The history of the living organisms conquering land

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

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

3. After just a few tousand years:

4. Where are the green fields my ancestors were bragging about?

5. 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

6. 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 !

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

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

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

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

11. Petrified newspaper found in the Cretaceous – Devon geosynclinal

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

13. A v a i l a b l e s o l a r e x e r g y Ecosystem maturation Mature system Immature 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

14. Present times

15. 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

16. During industrialisation, people moved into cities

17. 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 These nutrients were collected by the meadow plants The export led to an impoverishment of the agricultural land Manure Feed Food Food PO4 PO4 PO4

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

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

30. 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

31. Hampered Effluent Accumulation Process The HEAP trap

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

33. 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)