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The biosphere integrity (or “change in biosphere integrity”) planetary boundary is strongly transgressed and in the high-risk zone. It is one of the nine Earth-system processes in the Planetary Boundaries framework that define a safe operating space for humanity. Both of its control variables have been exceeded for a long time, and recent assessments show the situation is worsening.
The two control variables
The boundary tracks:
- Genetic diversity — extinction rate, measured in extinctions per million species-years (E/MSY). The proposed planetary boundary is 10 E/MSY (roughly 10 times the estimated natural background rate). Current rates exceed 100 E/MSY.
- Functional integrity — how much of nature’s energy (net primary production) humans appropriate through harvest, hunting, fishing, and land use (HANPP). The boundary is set near 10%; current global HANPP is about 30%. This has been above the boundary since at least the early 20th century.
When these limits are crossed, ecosystems lose resilience, the biosphere’s ability to regulate climate and biogeochemical cycles weakens, and the risk of abrupt or irreversible Earth-system change rises.
Latest status (2025 assessments)
The 2025 Planetary Health Check concluded that seven of nine planetary boundaries are now breached (climate change, biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater change, biogeochemical flows, novel entities, and ocean acidification). All seven show worsening trends. Biosphere integrity remains one of the most severely exceeded.
A 2025 spatial analysis found that 60% of global land area is already outside locally defined safe biosphere-integrity zones, and 38% is in a high-risk state. The problem is especially acute in regions with intensive agriculture and land conversion (Europe, Asia, North America). By 1900 the figures were already 37% and 14%, showing that land-use pressures began destabilizing the biosphere well before recent climate warming.
Why it matters?
Biosphere integrity is tightly coupled to other boundaries (climate, land use, nutrient cycles). Loss of genetic and functional diversity reduces the biosphere’s capacity to absorb shocks, store carbon, regulate water, and maintain the conditions that have supported civilization. Restoration of functional integrity—protecting and reconnecting remaining habitat, reducing HANPP, and regenerating ecosystems on working lands—is therefore essential for planetary stability.