By this logic, the planet is a sort of supercomputer in which total DNA represents the system’s storage capacity, and the rate of genetic transcription its computing power. But the first step in applying this approach to the study of biodiversity is to determine a composite figure for DNA.

Image By calculating the biomass of the world's microbes, plants, animals and fungi, researchers estimated all the DNA on the planet as a measure of global biodiversity. Credit... Chromatos

With that goal in mind, Ms. Landenmark and her colleagues performed an exhaustive review of the number of microbes, plants, animals and fungi found on Earth. They also included viruses, because those agents play an important role in processing DNA and genes.

The researchers calculated each group’s total biomass, based on the estimated number of living individuals and their size. Finally, they calculated the number of cells contained in each organism and multiplied that by the amount of DNA contained in each cell, giving them a value for the amount of DNA contained in a given person or tree, mushroom or bacterium.

As the researchers reported in the journal PLOS Biology, they found that Earth contains around 50 trillion trillion trillion DNA base pairs — the building blocks of DNA’s double helix — plus or minus 3.6 x 1037 base pairs. If gathered together, that amount of DNA would weigh 50 billion tons and fill one billion shipping containers.

The team also calculated the planet’s equivalent of computing power: the speed of DNA transcription. Given the average rate of genetic transcription for different organismal groups, they found that the biosphere processes more than 1024 subunits of DNA per second.