There are 20,000,000,000,000,000 ants crawling all over Earth

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A caller survey estimates determination are 20 quadrillion idiosyncratic ants crossed the globe, which unneurotic measurement much than each chaotic birds and mammals combined

Life 19 September 2022

By Alice Klein

Black idiosyncratic    ants dragging vegetation to the colony

Black idiosyncratic ants dragging vegetation to the colony

corlaffra/Shutterstock

About 20 quadrillion ants are crawling implicit Earth, according to a caller estimate.

“Anyone who’s looked astatine ants and realised determination are tons of them has astir apt wondered however galore determination whitethorn beryllium successful full – it’s conscionable a question that’s connected people’s minds,” says Patrick Schultheiss astatine the University of Hong Kong, who co-led the survey with his workfellow Sabine Nooten at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg successful Germany.

To supply an answer, they compiled information from 489 studies that measured ant densities successful antithetic parts of the satellite utilizing standardised methods. They extrapolated this information to estimation determination are astir 20,000,000,000,000,000, oregon 20 quadrillion, ants crossed the globe.

The full biomass of this planetary ant colonisation – the corporate value of c successful each the individuals – is astir 12 cardinal tonnes. This is much than chaotic birds and mammals combined, which person a full biomass of 2 cardinal tonnes and 7 cardinal tonnes, respectively. Humans, by comparison, person a full biomass of 60 cardinal tonnes.

Previous estimates of the fig of ants connected Earth were “essentially educated guesses” that extrapolated from ant densities measured successful 1 oregon 2 locations, says Schultheiss. The latest investigation aimed to beryllium much close by looking astatine studies from each continents and written successful antithetic languages.

There are inactive gaps successful our knowledge, however, due to the fact that astir ant counts person been conducted connected the ground, alternatively than successful trees oregon underground, says Schultheiss. Statistics from Africa and bluish Asia are besides limited.

There are 15,700 known taxon and subspecies of ants. The insects are captious to astir ecosystems due to the fact that of their roles successful dispersing seeds, expanding nutrient availability via ungraded turnover and providing nutrient for ant-eating animals.

Knowing the planetary ant colonisation is important for conservation purposes, says Nooten.

“With this study, we supply a baseline for the planetary organisation of the fig of ants and the biomass, and successful the aboriginal we could bash repetition studies successful the aforesaid places utilizing the aforesaid methods to spot what has changed,” she says.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2201550119

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