Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 115, Issue 25, Pages 6506-6511Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1711842115
Keywords
ecology; biomass; biosphere; quantitative biology
Categories
Funding
- European Research Council [NOVCARBFIX 646827]
- Israel Science Foundation [740/16]
- ISF-NRF Singapore Joint Research Program [7662712]
- Beck Canadian Center for Alternative Energy Research
- Ullmann Family Foundation
- Helmsley Charitable Foundation
- Larson Charitable Foundation
- Wolfson Family Charitable Trust
- Selmo Nussenbaum
- NIH [1R35 GM118043-01]
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A census of the biomass on Earth is key for understanding the structure and dynamics of the biosphere. However, a global, quantitative view of how the biomass of different taxa compare with one another is still lacking. Here, we assemble the overall biomass composition of the biosphere, establishing a census of the approximate to 550 gigatons of carbon (Gt C) of biomass distributed among all of the kingdoms of life. We find that the kingdoms of life concentrate at different locations on the planet; plants (approximate to 450 Gt C, the dominant kingdom) are primarily terrestrial, whereas animals (approximate to 2 Gt C) are mainly marine, and bacteria (approximate to 70 Gt C) and archaea (approximate to 7 Gt C) are predominantly located in deep subsurface environments. We show that terrestrial biomass is about two orders of magnitude higher than marine biomass and estimate a total of approximate to 6 Gt C of marine biota, doubling the previous estimated quantity. Our analysis reveals that the global marine biomass pyramid contains more consumers than producers, thus increasing the scope of previous observations on inverse food pyramids. Finally, we highlight that the mass of humans is an order of magnitude higher than that of all wild mammals combined and report the historical impact of humanity on the global biomass of prominent taxa, including mammals, fish, and plants.
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