Study Says Earth Is Possibly Home To One Trillion Species

The Earth may actually be home to nearly one trillion species, according to a new study from biologists at Indiana University. Only one-thousandth of a percent of species are currently known.

Biologists Jay T. Lennon and Kenneth J. Locey pooled together the largest compilation of microbial, plant and animal community datasets. The data came from academic, citizen and government sources and represent 5.6 million species, both microscopic and nonmicroscopic species from 35,000 areas all over the Earth except Antarctica.

"This research offers a view of the extensive diversity of microbes on Earth," National Science Foundation Biodiversity program Director Simon Malcomber said via Science Daily. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the study.

The Earth may be home to one trillion species - mostly bacteria https://t.co/8LRpDLWurk pic.twitter.com/wVDxkYbYqk

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Microbes Absent In Previous Estimates Of Total Earth Species

According to NSF, microbial species are "forms of life too small to be seen with the naked eye, including single-celled organisms such as bacteria and archaea, as well as certain fungi." Lennon said that older ventures into estimating the Earth's total species failed to include microbes, adding that these also used datasets that were "based on biased techniques or questionable extrapolations." 

In contrast, Lennon and Locey's study had 20,736 sampling efforts on bacteria, archaea and microscopic fungi. The study also had sampling efforts on communities of trees, birds and mammals, 14,862 in all.

Genetics Helping In Earth Species Estimate

"The advent of new genetic sequencing technology provides an unprecedentedly large pool of new information," Lennon said, as per Daily Mail. Lennon also said via NSF that before modern genetics, scientists merely characterized diversity based on 100 individuals, when it is known that one gram of soil can have up to a billion organisms.

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