Biomass refers to the total mass of organic matter present in living organisms. This measurement is often conducted regarding dry weight, excluding water content, and may also be expressed as the quantity of carbon within an organism (1).
The amount of biomass helps to understand the distribution of organisms in an ecosystem or the Earth. For example, we estimate ants comprise about 20 per cent of the total biomass of terrestrial animals in most ecosystems (2).
But the term biomass can also describe the energy content of different parts of an ecosystem. For example, the timber industry uses it to account for the energy content of a forest (3).
Sources
- Svenska Yle – Life’s biomass in the balance
- Tidningen Syre – 20 thousand trillion ants on earth
- Owl Biology – Ecological concepts
October 2023, TÄNKOM | Revised November 2023 RETHINK
