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Biocapacity stands for biological capacity. The biological capacity of an ecosystem is dependent on its production of useful biological materials and in return the absorption of wastes like carbon dioxide emissions. “Useful biological materials” are defined as those demanded by the human economy.

Biological capacity available per person (or per capita): There were 12 billion hectares of biologically productive land and water on this planet in 2008. Dividing by the number of people alive in that year, 6.7 billion, gives 1.8 global hectares per person. This assumes that no land is set aside for other species that consume the same biological material as humans.

Applications of Biocapacity
An increase in global population can result in a decrease in biocapacity. This is usually due to the fact that the Earth’s resources have to be shared; therefore, there becomes little to supply the increasing demand of the increasing population. Currently, this issue can be resolved by outsourcing. However, resources will run out due to the increasing demands and as a result a collapse of an ecosystem can be the consequence of such actions. When the ecological footprint becomes greater than the biocapacity of the population, a biocapacity deficit is suspected. Global biocapacity of a population exceeding it’s ecological footprint on the other hand, is suspected as an ecological overshoot. In 2008 it is understood that people were using an equivalence of 1.5 Earths to compensate for their needs. This fact comes from the data collected in 2008, where the percent deficit reached well over 50% and the numbers still continue to grow. Additional stresses of greenhouse gases, climate change, and ocean acidification can also add to the problem. In reference to the definition of biocapacity: 1.5 Earths means renewable resources will eventually result in depletion because they are being produced faster and more often than the resources can be re-grown. Therefore, it will one year and six months for the resources we use to be able to regenerate again and in addition absorb all the waste we manufactured as well. So instead of taking one year, we are now in-taking enough resources that should last us one year and six months.

In addition, if this matter becomes severe, an ecological reserve will be set on areas to preserve their ecosystems. Awareness about our depleting resources include: agricultural lang, forest resources and rangeland. Biocapacity used in correlation to ecological footprint can therefore suggest whether a specific population, region, country or part of a world is living in the means of their capital. Accordingly, the study of biocapacity and ecological footprint is known as the Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA).

Biocapacity is also affected on the technology used during the year. With new technologies emerging, it is not whether the technology in that year is good or bad but whether how the technology impacts resource supply and demand; which in return affects biocapacity. Hence what is considered “useful” can change from year to year (e.g. use of corn (maize) stover for cellulosic ethanol production would result in corn stover becoming a useful material, and thus increase the biocapacity of maize cropland).

Moreover, environmentalists have created ecological footprint calculators for a single person(s) to determine whether they are encompassing more than what is available for them in their population. Consequently, biocapacity results will be applied to their ecological footprint to determine how much they may contribute or take away from sustainable development.

In general, biocapacity is the amount of resources available to people at a specific moment in time to a specific population (supply) and to differentiate between ecological footprint – that is the demand constructed on behalf of a regional ecosystem. Biocapacity is able to determine the human impacts on Earth. By determining productivity of land, hence the resources available for human consumption, biocapacity will be able to predict and perhaps examine the affects on the ecosystems closely based on collected results of human consumption.

The biocapacity of an area is calculated by multiplying the actual physical area by the yield factor and the appropriate equivalence factor. Biocapacity is usually expressed in global hectares (gha). Since global hectares is able to convert human consumptions like food and water into a measurement, biocapacity can be applied to determine the carrying capacity of the Earth.