Biomass (ecology)
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{{Cleanup|date=October 2007}}
{{dablink|For the eco-industrial use of the term, which includes dead material used for biofuels, see [[biomass]]}}
[[Image:Krill.jpg|thumb|An Antarctic krill, whose species comprises roughly 0.66% of the Earth's biomass, the highest of any single animal species.<ref name="NE97">{{cite book |author=Nicol, S., Endo, Y. |url=http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=//DOCREP/003/W5911E/w5911e00.htm |title=Fisheries Technical Paper 367: Krill Fisheries of the World |publisher=[[Food and Agriculture Organization|FAO]] |year=1997}}</ref>]]
In [[ecology]], '''biomass''' refers to the accumulation of life that is possibly [[life|living]] matter.<ref>{{GoldBookRef|title=biomass|url=http://goldbook.iupac.org/B00660.html}}</ref> That is, it is the total living biologica (usually measured per square metre or square kilometre). This means that only 30% of the weight of any creature is counted, the rest being water.
The most successful [[animal]], in terms of biomass, is the [[Antarctic krill]], ''Euphausia superba'', with a biomass of probably over 500 million tons, roughly five times the total biomass of [[human]]s. The entire earth contains about 75 billion tons of biomass{{Dubious|date=March 2008}}, or 0.00000000126% of the total mass of the [[Earth]]. Humans comprise about 100 million tons (0.13%) of the Earth's biomass<ref>The world [[human population]] was 6.6 billion in January 2008. At an average weight of 100 pounds (30 lbs of biomass), that equals 100 million tons.</ref>, [[domesticate]]d animals about 700 million (1.0%), and [[agriculture|crops]] about 2 billion tons or 2.7% of the Earth's biomass. {{Fact|date=March 2007}} The total biomass of bacteria is estimated to equal that of plants <ref>Whitman, Coleman, and Wiebe, [http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/95/12/6578.pdf Prokaryotes: The unseen majority], Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 95, pp. 6578–6583, June 1998</ref>.
Biomass may also be a measure of the dried organic mass of an [[ecosystem]]. As the [[trophic level]] increases, the biomass of each trophic level decreases. That is, [[Autotroph|producers]] (grass, trees, scrubs, etc.) have a much higher biomass than animals that [[Heterotroph|consume them]] (deer, zebras, insects, etc.). The level with the least biomass is the highest [[predator]]s in the food chain (foxes, eagles, etc.)
Biomass is also influenced by [[primary production|net primary productivity]] (NPP).
==See also==
*[[Biota (ecology)]]
*[[Ecological pyramid]]
*[[Water mass]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://whyfiles.org/shorties/count_bact.html Counting bacteria]
[[Category:Ecological metrics]]
[[Category:Fisheries science]]
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