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
life on Earth arose at least 3.5 billion years ago.[1][2][3] Earlier physical evidences of life include
graphite, a
biogenic substance, in 3.7 billion-year-old
metasedimentary rocks discovered in southwestern
Greenland,[4] as well as, "remains of biotic life" found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in
Western Australia.[5][6] Earth's
biodiversity has expanded continually except when interrupted by
mass extinctions.[7] Although scholars estimate that over 99 percent of all
species of life (over five billion)[8] that ever lived on Earth are
extinct,[9][10] there are still an estimated 10–14 million extant species,[11][12] of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86% have not yet been described.[13]
The use of biotic materials, and processed biotic materials (
bio-based material) as
alternative natural materials, over synthetics is popular 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 those that 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
glomalin,
Dopplerite and
humic acid. 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 living organism, but contains little organic carbon.
^Schopf, JW, Kudryavtsev, AB, Czaja, AD, and Tripathi, AB. (2007). Evidence of some Archean life: Stromatolites and microfossils. Precambrian Research 158:141–155.
^Schopf, JW (2006). Fossil evidence of Archaean life. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 29;361(1470) 869-85.