A Kilauea Volcano summary on Day 140 of the Lower Puna Eruption.
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The August issue of Scientific American had an article on the weight of life, which shows just how prominent plants are are on this planet. Until very recently, it was thought that microbiological life (like bacteria) just about equaled macrobiological (like us and trees) life. The very latest data seems to have reduced micro-life by about a factor of a hundred so that plants are now the dominant form of life on Earth.
- Poultry has three times the mass of wild birds.
- Plants comprise 80% of total biomass, but that we have lost half of this form since the beginning of human civilization.
- 85% of biomass is found on land.
- The ocean only has 1% of the biomass,
- The rest of life is in the depths of Earth.
Note the very tiny human pink circle under the ginormous plant green circle. But we do have more total mass than wild animals, though less than lifestock (chickens, etc.), way less than protists (Bet you do don't know what this is?), and a tiny percentage compared to bacteria and fungi in soil.
That graphic above shows more fungi than bacteria, but Wikipedia says it is the reverse. I suspect Wikipedia has not quite caught up with recent studies.
Finally, there seems to be some growing concern in some circles that methane from plants could well be more serious than earlier thought. Hmmm. The Venus Syndrome?
Here is another graphic:
While insignificant in mass, we do control life on Planet Earth. Just a few more tidbits you can toss out at your next cocktail party or dinner conversation.
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