Biomass (ecology)
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Biomass is the mass of living biological organisms in a given area or ecosystem at a given time. Biomass can refer to species biomass, which is the mass of one or more species, or to community biomass, which is the mass of all species in the community. It can include microorganisms, plants or animals. The mass can be expressed as the average mass per unit area, or as the total mass in the community.
The total global live biomass has been estimated at about 550 billion tonnes carbon, most of which is found in forests.
Shallow aquatic environments, such as wetlands, estuaries and coral reefs, can be as productive as forests, generating similar amounts of new biomass each year on a given area.
Relative terrestrial biomasses of vertebrates versus arthropods
Prochlorococcus, an influential bacterium
Phytoplankton
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Phytoplankton are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν, meaning 'plant', and πλαγκτός, meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'.
Some types of phytoplankton (not to scale) Left to right: cyanobacteria, diatom, dinoflagellate, green algae and coccolithophore
Diatoms are one of the most common types of phytoplankton
Coccolithophores are armour-plated
The dinoflagellate Dinophysis acuta