Planetary boundaries Prof. Piotr Kowalik Gdansk University of Technology Poland

Piotr Kowalik Prof. PhD (water management); Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Bertebos Prize Winner; affiliation: Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk, Poland. mailing address: Gdansk University of Technology (GUT), Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Narutowicza 11, Gdansk Wrzeszcz, Poland, telephone: fax:

Piotr Kowalik CV: Born 1939, M Sc in 1961, PhD in 1967, habilitation in 1973, professorship in Last 25 years he was a head of the Department of Sanitary Engineering of Gdansk University of Technology, Poland. Visiting professor in Firenze, Torino, Palermo, Grenoble, Uppsala, Helsinki, Roskilde, Berlin, Covilha, Cardiff. Visiting researcher in the Netherlands and in Australia.

Piotr Kowalik Area of competence: Theory of diffusion of oxygen in soils; theory of soil water dynamics with water uptake by roots; theory of water flow in the soil-plant- atmosphere systems in agriculture and forestry; energy forestry modeling; water balance in heavy soils of alluvial fens; irrigation of soils by wastewater; constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment; education of sanitary and environmental engineers in the past and in the future. He published more than 300 publications with more than 500 international citations.

Concept of boundaries Concept of planetary boundaries was introduced by Stockholm Environmental Institute in [Rockstrom J. et al., Planetary boundaries: exploring the safe operating space for humanity. Ecology and Society, 14(2):1-25 (item 32 online). URL: 14/iss2/art32/]. URL: 14/iss2/art32/

Nine boundaries Authors have done a search for critical Earth System processes. They were able to identify nine such processes for which boundaries need to be established to minimize the risk of crossing critical threshold that may lead to undesirable outcomes. The nine planetary boundaries identified cover the global biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and water; biophysical features of Earth that contribute to the underlying resilience of its self-regulatory capacity (marine and terrestrial biodiversity, land systems); and two critical features associated with anthropogenic global change (aerosol loading and chemical pollution).

Mountains Boundaries can be applied to mountains! Lack of human dimension (habitats and old wisdom)

Evidence There is ample evidence from local to regional-scale esosystems, such asmountains, lakes, forests, and coral reefs, that gradual changes in certain key control variables (e.g. biodiversity, harvesting, exploitation, soil quality, freshwater flows, and nutrient cycles). The critical Earth Systems processes are:

Critical processes: rate of biodiversity loss; nitrogen cycle; climate change; stratospheric ozone depletion; ocean acidifation; phosphorus cycle; land system change (soil protection); global freshwater use; chemical pollution; aerosol loading. lost of old habits and wisdom of mountains

Loss of biodiversity Loss of biodiversity can increase the vulnerability of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to changes in climate and ocean acidity, thus reducing the safe boundary levels for these processes. Current global average extinction rate is > 100 E/MSY, what means >100 extinctions per million species and year (E/MSY). In the last 20 years about half of the recorded extinctions have occurred on continents (second half in oceans), primary due to land use change, species introductions, and increasingly climate change, indicating that biodiversity is now broadly at risk throughout the planet. A safe planetary boundary is proposed on the level of 10 E/MSY, but the actual situation is from 100 to 1000 E/MSY and it is indicating an urgent need to radically reduce biodiversity loss rates.

Loses Lost of one species of existing 1000 per year (extinction)

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES FOR HUMANITY