Different stages in the decomposition of a whale carcass support a succession of marine biological communities.
Decomposition of a whale carcass support succession marine biological communities
Press Play if you’d rather Listen…
The ocean’s depths are supplied by nutrients falling down from the surface waters said NOAA. The agency reports that when whales die and sink, the whale carcasses, or whale falls, provide a sudden, concentrated food source and a bonanza for organisms in the deep sea.
Different stages in the decomposition of a whale carcass support a succession of marine biological communities. Scavengers consume the soft tissue in a matter of months and organic fragments enrich nearby sediments for over a year.
The whale skeleton itself can support rich communities for years to decades, both as a hard surface for invertebrate colonization and as a source of sulfides from the decay of organic compounds of whale bones.
Microbes live off of the energy released from these chemical reactions and form the basis of ecosystems for as long as the food source lasts.
At deep-sea levels, this forms a new food web and provides energy to support single- and multi-cell organisms and sponges, thus adding to the ocean’s food chain.
If a whale falls in the ocean and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
While there is no answer to that version of the age-old philosophical question, marine biologists do know that marine organisms are there to eat it when it lands on the bottom. It???s a called a whale fall.
https://www.app.com/story/sports/outdoors/fishing/hook-line-and-sinker/2014/10/16/ocean-facts-careful-whales-falling/17375115/