The Earth is home to at least 20 million billion ants, according to a new study published Monday in the scientific journal
PNAS
.
And again: this estimate is probably largely undervalued compared to reality.
Determining the world population of ants is important to measure the impact that changes to their habitat – including climate change – can cause.
Ants play a major role wherever they are, serving as a means of dispersal for plant seeds, as hosts for certain organisms or as predators or prey for other animals.
A biomass of 12 million tons
Previous studies had attempted a count of this population and had resulted in a much lower number of ants.
For this new attempt, the researchers analyzed the results of 465 studies that measured the number of ants locally, in the field.
The total biomass of ants (measured in dry matter) on Earth is thus estimated at 12 million tonnes.
This is more than the biomass of wild birds and mammals combined, and it is 20% of that of humans.
Two favorite habitats
Surveys have been carried out on all continents, but certain major regions (Central Africa, Central Asia) presented only a few data.
This is why "the true abundance of ants is probably considerably higher", warns the study.
“It is of the utmost importance that these gaps are filled, in order to provide a complete picture.
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There are more than 15,700 species or subspecies of ants in the world, and probably as many have not yet been described, according to the study.
Ants are present everywhere on Earth, but two thirds of them are found in only two types of ecosystems: forests and tropical savannahs, conclude this work.
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