All Biomass is sunlight - All Biomass is sunlight (Jul/24/2007 )

Hi all,

Im writing a paper discussing the following statement:

"All Biomass is sunlight"


I was wondering if anyone knew any good websites which includes scientific arguments that contradict this statement as well as those that support it. Any suggestions and help will be appreciated thanks in advance.

Quite tantalising. This is such a vague title that can be interpreted in so many ways.

Does sunlight mean? Solar energy or does sunlight mean nucleon chemistry, with the final starburst of a supernova?

Well, I guess it all depends on how you argue about it.

The first place you should stop is the black smokers of deep sea.

And there are also some bacteria, that do photosynthesis without sunlight.

An obligately photosynthetic bacterial anaerobe from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, Vol. 102, No. 26. (28 June 2005), pp. 9306-9310.

"All biomass is sunlight," not quite. The biomass itself is mass from the previous supernova that have produced all of these interesting chemical elements, such as hydrogen (which makes up the majority of the universe), carbon, sodium, nitrogen, oxygen, etc. The energy that is distributed throughout the biosphere is undoubtedly sunlight, but the mass itself is not directly from our local sun.

- Bryan

Edit: I also made this same post at the BioTechniques forum.