The Human Impacts Database

A collection of useful numbers for quantifying the impacts of the human presence on Earth.

This quantity is a single measurement of the quantity at a given point in time (2021).


Value:		≈ 2 - 18 × 10¹² kg see this value in other units This is equivalent to... ≈ 2 - 18 Pg
HuID:		68730
Relevant Year(s):		2021
Summary:		This value is an estimate of the global biomass of phytoplankton, including pico-, nano-, and microphytoplankton. The estimate is based on satellite measurements of chlorophyll, which is converted to phytoplankton biomass using empirical relations between chlorophyll concentration and phytoplankton mass.
Method:		This value is estimated from a statistical model based on several factors. First, surface chlorophyll observations from satellite imaging. Using an empirical model, they converted this surface measurement into an estimate of chlorophyll for the entire water column, finally this estimate was converted to phytoplankton biomass using another empirical relation. The uncertainty represents a 95% confidence interval that is derived from the confidence intervals of both empirical equations used to estimate phytoplankton biomass.
Source:		Hatton, I.A., Heneghan, R.F., Bar-On, Y.M., Galbraith, E.D. The global ocean size spectrum from bacteria to whales. Sciences Advances (2021)
Dataset:		Estimate of oceanic biomass by category (summary_data_table_with_aggregates.csv) global resolution
Original Data License:		CC-BY 4.0
Added By:		rbanks