| Comments |
Sum of aquatic habitats, oceanic subsurface, soil & terrestrial subsurface. "The amount of carbon in prokaryotes can
be estimated from the cell numbers in soil, aquatic systems, and
the subsurface. In the soil and subsurface, the cellular carbon
is assumed to be one-half of the dry weight. In soil, the average
dry weight of a prokaryotic cell is 2×10^-13g or 200 fg (ref 18).
Thus, the total prokaryotic cellular carbon in soil is 26×10^15g of C or 26 Pg of C (Table 5). In the subsurface, there is only
one measurement of the average dry weight of cells, that of 172
fg for cells from a terrestrial aquifer (ref 36). This value yields an
estimate of the terrestrial prokaryotic cellular carbon of 22–215 Pg of C (Table 5). The estimate for the marine subsurface,
303 Pg of C (Table 5), may be compared with 56 Pg of C, the
value obtained by Parkes
et al.
(33)." |