Blake Ashley Jr.Apr 23, 2023
mark belan | sci illustrator

The Biomass of Life

(Giving this a go here on Mastodon...🐘 )

Read more at Visual Capitalist: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/all-the-biomass-of-earth-in-one-graphic/

#science #dataviz #data #datavisualization #sciart #scicomm #vizscicom #art #illustration #scientificillustration #scientific #biodiversity #infographic #infographics #vizscicomm #visuals #graphics #sciencegraphics

All the Biomass of Earth, in One Graphic

Our planet supports nearly 8.7 million species. We break down the total composition of the living world in terms of its biomass.

Visual Capitalist
Nov 8, 2022 at 3:09amWeb
Show threadMike MeltonNov 8, 2022
@artscistudios Whoa. That is very cool!
Show threadpirimidiNov 8, 2022
@artscistudios Wonderful infographic, love the compactness and visual simplicity to capture this complex system of bio-correlations. ❤️
Show threadSmall Things ConsideredDec 5, 2022
@artscistudios
good to see this one here on mastodon too 🤗
I'm a big fan of your barnacles!
Show threadmyrmepropagandistApr 23, 2023

@artscistudios

I've read conflicting "factoids" saying that half of the arthropod mass is ants, or half of the LAND arthropod mass is ants, or that ants have the same mass as people or that ants are 4X people.

We need to settle this obviously.

Show threadJennifer Mach (she/they)Apr 23, 2023
@artscistudios Gorgeous #dataviz! The colors and details with little examples of each type of animal really (caution: incoming cliche) bring the data to life. Of course would be great to see for #Plants but that was probably not what you were asked to illustrate! #plantblindness
Show threadabcderianApr 23, 2023

@artscistudios Does the biomass of bacteria represented here include or exclude bacteria living within other creatures?

I would have thought bacterial biomass would have outweighed everything else... Learn something new every day.

EDIT: based on the article this estimate includes bacteria within other living things.

Show threadPxtlApr 23, 2023
@abcderian @artscistudios similarly, does the plant biomass include only living plant matter, since the vast majority of a tree is dead tissue.
Show threadMatthijsApr 23, 2023
@artscistudios love this! Thanks so much for making and sharing
Show threadPxtlApr 23, 2023
@artscistudios I would not have thought that nematodes were more biomass than wild mammals, since the only nematodes I can think of offhand are parasites.