Amount of living matter in a unit area or volume of habitat; living matter cultivated as source of energy.
The total mass of living organisms present in a given area. It may be specified for a particular species (such as earthworm biomass) or for a general category (such as herbivore biomass). Estimates also exist for the entire global plant biomass. Measurements of biomass can be used to study interactions between organisms, the stability of those interactions, and variations in population numbers. Where dry biomass is measured, the material is dried to remove all water before weighing
Some two-thirds of the world's population cooks and heats water by burning biomass, usually wood. Plant biomass can be a renewable source of energy as replacement supplies can be grown relatively quickly. Fossil fuels however, originally formed from biomass, accumulate so slowly that they cannot be considered renewable. The burning of biomass (defined either as natural areas of the ecosystem or as forest, grasslands, and fuelwoods) produces 3.5 million metric tons of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide each year, accounting for up to 40% of the world's annual carbon dioxide production.
1. Plant materials and animal waste used as fuel.
2. The total mass of living matter in a given unit area. + prikaži više