Earth's Biomass Breakdown: Plants Dominate, Humans Are a Tiny Fraction
By
Iman Ghosh
An everything bagel for the brain. Substantive, layered, well-seasoned.
Summary
This article presents a comprehensive breakdown of Earth's biomass distribution, showing that plants make up the vast majority (80%) of all living matter, followed by bacteria (13%), fungi (2%), and animals (0.4%). Within the animal kingdom, arthropods dominate, while humans and livestock represent a surprisingly small fraction of total biomass. The piece visualizes and contextualizes the scale of life on Earth across all 8.7 million species.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledOur planet supports approximately 8.7 million species, of which over a quarter live in water.
Plants make up 80% of all biomass on Earth, far outweighing every other kingdom of life.
Despite our dominance as a species, humans account for just 0.01% of Earth's total biomass.
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