Thread by @DBarriosONeill

1. Amazingly, this is the first contemporary effort to estimate the biomass distribution of all life on Earth. There are some striking patterns among the ~550 gigatons of carbon packed into life on our planet.
(tl;dr the Triffids won)
pnas.org/content/early/… …

2. Plants completely and utterly dominate (82%), flowed by bacteria (13%) and fungi (2%).

ALL the rest—archaea, protists, animals, and viruses...EVERYTHING—constitute the scabby remaining 3%

Earth's biomass:

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬
🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬🍄🍄(🐟🦐🦎)

🌱=plants
🔬=bacteria
🍄=fungi
( )=ALL the rest

4. On our blue planet, the terrestrial biome hosts a whopping 85% of total biomass (clearly driven by plants), with the deep subsurface hosting 13%. A tiny <2% remains for the sea. The sea is actually a crappy life support system (even if it is critical to the wider biosphere).

All biomass on Earth among terrestrial, subsurface and marine biomes:

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄
🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🐟🐟

6. Consumers dominate the sea, comprising ~85% of total marine biomass*, and producers dominate the land, representing ~95% of total terrestrial biomass.

*side note: the much-maligned inverted biomass pyramid is back

7. There are some perspective-expanding numbers in the mix here. This is the kind of data that should be making its way into the wider world—to schools, and pub quizzes, and bus stops, and board rooms. Life: the thin veneer of sludge on a small wet rock, hurtling through space.