The abundance, biomass, and distribution of ants on Earth

Abstract

Knowledge on the distribution and abundance of organisms is fundamental to understanding their roles within ecosystems and their ecological importance for other taxa. Such knowledge is currently lacking for insects, which have long been regarded as the “little things that run the world”. Even for ubiquitous insects, such as ants, which are of tremendous ecological significance, there is currently neither a reliable estimate of their total number on Earth nor of their abundance in particular biomes or habitats. We compile data on ground-dwelling and arboreal ants to obtain an empirical estimate of global ant abundance. Our analysis is based on 489 studies, spanning all continents, major biomes, and habitats. We conservatively estimate total abundance of ground-dwelling ants at over 3 × 10 15 and estimate the number of all ants on Earth to be almost 20 × 10 15 individuals. The latter corresponds to a biomass of ∼12 megatons of dry carbon. This exceeds the combined biomass of wild birds and mammals and is equivalent to ∼20% of human biomass. Abundances of ground-dwelling ants are strongly concentrated in tropical and subtropical regions but vary substantially across habitats. The density of leaf-litter ants is highest in forests, while the numbers of actively ground-foraging ants are highest in arid regions. This study highlights the central role ants play in terrestrial ecosystems but also major ecological and geographic gaps in our current knowledge. Our results provide a crucial baseline for exploring environmental drivers of ant-abundance patterns and for tracking the responses of insects to environmental change.

The Origin of Non-biological ‘Paralife’ and its Coevolution with Biological Intelligence

“…For example, all orders of the class Mammalia combined constitute only ~6,500 species (Burgin et al 2018). Also, the combined biomass of all ant species alone exceeds the combined biomass of all wild bird and mammal species combined (Schultheiss et al 2022). The extreme diversity, biomass and wide global distributions of eusocial insects supports the conclusion that increased levels of TW increase the potential for niche-expansion.…”

Ecological change and conflict reduction led to the evolution of a transformative social behavior in ants

“…Behavioral traits and associated phenotypic adaptations were central to the evolution of one of the most ecologically dominant invertebrate clades: the ants 3,11,12 . The ant phylogeny holds extreme diversity in ecology, morphology, life-history traits, but also in behavior.…”

Generic and species richness of ant fauna in different provinces of Nepal (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

“…Ants contribute to the conservation and proper operation of ecosystem by providing a number of ecological services and negative effects (Del Toro et al 2012). Estimated number of ants on Earth corresponds to 20×10 15 and biomass of almost 12 megatons (Schultheiss et al 2022). Ant abundance is irregularly distributed in Earth and peaks in the tropics (Kaspari et al 2004, Economo et al 2018, Kass et al 2022, Schultheiss et al 2022.…”

“…Estimated number of ants on Earth corresponds to 20×10 15 and biomass of almost 12 megatons (Schultheiss et al 2022). Ant abundance is irregularly distributed in Earth and peaks in the tropics (Kaspari et al 2004, Economo et al 2018, Kass et al 2022, Schultheiss et al 2022. The Himalayas and other biodiversity hotspots are locations that are crucial for preserving biodiversity globally (Norman 2003).…”