The total biomass on the Earth, the combined weight of all living organisms, is estimated at around 550 Billion tons of carbon (Gt C). This mass is primarily made up of plants, particularly land plants such as trees, which account for roughly 450 Gt C. Bacteria and fungi also contribute significantly, together with about 80 Gt C. Animals, including humans, represent a smaller fraction, around 2 Gt C. Understanding the distribution and composition of biomass is crucial for studying ecological processes, biodiversity, and the impact of human activities on the environment. The data are from Bar-On et al. (2018) and the Scientific colour map ‘navia‘ is used to represent data accurately and to all readers.
- Creator: Fabio Crameri
- This version: 21.05.2025
- License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Specific citation: This graphic by Fabio Crameri is available via the open-access s-ink.org repository.
- Related reference:
Y.M. Bar-On, R. Phillips, & R. Milo (2018), The biomass distribution on Earth, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 115 (25) 6506-6511, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1711842115.
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