Introduction

The term for all types of life is biodiversity. It covers all life forms on earth; the different plants, animals and micro-organisms, their genes, and the terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems of which they are a part.

The estimated percentages of all forms of life by weight are based on a comprehensive 2018 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The approximate percentage of the components of the biomass

Plants             82-83%

Bacteria           13-15%

Fungi               approx.. 2.3%

Archaea           approx.. 1.3%

Protists             approx.. 0.7%

Animals           approx.. 0.47%

Viruses            approx.. 0.04%

When asked if all life was interdependent, AI provided the following answer:

Yes, all life is fundamentally interdependent, meaning every organism relies on other living things and non-living elements (like air, water, soil) for survival, forming complex food webs, habitats, and symbiotic relationships, where removing one part affects the whole system. This interconnectedness spans all scales, from tiny microbes to massive ecosystems and even human societies, highlighting that no species lives in total isolation.

An appreciation of the truth of this answer can be obtained by considering the symbiosis of the animal kingdom with vegetation.

Every animal from insects and fish to birds, reptiles, and all mammals rely on the metabolism of glucose to power their bodily functions. This metabolism requires oxygen. The process is called aerobic cellular respiration. The glucose comes from eating; plants are full of glucose, as well as many naturally present saccharides, starches are polymers which break down to yield glucose. Even when dietary glucose levels are low, animals possess a mechanism called gluconeogenesis that converts protein (meat, eggs etc) into glucose. The end products from the breakdown of glucose to provide energy are carbon dioxide and water.

Plants take carbon dioxide and water and through the process of photosynthesis form glucose and liberate oxygen.

In short, vegetation supplies what the animal kingdom needs for energy, which is glucose and oxygen, and the animal kingdom supplies the raw materials of carbon dioxide and water from which plants generate glucose and oxygen by way of photosynthesis.[1] So, the animal kingdom needs vegetation for its existence and vegetation needs the animal kingdom for its existence. It is hard to imagine a clearer example of design. And of course, if there is design, there must be a Designer.

This mutual dependence is shown schematically

Other forms of interdependence

Pollination: Bees and butterflies feed on flower nectar, while transferring pollen, enabling the flowers to reproduce.

Predator-Prey: A fox hunts rabbits for food; if foxes disappear, rabbit numbers grow, then grass decreases due to overgrazing.

Symbiosis (Mutualism): Oxpeckers eat ticks off giraffes, benefiting both by cleaning the giraffe and feeding the bird.

Decomposition: Fungi and bacteria break down dead plants and animals, returning essential nutrients to the soil for plants to use.

Shelter: Spiders build webs on trees for stability, while trees provide habitat for many creatures.

Food Webs: From producers (plants) to consumers (herbivores, carnivores) and decomposers, energy flows through an ecosystem, linking all organisms.

Habitat Creation: Beavers build dams, creating ponds that become habitats for fish, insects, and other wildlife.

These relationships show that organisms depend on their environment and other living things for food, shelter, and reproduction, forming interconnected systems where a disruption can affect the entire community.

This mutual dependence of the highest form of life with the lowest.

Google (AI) provides the following information regarding the critical importance of microbes in the human gastrointestinal tract. Image acknowledgement; Birmingham Gastroenterology.

The gut microbiota, a vast community of microbes in the human digestive system, acts like a crucial “forgotten organ,” essential for digesting food (especially fiber), producing vitamins, supporting a robust immune system, and influencing metabolism, mood, and even brain function via the gut-brain axis. It helps protect against pathogens, maintains gut barrier integrity, and its imbalance (dysbiosis) is linked to chronic conditions like obesity, autoimmune disorders, and cardiovascular disease.

What are bacteria dependent on to live because they cannot live in isolation?

Bacteria need essential elements like food (nutrients), water, oxygen (for some), temperature, pH (acidity), and time to survive and grow, often summarized by the acronym FATTOM: Food, Acidity, Temperature, Time, Oxygen, Moisture, with specific needs varying by strain, though most disease-causing ones thrive in warm, moist, protein-rich conditions.

So, bacteria cannot survive by themselves.

What about viruses

Viruses are microscopic organisms that can infect hosts, like humans, plants or animals. They are a small piece of genetic information (DNA or RNA) inside of a protective shell (capsid). Some viruses also have an envelope. Viruses cannot reproduce without a host.

The following are extracts from an article written by Rachael Nuwer, June 18, 2020, and titled; Why the world needs viruses to function. It can be found here: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200617-what-if-all-viruses-disappeared.

What we do know is that phages, or the viruses that infect bacteria, are extremely important. Their name comes from the Greek phagein, meaning “to devour” – and devour they do. “They are the major predators of the bacterial world,” Goldberg says. “We would be in deep trouble without them.”

Phages are the primary regulator of bacterial populations in the ocean, and likely in every other ecosystem on the planet as well. If viruses suddenly disappeared, some bacterial populations would likely explode; others might be outcompeted and stop growing completely.

This would be especially problematic in the ocean, where more than 90% of all living material, by weight, is microbial. Those microbes produce about half the oxygen on the planet – a process enabled by viruses.

These viruses kill about 20% of all oceanic microbes, and about 50% of all oceanic bacteria, each day. By culling microbes, viruses ensure that oxygen-producing plankton have enough nutrients to undertake high rates of photosynthesis, ultimately sustaining much of life on Earth. “If we don’t have death, then we have no life, because life is completely dependent on recycling of materials,” Suttle says. “Viruses are so important in terms of recycling.”

In the ocean, 90% of all living material is microbial as shown in the image below (Credit: Getty Images).

Researchers likewise think that viruses are integral for maintaining healthy microbiomes in the bodies of humans and other animals. “These things are not well understood, but we’re finding more and more examples of this close interaction of viruses being a critical part of ecosystems, whether it’s our human ecosystem or the environment,” Suttle says.

Humans need a lot of other forms of life to exist

If all life is interdependent then everything must have been created at once. Plants and oceanic phytoplankton must have been generating oxygen so that oxygen breathing creatures could live. And bacteria must have been present and living in us so that we could digest our food and stay healthy. This is perfectly in line with God’s creation as recorded in Genesis chapter one.

This interdependence of all life does not fit with evolution, which claims that life started by chemicals combing in a random and directionless manner to form amino acids. Twenty of which joined together in an extremely precise order to form the proteins of life. While this was happening, sugars, phosphate, ribose and deoxyribose joined together in another extremely precise way and then to polymerise to form deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) and ribose nucleic acid (RNA). All this chemistry had to happen in the absence of water. By the way, the earth’s covering is 70% water. Then these chemicals had to come together and wrap themselves in an extremely complex membrane that allows oxygen to enter and carbon dioxide to exit. This is only to create a single cell which in itself, is incomprehensively complex. This complexity had to increase by many orders of magnitude for it to replicate. The story then proceeds to say that this replicating single cell organism changed itself in a blind, directionless and completely random manner into all life, microbial, vegetation, aquatic and finally into humanity.

If you believe this, then I have a large bridge shaped like a coat hanger to sell you.

Conclusion

What we observe fits perfectly with God’s creation as recorded in Genesis chapter one. After God created the heavens and earth, we are told that they were formless and empty. By speaking God fills the earth and brings everything into being. On the third day of the creation week, God said, Let the land produce vegetation: seed bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. God formed the sun and the moon on day four. On day five, God said, Let the water teem with living creatures, and let the birds fly over the earth across the expanse of the sky. On day six, God said, Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground and wild animals each according to its kind. And of course, Adam and Eve were formed on day six as well.

Even though the creation week was divided into six 24 hour days[2], the whole creation was a continuous process. As God built one layer of life on the top of the previous.

So, humans could not survive without plants to supply the glucose we eat and the oxygen we breathe, and the vast oceans that contain algae that generate most of the oxygen in the air. We could not live without bacteria, viruses and fungi.

I will leave the final comment to the Bible:

Romans 1:19-20 … since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

[1] Note, vegetation does not depend entirely on the animal kingdom for its water and carbon dioxide because both are in great abundance. Atmospheric oxygen primarily comes from photosynthesis by marine and land organisms, with ocean phytoplankton producing the majority (around 70%), and terrestrial plants contributing the rest,

[2] Creation Ministries International provides many reasons for why the days of creation must be 24 hour days; https://creation.com/en/articles/6-days-cab-2.