biomass
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bi·o·mass
(bī′ō-măs′)n.
1. The total mass of living matter within a given unit of environmental area.
2. Plant or animal material, such as forestry byproducts or agricultural waste, that is used as a fuel or energy source.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
biomass
(ˈbaɪəʊˌmæs)n
1. (Environmental Science) the total number of living organisms in a given area, expressed in terms of living or dry weight per unit area
2. (Biology) vegetable matter used as a source of energy
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
bi•o•mass
(ˈbaɪ oʊˌmæs)n.
1. the amount of living matter in a given habitat, expressed either as the weight of organisms per unit area or as the volume of organisms per unit volume of habitat.
2. organic matter that can be converted to fuel and is therefore regarded as a potential energy source.
[1930–35]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
bi·o·mass
(bī′ō-măs′)1. The total amount of living material in a given habitat.
2. Organic materials, such as plant matter and manure, that have not become fossilized and are used as a fuel or energy source. Biomass fuels produce less carbon dioxide than some fossil fuels, such as petroleum.
Did You Know? The matter that makes up the Earth's living organisms is called biomass. Insects alone make up an amazing amount of biomass. The biologist J.B.S. Haldane was once asked if the study of life on the Earth gave him any insights into God. Haldane replied jokingly that his research revealed that God must have "an inordinate fondness for beetles." Haldane made his comment because there are more beetle species—almost 400,000 now known—than species of any other animal. And beetles are only one kind of insect, of which there are almost one million species that are known and perhaps many millions more yet to be discovered. The number of individual insects is mind-boggling, about 10 quintillion (that's 10,000,000,000,000,000,000). So all those little critters add up. Insects together probably have more biomass than any other type of land animal. And if we added up all the weights of all the people in the world, the biomass of all the insects would be 300 times as great.
The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
biomass
The chemical energy in growing plants, hence biomass fuels (firewood, dried dung, and biogas).
Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group Copyright © 2008 by Diagram Visual Information Limited
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| Noun | 1. | biomass - plant materials and animal waste used as fuel fuel - a substance that can be consumed to produce energy; "more fuel is needed during the winter months"; "they developed alternative fuels for aircraft" |
| 2. | biomass - the total mass of living matter in a given unit area mass - the property of a body that causes it to have weight in a gravitational field |
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