not *quite* the future yet

[psocoptera]

At least, I still can't make a natural-language world-almanac type query in a search engine ("computer, what are the...") and get a quick answer.

The question in question: what is the global distribution of biomass between various taxa? Do cyanobacteria outweigh nematodes? How does grass compare to hardwoods? There should totally be a Life Catalog where you can look up these things. The closest thing I found is the Baseline Report of the Census of Marine Life which reports that prokaryotes make up 82% of marine biomass, protists the remaining 18%, with zooplankton, swimmers, and megafauna coming in at 0.3%, 0.07%, and 0.01% respectively. But heck knows how that compares to land distributions... the ocean, frex, isn't real strong on vascular plants. And while presumably the biomass in the oceans outweighs land biomass (for a given surface area, life-containing volume in the 10s of meters on land and 1000s of meters in the sea), what's the actual distribution?

Comments

[jezrax.livejournal.com]

There's intense interest in terrestrial biomass because it's critical for climate models as the biggest carbon sink. Marine biomass turns over faster, and the primary productivity of land plants is higher because of the availability of nutrients. Estimates that I've seen have very wide uncertainty ranges, but there's much more stuff on land. Primary Producers (http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/jmartin/Marine_Sciences/2004/PrimaryProducers.txt) gives total marine biomass = 1-2 billion tons, total terrestrial biomass = 600-1000 billion tons.

Here is an estimate (looks like it may be old) that trees in forests represent 90% of terrestrial biomass: Wood (http://www.life.uiuc.edu/plantbio/263/WOOD.html)

There's another complication: Nobody knows the biomass of deep underground microorganisms. Some think it may be the bulk of all biomass, and some think it is probably a small proportion.

[jezrax.livejournal.com]

This is not my field, so don't trust anything I say without double-checking. I already see one thing that I think is a mistake....

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Neat though! Thanks! I guess the power of vascular plants to store biomass should not be underestimated ::grin::.

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a really interesting question -- I've seen occasional comparisons of e.g. bacteria to everything else, or insects to vertebrates, but never anything more specific than the report you found. If you find a good source, let me know.

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the duplicates -- lj is being annoying today...