Taps Coogan – September 4th, 2021
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The following infographic, from Visual Capital, illustrates the Earth’s biomass and reveals the estimated mass of the various ‘Phylum’ of animals and lifeforms in general.
The visual’s unit, Gigaton of carbon (Gt C), is simply the estimated mass of the various categories of animals or life forms based on scientists’ estimates of the 8.7 million known species.
The breakdown of the seven ‘Kingdoms’ of life is shown below.
| Taxon | Mass (Gt C) | % of total |
|---|---|---|
| Plants | 450 | 82.4% |
| Bacteria | 70 | 12.8% |
| Fungi | 12 | 2.2% |
| Archaea | 7 | 1.3% |
| Protists | 4 | 0.70% |
| Animals | 2.589 | 0.47% |
| Viruses | 0.2 | 0.04% |
| Total | 545.8 | 100.0% |
The breakdown of the ‘Phylum’ of animals is show below.
| Taxon | Mass (Gt C) | % of Animal Biomass |
|---|---|---|
| Arthropods (Marine) | 1.0 | 38.6% |
| Fish | 0.7 | 27.0% |
| Arthropods (Terrestrial) | 0.2 | 7.7% |
| Annelids | 0.2 | 7.7% |
| Mollusks | 0.2 | 7.7% |
| Livestock | 0.1 | 3.9% |
| Cnidarians | 0.1 | 3.9% |
| Humans | 0.06 | 2.3% |
| Nematodes | 0.02 | 0.8% |
| Wild mammals | 0.007 | 0.3% |
| Wild birds | 0.002 | 0.1% |
| Animals (Total) | 2.589 | 100.0% |
Humans represent just 0.01% of the biomass on Earth and all animals just 0.47%, the majority of which is accounted for by marine arthropods (crabs, lobsters, shrimp, etc…) and fish.
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Another relative comparison of a fragile earth—If the earth was 12 feet in diameter, oxygen required for life would be only 1/4 inches on each side. and diminishing due to global warming, deforestation and pollution.