Productivity of the Biosphere

The primary production of the biosphere supports the life of a man and all heterotrophic organisms. With the growth of population and industry the biosphere is affected by increasing pressures, particularly harvest and chemical influences. Only in the last decade have sufficient data become available that the productive capacity of the biosphere can be characterized by something better than an educated guess. The instability of man's relation to the biosphere now has become apparent to more than a limited number of scholars. Primary Productivity of the Biosphere synthesizes current knowledge of the world's primary producivity- it's environmental determinants, its amounts for different communities and the biosphere as a whole, its relation to other characteristics of the biosphere, and its implications for man.