Did you ever wonder how many ants there are on Earth? It’s possible that it’s not true, but we have asked ourselves this question.
Our ResearchAn approximate answer is provided in a paper published today. Our planet is home to approximately 20 quadrillion ants, according to conservative estimates. That’s 20 thousand million millions, or in numerical form, 20,000,000,000,000,000 (20 with 15 zeroes).
Additionally, the world’s 12 million tons of carbon-rich ants are estimated to collectively make up about 12,000,000 tons. This is more than all of the world’s wild animals and mammals combined. It is also about one-fifth the human total weight.
Eminent biologist Edward O. Wilson once said insects and other invertebrates are “the little things that run the world” – and he was right.
Ants, especially, are crucial PartNature. They are an integral part of the food chain and play a variety of roles including dispersing seeds, creating habitats for other animals, and aerating the soil.
It is important to estimate ant mass and numbers in order to monitor their population during worrying environmental changes.
Counting all the ants around the globe
There are more than 15,700 known species and subspecies, plus many others that science has yet to name. The high level of social organization in ants has allowed them to colonize almost all ecosystems and regions across the globe.
Many naturalists have been inspired by the astonishing ubiquity and beauty of ants to create a list. ConsiderTheir exact number is available on Earth.
These were merely educated guesses. These estimates were not based on evidence and have not been systematically derived.
Our research was based on 489 studies of ant population conducted by fellow scientists from all over the globe. This included non English literature in languages such Spanish, French German, Russian Mandarin, Mandarin and Portuguese.
This research covered all continents and major habitats, including deserts, grasslands, cities, and forests. The standard methods used to collect and count ants included pitfall traps and leaf litter samples. It is often tedious work as you can see.
All this leads us to the conclusion that there are roughly 20 quadrillion ants living on Earth. Although this estimate is conservative, it is still between two and twenty times more than the previous estimates.
The figures used a “top down” approach and assumed that ants account for about 1% of the world’s insect population.
Our “bottom-up” estimate, on the other hand, is more reliable as it relies on data from ants in the field and makes less assumptions.
The next step was to calculate how many ants these ants weighed. The mass of all organisms is Measuring is commonTheir carbon makeup.
According to our estimates, 20 quadrillion ants of average size would have a dry mass or “biomass” equivalent to approximately 12,000,000 tons of carbon.
This is more than the combined biomass of wild birds and mammals – and about 20 percent of total human biomass.
Carbon makes up About halfAn ant’s dry weight. The total mass of all the world’s ants is higher if you include the weight of bodily elements.
Also, ants are unevenly distributed on the Earth’s surface. They differ sixfold between habitats and peak in the tropical tropics. This highlights the importance of tropical areas in maintaining healthy populations.
Ants are also found in forests and surprisingly, in arid places. However, they are becoming less common in humans-made habitats.
These findings have some caveats. The sampling locations in our dataset are not evenly distributed across different geographic regions.
We don’t have much information on ant populations in trees, as most of the samples were taken from ground. Underground. Our findings may not be complete.
All of us need ants
Humans also benefit from the services of ants. A recent study, for example, found that ants provide essential “ecosystem services” to humans. FoundPesticides can have a greater impact on farmers’ production of food than ants.
Ants have also developed tight interactions with other organisms – and some species cannot survive without them.
Some birds, for example, rely on ants to survive. Flush outTheir prey. They also have thousands of plant species. Feed or house antsThey are exchanged for protection and dispersal of their seed. Many ants can also be predators and help keep other insects under control.
Alarmingly global insect numbers are alarming StagnationDue to threats like habitat destruction and fragmentation and chemical use, invasive species and Climate Change.
Unfortunately, there is not much data available on the biodiversity of insects. Our study will provide a foundation for future research that can fill this gap.
Monitoring ant populations is in the best interest of humanity. It’s easy to count ants. Citizens scientists from around the world could help determine how these important creatures are doing in this time of extreme environmental change.
Mark WongForrest Fellow The University of Western Australia; Benoit GuénardAssociate professor University of Hong Kong; François BrassardDoctoral candidate Charles Darwin University; Patrick Schultheiss, Temporary Principal investigator Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg; Runxi WangDoctoral candidate University of Hong Kong?, and Sabine Nooten– Temporary Principal Investigator Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg
This article was republished by The ConversationUnder a Creative Commons License Please read the Original article.
