The biomass of the Earth
The International Day for Biological Diversity will take place on Wednesday. What makes up life on Earth? The mass of all living organisms on the planet, the biomass, is dominated by plants, mainly trees. Humans represent a minute portion of life on Earth, but have had a major impact on other living things. VIDEOGRAPHIC
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00:00 [Music plays]
00:07 What makes up life on Earth?
00:10 The mass of all living organisms on the planet, the biomass,
00:14 is dominated by plants at 80% of the total, mainly trees.
00:19 Then comes bacteria comprising 15% of the planet's total biomass.
00:24 They are mainly found deep down in the soil
00:27 but a large proportion of them are inactive.
00:32 The remaining categories, notably mushrooms, viruses and animals,
00:36 represent less than 10% of total biomass.
00:43 The biomass of animals comprises over 40% anthropods,
00:47 meaning insects and shellfish, followed by fish,
00:50 which make up nearly a third of animal biomass.
00:55 Mammals represent less than 7% of animal biomass.
01:00 At the heart of this group,
01:02 humans and livestock exceed the biomass of wild animals.
01:09 Human beings make up only 2.5% of animal biomass
01:14 and only 0.01% of the planet's total biomass.
01:20 Humans represent a minute portion of life on Earth
01:23 but have had a major impact on other living things
01:26 through the development of agriculture and the domestication of animals.
01:32 It is estimated that since the start of human civilization,
01:35 the biomass of wild land mammals has been reduced by a factor of 7
01:40 and wild marine mammals by a factor of 5.
01:48 [ Silence ]