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So the estimate is: >200 to 600 octillion microbes (2 to 6x10^29 cells) live in the continental subsurface. Ok, can you give me that in blue whales? >These c
by gilleain 8y ago
So the estimate is:
>200 to 600 octillion microbes (2 to 6x10^29 cells) live in the continental subsurface.
Ok, can you give me that in blue whales?
>These cells represent about four to 13 petagrams of carbon, (each petagram is about one billion tons, or more than five million blue whales), which is approximately four to 10 times less than earlier estimates.
Great.
- vanderZwan 8y agoSerious question: is "blue whales" a common informal unit for biomass?
- bryanrasmussen 8y agoI think 'large animal that people are familiar with' is for science popularizing articles. Let's say it was less than a 10,000 blue whales, they might have wanted to calculate it in African Elephants.
- pax 8y agois cell count / microorganism density relatively constant through species? How different would 'a blue whale worth of lab mice' be if counting volume/mass/cells/microorganisms?
- jstanley 8y agoAccording to https://www.quora.com/How-many-cells-does-a-blue-whale-have https://www.quora.com/How-many-cells-does-a-blue-whale-have There are about 10^16 cells in a blue whale. So maybe about 10^13 blue whales? Seems unlikely.
- 21 8y agoOne cell type (prokaryote, tiny) is not like the other (eukaryote, huge)
- mirimir 8y agoI'd say that 4-13 billion tons is a lot. Quick grab from the Wikipedia page re biomass. humans: ~0.1 billion tonnes domesticated animals: ~0.7 billion tonnes earthworms: ~1 billion tonnes annual cereal crops: ~2.3 billion tonnes Antarctic krill: ~0.5 billion tonnes fish: 0.8-2.0 billion tonnes