Global Biomass
Estimates for the global biomass of species and specie groups are not always consistent across the literature. Apart from bacteria, the total global biomass has been estimated at about 560 billion tonnes C. Most of this biomass is found on land, with only 5 to 10 billion tonnes C found in the oceans. On land there is about 1,000 times more plant biomass (phytomass) than animal biomass (zoomass). About 18% of this plant biomass is eaten by the land animals. However in the ocean the animal biomass is nearly 30 times larger than the plant biomass. Most ocean plant biomass is eaten by the ocean animals.
| Name | Num spp. | Date for estimate | individual count | average living weight of individual | percent biomass (dried) | total number of carbon atoms | global dry biomass in million tonnes | global wet (fresh) biomass in million tonnes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terrestrial | Humans | 1 | 2012 | 7.0 billion | 50 kg (incl children) |
30% | 3.5 x 1036 | 105 | 350 |
| 2005 | 4.63 billion | 62 kg (excl children) |
287 | ||||||
| Cattle | 1 | 1.3 billion | 400 kg | 30% | 156 | 520 | |||
| Sheep and goats | 2002 | 1.75 billion | 60 kg | 30% | 31.5 | 105 | |||
| Chickens | 1 | 24 billion | 2 kg | 30% | 14.4 | 48 | |||
| Ants | 12649 | 107 - 108 billion | 3 x 10−6kg (0.003 grams) |
30% | 300–3000 | 900-9000 | |||
| Termites | > 2800 | 1996 | 445 | ||||||
| Marine | Blue whales | 1 | Pre-whaling | 340,000 | 40% | 4.7 x 1035 | 36 | ||
| 2001 | 4700 | 40% | 0.5 | ||||||
| Marine fish | >10000 | 2009 | 800-2,000 | ||||||
| Antarctic krill | 1 | 1924–2004 | 7.8 x 1014 | 0.486 g | 379 | ||||
| Copepods (a zooplankton) | 13000 | 10-6 - 10−9 kg |
1x1037 | ||||||
| Cyanobacteria (a picoplankton) | ? | 2003 | 1,000 | ||||||
| Global | Prokaryotes (bacteria) |
? | 1998 | 4–6 x 1030 cells | 1.76-2.76 x 1040 | 350,000-550,000 |
Humans comprise about 100 million tonnes of the Earth's dry biomass, domesticated animals about 700 million tonnes, and crops about 2 billion tonnes. The most successful animal species, in terms of biomass, may well be Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, with a fresh biomass approaching 500 million tonnes, although domestic cattle may also reach these immense figures. However, as a group, the small aquatic crustaceans called copepods may form the largest animal biomass on earth. A 2009 paper in Science estimates, for the first time, the total world fish biomass as somewhere between 0.8 and 2.0 billion tonnes. It has been estimated that about about 1% of the global biomass is due to phytoplankton, and a staggering 25% is due to fungi.
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Grasses, trees and shrubs have a much higher biomass than the animals that consume them
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The total biomass of bacteria may equal that of plants.
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Copepods may form the largest biomass of any animal species group.
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Antarctic krill form one of the largest biomasses of any individual animal species.
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It has been claimed that fungi make up 25% of the global biomass
Read more about this topic: Biomass (ecology)
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