Counting the Earth's living riches is a landmark moment | Damian Carrington

a new total species on Earth is competing with numbers like pi and the speed of light emblematic. However, it represents a beginning, not an end, to understand our place in the world

Some issues are fundamental and symbolic, that pi in mathematics and the speed of light in physics. Provide a foundation on which can be a vast edifice of integrated science, which eventually leads to much of our prosperity and wellbeing. Disorder in the world, but much more tangible in biology, the figures are also important. I would take $ 7 billion today as critical. The number of people can expect to live on Earth in late October

But there is another, more fundamental, biological numbers that defied attempts to specify more than 250 years: the number of different species with whom we share the planet. Now a historic document has taken a big step forward in uncovering the true richness of life on Earth, whose estimates ranged from 3 meters to 100 million species.

The number, say scientists, is 8.7 m, and I think he deserves iconic status. Why? Human beings are new developments at the end, after stalking the planet only for fleeting moments of your most recent 4 billion years of history. The biosphere, we were able to colonize was created by the myriad interactions between creatures, rocks and weather.

we begin to control these processes - entering the Anthropocene -. We are increasingly aware of how dependent we are on our fellow human beings and habitats that live in our water, food and livelihoods

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It is widely believed that the overthrow of the "sixth mass extinction", caused by our activities is essential. But it could not really say, when the Earl of life on Earth was so uncertain?

• The figure of $ 8.7 million per company makes a point, but nothing more. Approximately 90% of species unknown to science, a surprising and humiliating. Only 1% are controlled by the IUCN Red List. Who knows what services these agencies offer anonymous? There are about 90,000 plants unknown, some of which could transform food production. The task now is to accelerate the discovery of the fauna and flora.
• The Dark "good news" for taxonomists is that the monumental task is to get a little easier every day. Habitat destruction and overexploitation of the seas are the eradication of most species are naturally developed - the first time this has been true since the dinosaurs disappeared. Species are disappearing at a rate of about 1000 times faster than before humans began to dominate the world.

Only last week we learned that the animals flee the impacts of climate change faster than thought. Many fail to find a safe haven. And hidden beneath the visible loss of biodiversity is an even greater loss of genetic diversity, according to another new document.

course there are caveats to the figure of 8.7 million euros is biology, not physics. The number is an extrapolation of a mathematical relationship between different levels of taxonomic classification, tested against the well-known groups of animals. It has error bars of about 1.3 m, and omits the bacteria and viruses. (You can read the article here, Mora et al.)

But the fundamental importance of the ongoing series. As one of the scientists behind him, Boris Worm of Dalhousie University, said: "If you did not know - even to an order of magnitude - the number of people in a nation, how can we plan for the future ? "