Biotic material

{{Short description|Any material originating from living organisms}}

{{Life timeline}}

Biotic material or biological derived material is any material that originates from living organisms. Most such materials contain carbon and are capable of decay.

The earliest form of life on Earth arose at least 3.5 billion years ago.Schopf, J.W., Kudryavtsev, A.B., Czaja, A.D., and Tripathi, A.B. (2007). "Evidence of some Archean life: Stromatolites and microfossils." Precambrian Research. 158:141–155.Schopf, J.W. (2006). "Fossil evidence of Archaean life." Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B. Biol. Sci. 29;361(1470) 869–885.{{cite book | first1=Peter | last1=Hamilton Raven | first2=George | last2=Brooks Johnson | title=Biology | url=https://archive.org/details/biologyrave00rave | url-access=registration | date=2002 | publisher=McGraw-Hill Education | isbn=978-0-07-112261-0 | page=[https://archive.org/details/biologyrave00rave/page/68 68] | access-date=7 July 2013 }} Earlier physical evidences of life include graphite, a biogenic substance, in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks discovered in southwestern Greenland,{{cite journal |last1=Ohtomo |first1=Yoko |last2=Kakegawa |first2=Takeshi |last3=Ishida |first3=Akizumi |last4=Nagase |first4=Toshiro |last5=Rosing |first5=Minik T. |display-authors=3 |date=January 2014 |title=Evidence for biogenic graphite in early Archaean Isua metasedimentary rocks |journal=Nature Geoscience |location=London |publisher=Nature Publishing Group |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=25–28 |bibcode=2014NatGe...7...25O |doi=10.1038/ngeo2025 |issn=1752-0894}} as well as, "remains of biotic life" found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia.{{cite news |last=Borenstein |first=Seth |title=Hints of life on what was thought to be desolate early Earth |url=http://apnews.excite.com/article/20151019/us-sci--earliest_life-a400435d0d.html |date=19 October 2015 |work=Excite |location=Yonkers, NY |publisher=Mindspark Interactive Network |agency=Associated Press |access-date=2015-10-20}}{{cite journal |last1=Bell |first1=Elizabeth A. |last2=Boehnike |first2=Patrick |last3=Harrison |first3=T. Mark |last4=Mao |first4=Wendy L. |display-authors=3 |date=19 October 2015 |title=Potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion-year-old zircon |url=http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/10/14/1517557112.full.pdf |journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |doi=10.1073/pnas.1517557112 |issn=1091-6490 |access-date=2015-10-20 |pmid=26483481 |pmc=4664351 |volume=112 |issue=47 |pages=14518–21|bibcode=2015PNAS..11214518B |doi-access=free }} Early edition, published online before print. Earth's biodiversity has expanded continually except when interrupted by mass extinctions.{{cite journal | author=Sahney, S.

| author2=Benton, M.J.

| author3=Ferry, P.A.

| name-list-style=amp

| date=27 January 2010

| title=Links between global taxonomic diversity, ecological diversity and the expansion of vertebrates on land

| journal=Biology Letters

| doi=10.1098/rsbl.2009.1024

| volume = 6 | pages = 544–47 | issue=4 | pmid=20106856 | pmc=2936204}} Although scholars estimate that over 99 percent of all species of life (over five billion){{cite book |editor1=Kunin, W.E. |editor2=Gaston, Kevin |title=The Biology of Rarity: Causes and consequences of rare—common differences

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4LHnCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA110|date=31 December 1996 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0412633805 |access-date=26 May 2015 }} that ever lived on Earth are extinct,{{cite book |last1=Stearns |first1=Beverly Peterson |last2=Stearns |first2=S. C. |last3=Stearns |first3=Stephen C. |title=Watching, from the Edge of Extinction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0BHeC-tXIB4C&q=99+percent |year=2000 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-08469-6|page=preface x |access-date=30 May 2017 }}{{cite news

|last=Novacek |first=Michael J.

|title=Prehistory's Brilliant Future

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/opinion/sunday/prehistorys-brilliant-future.html

|date=8 November 2014

|work=The New York Times

|access-date=25 December 2014 }} there are still an estimated 10–14 million extant species,{{cite journal |last1=May |first1=Robert M. |title=How many species are there on earth? |journal=Science |date=1988 |volume=241 |issue=4872 |pages=1441–1449 |bibcode=1988Sci...241.1441M |doi=10.1126/science.241.4872.1441 |pmid=17790039|s2cid=34992724 }}{{cite book

|last1=Miller |first1=G. |last2=Spoolman |first2=Scott

|title=Environmental Science

|chapter=Biodiversity and Evolution

|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYEJAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA62

|date=1 January 2012

|publisher=Cengage Learning

|isbn=978-1-133-70787-5 |page=62

|access-date=27 December 2014 }} of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86% have not yet been described.{{cite journal |last1=Mora |first1=C. |last2=Tittensor |first2=D.P. |last3=Adl |first3=S. |last4=Simpson |first4=A.G. |last5=Worm |first5=B. |title=How many species are there on Earth and in the ocean? |date=23 August 2011 |journal=PLOS Biology |doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001127 |pmid=21886479 |pmc=3160336 |volume=9 |issue=8 |pages=e1001127 |doi-access=free }}

Examples of biotic materials are wood, straw, humus, manure, bark, crude oil, cotton, spider silk, chitin, fibrin, and bone.

The use of biotic materials and processed biotic materials (bio-based material) as alternative natural materials over synthetics is widespread with those who are environmentally conscious because such materials are usually biodegradable, renewable, and the processing is commonly understood and has minimal environmental impact. However, not all biotic materials are used in an environmentally friendly way, such as those that require high levels of processing, are harvested unsustainably, or are used to produce carbon emissions.

When the source of the recently living material has little importance to the product produced, such as in the production of biofuels, biotic material is simply called biomass. Many fuel sources may have biological sources and may be divided roughly into fossil fuels and biofuel.

In soil science, biotic material is often referred to as organic matter. Biotic materials in soil include humic substances such as humic acids, fulvic acids and humin. Some biotic material may not be considered to be organic matter if it is low in organic compounds, such as a clam's shell, which is an essential component of the exoskeleton of bivalve mollusks made of calcium carbonate ({{Chem2|CaCO3|link=Calcium carbonate}}), but contains little organic carbon.