The global biomass of wild mammals
Wild mammals are icons of conservation efforts, yet there is no rigorous estimate available for their overall global biomass. Biomass as a metric allows us to compare species with very different body sizes, and can serve as an indicator of wild mammal presence, trends, and impacts, on a global scale...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:10013851 2023-05-15T15:37:13+02:00 The global biomass of wild mammals Greenspoon, Lior Krieger, Eyal Sender, Ron Rosenberg, Yuval Bar-On, Yinon M. Moran, Uri Antman, Tomer Meiri, Shai Roll, Uri Noor, Elad Milo, Ron 2023-02-27 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10013851/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36848563 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2204892120 en eng National Academy of Sciences http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10013851/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36848563 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2204892120 Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) . Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences Text 2023 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2204892120 2023-03-19T02:01:01Z Wild mammals are icons of conservation efforts, yet there is no rigorous estimate available for their overall global biomass. Biomass as a metric allows us to compare species with very different body sizes, and can serve as an indicator of wild mammal presence, trends, and impacts, on a global scale. Here, we compiled estimates of the total abundance (i.e., the number of individuals) of several hundred mammal species from the available data, and used these to build a model that infers the total biomass of terrestrial mammal species for which the global abundance is unknown. We present a detailed assessment, arriving at a total wet biomass of ≈20 million tonnes (Mt) for all terrestrial wild mammals (95% CI 13-38 Mt), i.e., ≈3 kg per person on earth. The primary contributors to the biomass of wild land mammals are large herbivores such as the white-tailed deer, wild boar, and African elephant. We find that even-hoofed mammals (artiodactyls, such as deer and boars) represent about half of the combined mass of terrestrial wild mammals. In addition, we estimated the total biomass of wild marine mammals at ≈40 Mt (95% CI 20-80 Mt), with baleen whales comprising more than half of this mass. In order to put wild mammal biomass into perspective, we additionally estimate the biomass of the remaining members of the class Mammalia. The total mammal biomass is overwhelmingly dominated by livestock (≈630 Mt) and humans (≈390 Mt). This work is a provisional census of wild mammal biomass on Earth and can serve as a benchmark for human impacts. Text baleen whales PubMed Central (PMC) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 10 |
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Biological Sciences |
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Biological Sciences Greenspoon, Lior Krieger, Eyal Sender, Ron Rosenberg, Yuval Bar-On, Yinon M. Moran, Uri Antman, Tomer Meiri, Shai Roll, Uri Noor, Elad Milo, Ron The global biomass of wild mammals |
topic_facet |
Biological Sciences |
description |
Wild mammals are icons of conservation efforts, yet there is no rigorous estimate available for their overall global biomass. Biomass as a metric allows us to compare species with very different body sizes, and can serve as an indicator of wild mammal presence, trends, and impacts, on a global scale. Here, we compiled estimates of the total abundance (i.e., the number of individuals) of several hundred mammal species from the available data, and used these to build a model that infers the total biomass of terrestrial mammal species for which the global abundance is unknown. We present a detailed assessment, arriving at a total wet biomass of ≈20 million tonnes (Mt) for all terrestrial wild mammals (95% CI 13-38 Mt), i.e., ≈3 kg per person on earth. The primary contributors to the biomass of wild land mammals are large herbivores such as the white-tailed deer, wild boar, and African elephant. We find that even-hoofed mammals (artiodactyls, such as deer and boars) represent about half of the combined mass of terrestrial wild mammals. In addition, we estimated the total biomass of wild marine mammals at ≈40 Mt (95% CI 20-80 Mt), with baleen whales comprising more than half of this mass. In order to put wild mammal biomass into perspective, we additionally estimate the biomass of the remaining members of the class Mammalia. The total mammal biomass is overwhelmingly dominated by livestock (≈630 Mt) and humans (≈390 Mt). This work is a provisional census of wild mammal biomass on Earth and can serve as a benchmark for human impacts. |
format |
Text |
author |
Greenspoon, Lior Krieger, Eyal Sender, Ron Rosenberg, Yuval Bar-On, Yinon M. Moran, Uri Antman, Tomer Meiri, Shai Roll, Uri Noor, Elad Milo, Ron |
author_facet |
Greenspoon, Lior Krieger, Eyal Sender, Ron Rosenberg, Yuval Bar-On, Yinon M. Moran, Uri Antman, Tomer Meiri, Shai Roll, Uri Noor, Elad Milo, Ron |
author_sort |
Greenspoon, Lior |
title |
The global biomass of wild mammals |
title_short |
The global biomass of wild mammals |
title_full |
The global biomass of wild mammals |
title_fullStr |
The global biomass of wild mammals |
title_full_unstemmed |
The global biomass of wild mammals |
title_sort |
global biomass of wild mammals |
publisher |
National Academy of Sciences |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10013851/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36848563 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2204892120 |
genre |
baleen whales |
genre_facet |
baleen whales |
op_source |
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10013851/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36848563 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2204892120 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) . |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2204892120 |
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
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120 |
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10 |
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1766367680027164672 |