Table 1. Summary of pristine ocean biomass estimates, data sources, and methods among groups.

Estimated pristine ocean biomass (wet weight; 1 Gt =10¹⁵ g) are compared across major groups for the epipelagic (top 200 m) and full depth to the seafloor. Because depth-resolved estimates of fish and mammals were not available, these taxa were roughly allocated to top and full depth categories. Fold uncertainty is a multiplicative 95% CI on biomass. These biomass estimates are consistent with other global meta-analyses across major groups (20, 41–43, 67) and were used to partition biomass across the body size range to build the global ocean size spectra in Figs. 1 and 2. GLM, generalized linear model; SST, sea surface temperature.