Biomass

Discover the ways to measure a forest and calculate the biomass of the organic material in a temperate forestSee all videos for this article

biomass, the weight or total quantity of living organisms of one animal or plant species (species biomass) or of all the species in a community (community biomass), commonly referred to a unit area or volume of habitat. The weight or quantity of organisms in an area at a given moment is the standing crop. The total amount of organic material produced by living organisms in a particular area within a set period of time, called the primary or secondary productivity (the former for plants, the latter for animals), is usually measured in units of energy, such as gram calories or kilojoules per square metre per year. Measures of weight—e.g., tons of carbon per square kilometre per year or gigatons of carbon per year—are also commonly recorded.

In a different though related sense, the term biomass refers to plant materials and animal waste used especially as a source of fuel.