What is the term for the total mass of living matter in a given area?

The term for the total mass of living matter in a given area is biomass. Biomass refers to the organic material that comes from plants and animals and is an important concept in ecology and environmental science. It is measured in terms of weight per unit area and can be used to understand the energy available in a particular ecosystem. For instance, higher biomass in a region typically indicates a more vibrant and productive ecosystem, often correlating with a greater number of plants and animals that can coexist in that environment.

Biotic potential refers to the maximum reproductive capacity of an organism under optimal environmental conditions, which doesn’t focus on mass but rather on reproduction. Population density is a measure of the number of individuals living in a given space, which does not directly relate to the total mass of living matter. Carrying capacity is the maximum number of individuals an environment can sustainably support, which again, does not address mass but rather population limits. These concepts are associated with ecological dynamics but specifically focus on different aspects of biological and environmental interaction rather than cumulative mass.