20,000,000,000,000,000,000!

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How many ants are there on the earth? Image source: Christian Ziegler/Minden Piction

Anyone who has observed ants and aware of the large number of ants may want to know how much ants on the earth. Of course, this is just a question in people's hearts. A new study estimates that about 200 million ants are crawling around the world. Related studies have recently been published in the American Academy of Sciences.

The University of Hong Kong, Patrick Schultheis, and colleagues, and Sabine Nooten, the University of Elius Maximilian, Germany, led the research. They collected 489 research data, which measured the density of ants in different regions of the world in different regions of the world. Researchers infer that about 200 million ants worldwide are inferred based on these data.

The total biomass of the global ant species (the total carbon weight of all individuals) is about 12 million tons, which is more than the sum of wild birds (2 million tons) and mammals (7 million tons). In contrast, the total amount of human biology is 60 million tons.

The estimation of the number of ants on the earth was basically basically based, that is, the ant density measured by one or two places was inferred. Schultheiss said that the study aims to obtain more accurate results by analyzing research reports from various continents and writing in different languages.

However, Schultheiss pointed out that there is still a gap in related data cognition because most ant counting is carried out on the ground, not on trees or underground. In addition, statistics from Africa and North Asia are also limited.

There are 1,5700 species and subspecies known as ants. This kind of insect is very important for most ecosystems, because they play an important role in spreading seeds, increasing nutrients, and providing foods for ant animals through soil transfers.

NOOTEN said that understanding the number of ants worldwide is important to protect the ecology. This study provides a base line for the global distribution of ants and biomass. In the same place in the same place, it is expected to understand what changes have occurred in the same place.

Related thesis information:

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201550119

"China Science News" (2022-09-21 The 2nd edition of the original title "How many ants are there on the earth? Scientists give answers")

Edit | Zhao Lu

Capture | Zhihai

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