My Plant Man/imal Machine Map!

Explanation: I wanted a simple map showing the flow of basic resources between Plants Man/imals and Machines. Please note that this map is not ment to be definitive and is a work in progress ok. Thanks

Plants

input: solid waste water co2

processing: digesting drinking breathing

output: growth + food/resource + major carbon sink

waste products: water + o2

food is processed to feed Man/imal + water is processed to feed Man/imal + o2 is processed to feed Man/imal

Man/imals

input: food water air[o2]

processing: digesting drinking breathing

output: growth + work + minor carbon sink

waste products: solid waste [ poop ] + urine [water + urea] + sweat [water + salts] + co2

solid waste processed for methane + urine processed for water & urea + co2 processed for plants

solid waste fed to plants + water fed to plants + co2 fed to plants. urea saved for ammonia production.

methane processed for machines

Machines

input: methane + oxygen

processing: burning + breathing

output: work + heat

waste products: water[steam] + co2

water processed & fed to plants + co2 processed & fed to plants.

NOTE: The driving energy source of this entire flow chart is the SUN!

Personal Disclosure: Its a work in progress and is very simplistic but I think the bulk of it is mostly accurate! I'd like to add bee's and pollenators into the mix and to aslo clear up the urea/ammonia cycle. All comments welcome.

reply to post by OmegaLogos


Sorry this looks interesting but I just don't know what you're talking about...Could you explain a little more, this is confusing

reply to post by Gab1159


Explanation: Its a basic flow chart. Starting with Plants it shows what is required to keep them alive ie the inputs and what they produce as a result of that ie the outputs and what they expell as waste. It then shows that both waste products and one of its outputs are then channeled into Man/imals who use them to grow and produce etc. It then shows the Man/imals outputs and waste products and where they go [to plants mostly] and then finally it takes a waste product from the Man/imals [methane] and uses it to power Machines and the waste products are collected and feed back to the plants in an almost closed cycle.

Personal Disclosure: Thanks for taking an interest.

If you're going to design your own biosphere or analyze one, or figure out how to tweak it to make it work better, this is the kind of work-out you need.

It would be good for anyone to do this just to test their level of awareness for how the biosphere works. This also shows the basic energy exchanges of life and from it you could derive a kind of economics.

The limitation you can run into is if you don't account for all possible inputs and outflows in the system. You also need a time factor to account for potential depletion of limited resources. The biggest known energy input is sunlight. Not much energy exits the system but you probably get some leakage back out into space.

On this planet now we have some other important inputs that mostly consist of energy stored in the planet in various forms (fossil fuels and geothermal). We also have technologies for exploiting the energy stored in atoms (fission and fusion), and some day someone may decide that it is okay for us to discover how to use the energy stored in space (I've heard this referred to as "dark matter").

So we have developed various technologies that distort these cycles from the "natural" model; and this process seems to be accelerating. Burning fossil fuels (and other such activities) has apparently upset these cycles considerably, causing plant and animal die-offs and other problems. The use of a model like this can assist us to understand, predict, and correct human-caused errors. Anyone who cares about the environment should have some knowledge of these basic flows and exchanges.

It tends to be more understandable if you make it graphical, but I know that's a bit of a challenge on the web.

you might add to the man/animal
is food for each other.
also yuo don't need to add bees etc. as you cover them as man/animal.

reply to post by OmegaLogos


explanation: salutations

Disclaimer: i grokk it

query: wouldn't pictures be better, or a Mind_map?

elaboration: you could fit/get your bees and pollen in there quite easily then.

explanation: see ya!

Explanation: Bumped to help generate ad revenue!

Personal Disclosure: Enjoy!