A census of the biomass on Earth is key for understanding the structure and dynamics of the biosphere. However, a global, quantitative view of how the biomass of different taxa compare with one another is still lacking. Here, we assemble the overall biomass composition of the biosphere, establishing a census of the ≈550 gigatons of carbon (Gt C) of biomass distributed among all of the kingdoms of life. We find that the kingdoms of life concentrate at different locations on the planet; plants (≈450 Gt C, the dominant kingdom) are primarily terrestrial, whereas animals (≈2 Gt C) are mainly marine, and bacteria (≈70 Gt C) and archaea (≈7 Gt C) are predominantly located in deep subsurface environments. We show that terrestrial biomass is about two orders of magnitude higher than marine biomass and estimate a total of ≈6 Gt C of marine biota, doubling the previous estimated quantity. Our analysis reveals that the global marine biomass pyramid contains more consumers than producers, thus increasing the scope of previous observations on inverse food pyramids. Finally, we highlight that the mass of humans is an order of magnitude higher than that of all wild mammals combined and report the historical impact of humanity on the global biomass of prominent taxa, including mammals, fish, and plants.

A large collection of educational resources covering a wide variety of topics that are of interest to people learning about Permaculture. This knowledgebase has been created by the Permaculture Association, a UK-based group that is working to create international cooperation among Permaculture groups. Many of their goals and principles agree with those of the PCL project.

This short video from NASA shows air currents moving around the globe, carrying air pollution from one continent to another.

This Facebook discussion on the Regrarians page lists many sources for information on agricultural impacts on natural environments across historic civilizations.

An Open Source project sharing completed architectural designs.

A short article on planning and planting a hedgerow that includes edible plants.

In this black and white video, two farmers demonstrate the traditional method of making a skep for beekeeping by hand from straw and small branches.