How Does A Whale Fall Community Affect Ocean Sediment? (2023)

1. How does a whale-fall community affect ocean sediment?

  • Apr 17, 2019 · The decomposition of the whale enriches the sediment. The remains of the whale pollute the sediment. The sediment is transformed into food for ...

  • How does a whale-fall community affect ocean sediment? The decomposition of the whale enriches the sediment. The remains of the whale pollute the sediment. The sediment is transformed into food for mussels and crabs. The bacteria that are attracted break down the sediment nearby.

How does a whale-fall community affect ocean sediment?

2. What is a whale fall? - National Ocean Service

  • When whales die and sink, their carcasses — known as whale falls — provide a bounty of nutrients for deepwater creatures.

  • The oceans' depths are supplied by nutrients falling down from the surface waters. 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 the whale carcass support a succession of marine biological communities. Scavengers consume the soft tissue in a matter of months. Organic fragments, or detritus, enrich the sediments nearby for over a year. Importantly, the skeleton supports rich communities for years to decades, both as a hard substrate, or the base, for invertebrate colonization and as a source of sulfides from the decay of organic compounds of whalebones. Microbes live off of the energy released from these chemical reactions, particularly 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 oceans food chain.

What is a whale fall? - National Ocean Service

3. Review of the Impact of Whale Fall on Biodiversity in Deep-Sea Ecosystems

  • Mar 9, 2022 · Whale fall has a significant effect on the deep-sea biological community, which is beneficial to the diffusion and succession of deep-sea ...

  • “Whale Fall” is a collective term for the whale carcass, the process of dead whale fall, and the formed deep-sea ecosystem. The whale fall process produces a lot of unstable organic matter that has a significant impact on deep-sea ecosystems. Scientists speculate that organic matter input is the source of energy and material for organisms in deep-sea ecosystems. In the seafloor of the North Pacific, whale fall supports the survival of at least 12,490 organisms of 43 species, contributing to the prosperity of deep-sea life. Due to the specificity of the time and space of the formation of whale fall, there are few studies on whale fall and its impact on the deep-sea ecosystem. This article summarizes and analyses the current research status on the distribution of whale fall and its impact on the deep-sea ecosystem at home and abroad. The results show that the current distribution of whale fall is mainly concentrated in the Pacific and Atlantic regions, and the research on the impact of whale fall on deep-sea ecosystems focuses on the formation process, degradation rate and impact on deep-sea biological systems. This article has some significance to the understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem succession in the deep-sea “desert area.”

Review of the Impact of Whale Fall on Biodiversity in Deep-Sea Ecosystems

4. Whale Fall: The Ecological Importance of Decomposing Whales in the ...

  • Whale falls are important for marine ecosystems because they provide a source of nutrients and energy for a variety of deep-sea organisms that would otherwise ...

  • Learn about whale falls and what makes them so important to the marine ecosystem. We'll explore all we know about whale falls right here in this guide!

Whale Fall: The Ecological Importance of Decomposing Whales in the ...

5. [PDF] ECOLOGY OF WHALE FALLS AT THE DEEP-SEA FLOOR - SOEST Hawaii

  • It should be noted that communities of animals reported on whale skeletons ... The primary effect of such food falls on the local sediment community appears to.

6. Whale Fall 101 | National Marine Sanctuary Foundation

Whale Fall 101 | National Marine Sanctuary Foundation

7. Life at the Bottom: The Prolific Afterlife of Whales - Scientific American

  • Feb 1, 2010 · During this period high-density, though low-diversity, communities of animals colonize the sediments surrounding the whale carcasses and the ...

  • On the deep seafloor, the carcasses of the largest mammals give life to unique ecosystems

Life at the Bottom: The Prolific Afterlife of Whales - Scientific American

8. How does a whale-fall community affect ocean sediment ... - Weegy

  • May 7, 2019 · How does a whale-fall community affect ocean sediment? The decomposition of the whale enriches the sediment. The remains of the whale ...

  • How does a whale-fall community affect ocean sediment? The decomposition of the whale enriches the sediment. The remains of the whale pollute the sediment. The sediment is transformed into food for mussels and crabs. The bacteria that are attracted break down the sediment nearby.

9. How does a whale-fall community affect ocean sediment ... - Weegy

  • How does a whale-fall community affect ocean sediment? The decomposition of the whale enriches the sediment. The remains of the whale pollute the sediment.

  • How does a whale-fall community affect ocean sediment? The decomposition of the whale enriches the sediment. The remains of the whale pollute the sediment. The sediment is transformed into food for mussels and crabs. The bacteria that are attracted break down the sediment nearby.

10. Whale fall: What happens when whales die? - Natural History Museum

  • This is when the carcass becomes known as a whale fall. Whale falls can nourish an entire ecosystem of deep-sea creatures, from large scavengers to microscopic ...

  • Dr Adrian Glover, a Museum expert in deep-sea biodiversity, sheds light on life after death for whales.

Whale fall: What happens when whales die? - Natural History Museum

11. Deep-sea whale fall fauna from the Atlantic resembles that of the Pacific ...

  • Feb 24, 2016 · Whale carcasses create remarkable habitats in the deep-sea by producing concentrated sources of organic matter for a food-deprived biota as ...

  • Whale carcasses create remarkable habitats in the deep-sea by producing concentrated sources of organic matter for a food-deprived biota as well as places of evolutionary novelty and biodiversity. Although many of the faunal patterns on whale falls have already been described, the biogeography of these communities is still poorly known especially from basins other than the NE Pacific Ocean. The present work describes the community composition of the deepest natural whale carcass described to date found at 4204 m depth on Southwest Atlantic Ocean with manned submersible Shinkai 6500. This is the first record of a natural whale fall in the deep Atlantic Ocean. The skeleton belonged to an Antarctic Minke whale composed of only nine caudal vertebrae, whose degradation state suggests it was on the bottom for 5–10 years. The fauna consisted mainly of galatheid crabs, a new species of the snail Rubyspira and polychaete worms, including a new Osedax species. Most of the 41 species found in the carcass are new to science, with several genera shared with NE Pacific whale falls and vent and seep ecosystems. This similarity suggests the whale-fall fauna is widespread and has dispersed in a stepping stone fashion, deeply influencing its evolutionary history.

Deep-sea whale fall fauna from the Atlantic resembles that of the Pacific ...

12. [PDF] meiofauna community composition at three whale-fall sites in

  • I expected a peak in diversity at the transition zone between the whale-fall-affected sediment and the ... sediments from a deep-sea whale-fall in. Monterey ...

13. How Dead Whales Form Unique Ecosystems | Ecology for the Masses

  • Nov 16, 2020 · In nature every death brings new life. A fascinating example are whale-falls: when a whale dies, its carcass will sink down to the ocean ...

  • In nature every death brings new life. A fascinating example are whale-falls: when a whale dies, its carcass will sink down to the ocean floor where it creates a unique ecosystem for bottom-dwellin…

How Dead Whales Form Unique Ecosystems | Ecology for the Masses

14. [PDF] Whale-Fall Ecosystems: Recent Insights into Ecology ... - CiteSeerX

  • Sep 10, 2014 · Deep-sea meta- zoan communities at whale falls pass through a series of overlapping suc- cessional stages that vary with carcass size, water ...

15. Biogeochemistry of a deep-sea whale fall: sulfate reduction, sulfide efflux ...

  • A recent molecular study revealed that methanogenic archaea are an important part of the microbial community in sediments surround- ing whale falls (Goffredi et ...

16. Whale Fall Ecosystems | Natural World Facts

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  • When a whale carcass sinks to the ocean floor, it provides nutrients and energy to support successive biological communities for up to 50 years.

Whale Fall Ecosystems | Natural World Facts

17. Faunal activity rhythms influencing early community succession ... - NCBI

  • Jul 24, 2018 · Cyclic changes in the environmental conditions around sunken whale carrion may deeply influence the benthic community succession dynamic, by ...

  • Benthic community succession patterns at whale falls have been previously established by means of punctual submersible and ROV observations. The contribution of faunal activity rhythms in response to internal tides and photoperiod cues to that community ...

Faunal activity rhythms influencing early community succession ... - NCBI

18. Life After Whale (On Whale Falls) | Smithsonian Ocean

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  • video

19. [PDF] Whales, wood and kelp islands in the deep-sea

  • ocean basins, the impact of whale falls on sediment macrofaunal community structure ... sediments nearby, which will affect the macrofaunal community structure ...

20. Marine Ecology Progress Series 596:1

  • May 28, 2018 · Heterotrophic fauna also colonize whale falls during the 'sulfophilic stage', creating extremely species-rich communities struc- tured in ...

21. Whale Fall- the strange ecosystem in the ocean | Hermanus Online ...

  • Jun 12, 2016 · When the whale dies the carcass falls into the Bathyal or Abyssal zone of the ocean floor They are found at depths of 2,000 m or 6,600 ft, they ...

  • Hermanus is a popular seaside town in South Africa on the famous whale coast route, close to Cape Town. Hermanus, best whale watching in the world

22. Whale Fall Ecosystems - The Fascinating Ocean Floor Habitat

  • A whale fall is what happens after a whale dies and the carcass sinks to the bathyal or abyssal zones or a depth greater than 1,000 m or 3,300 ft. They do not ...

  • Nature's beauty is multifaceted. Within its complex systems, there are traditionally beautiful sights like flowers and forest, but the...

Whale Fall Ecosystems - The Fascinating Ocean Floor Habitat

23. What Happens After A Whale Dies? - NPR

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  • What happens after a whale dies? Their carcasses, known as "whale falls," provide a sudden, concentrated food source for organisms in the deep sea. Biologist Diva Amon is our guide through whale-fall ecosystems and the unique species that exist on these fallen whales.

What Happens After A Whale Dies? - NPR
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