Sep 21, 2022
Unless you’re reading this from Greenland or Antarctica, there’s a good chance you’re doing so with ants nearby. After all, we’re sharing the planet with about 20,000,000,000,000,000 (20 quadrillion) of them.
A new study published this week put together data from 489 surveys of ant populations to come up with the number. Researchers call it a conservative estimate. The 20 quadrillion ants represent a biomass of 12 megatons of pure carbon. That's more than all known wild birds and mammals combined. It's equal to 20% of human biomass on the planet.
"It's unimaginable," one of the study’s authors told The Washington Post. "We simply cannot imagine 20 quadrillion ants in one pile, for example. It just doesn't work."
Yet ants do work. They are vital to the world around them. Their colonies break up soil. That helps water and nutrients reach the roots of plants. They pollinate trees and spread seeds. They remove waste from their habitat. Ants are also a great food source for other animals. Some humans eat ants, too. They're considered a treat.
There are more than 15,700 known species of ant. A majority of them are in tropical areas. As such, knowing how many there are is an important way scientists can monitor the health of often-fragile ecosystems.
“It’s in humanity’s interest to monitor ant populations,” the study’s authors say. “Counting ants is not difficult, and citizen scientists from all over the world could help investigate how these important animals are faring at a time of great environmental change.”
Photo by Peter F. Wolf courtesy of Unsplash.
The 6th Mass Extinction
This video discusses species extinctions, mass extinction events in Earth's history, and the current mass extinction event occurring on Earth.
Are We Living in the Sixth Extinction?
This video discusses the current and historic rates of species extinctions and the current and historic causes of species extinctions on Earth.
Seeing the Wood for the Trees: Introduction to Sustainable Forestry
In these two 45-minute lessons, students will compare different sustainable and unsustainable forestry methods and distinguish between them, analyze satellite images, collect and organize field data about the variety of tree species in their own area, and draw conclusions about the importance and complexity of maintaining healthy and biologically diverse forests.