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Even for the world’s biggest animals, “if you have to go, you have to go.” The volcanic poop of Whale offers a wealth of biological information and nutrients for the ocean. In order not to leave, their urine also plays a crucial role in a healthy ocean and planet. Whale Urine moves nutrients thousands of kilometers over entire ocean basins. A new study showed that large whales-including right whales, gray whales and humpbacks-onset 4,000 tons of nitrogen to low food areas in the tropics and subtropics transport every year. This “Great Whale Pee -Joker” is detailed in one Study published on March 10 in the magazine Nature communication.
Humpback whale that urinates underwater near Hawaii. Credit: Lars Bejder, Noaa permit 21476
The Walvis Pomp
A Study from 2010 The same team dives into their poop, more specifically the Walvispomp. Whales will feed deeper into the ocean and then come to the surface to digest, rest and poop. Their downward droppings then pump critical nutrients and resources for planktong rowing and in the water.
“But we soon realized that it was only part of the story,” Joe Romantells a co-author of a co-author and conservation biologist at the University of Vermont, says Popular science. “Balene Walvissen are ‘capital boxers’, feed part of the year in productive areas on high latitude, such as Alaska, and having calves and nursing in winter in areas such as Hawaii, where Hawaii, where [they] Usually fast. “
Likewise, humpbacks migrate in the southern hemisphere more than 5,000 miles of their foraging grounds near Antarctica to mating sites for Costa Rica. She Burned around 200 pounds every dayAll while urinating huge amounts of nitrogen -rich urea.
The Great Whale Pee -Joker
When the team has a closer look at the ecological effects that this extreme party or output of the party, they discovered that the whales will break down energy shops in their blubber and muscles and then release those surplus nutrients in the water. The nutrients often benefit coastal areas with low nitrogen and coral reefecosystems. Can produce fin whales in Iceland More than 250 liters of urine per day When they feed. For comparison: people pee less than half a gallon every day.
This New study Quantifies the energy transfer of all that urine, which the team calls the “Great Whale Convertor” or “Great Whale Pee -Tjesteechter”.
“We have looked at the movement of nitrogen and carbon, but certainly a lot of nutrients, such as phosphorus, also move in the process,” says Roman. “Nitrogen is often found as a urea in lake. Nitrogen in this form can be immediately available for marine algae and presumably corals and other invertebrates. “
When whales are nearby, this can double more than double the amount of nitrogen in coastal areas and around reefs. This process competes for natural alien, where streams bring nutrients from deeper waters to the surface. The whales also serve as ocean ocean connectors.
“A big difference is that whales often travel thousands of kilometers over ocean basins – great whales undertake the longest migration of a mammal,” says Roman. “So they connect areas close to the posts with tropical areas that are often limited for nutrients.”
The team calculates that these migrating whales transport over them 4,000 tons of nitrogen every year and bring more than 45,000 tons of biomass.
It can be considered a funnel because whales usually feed on large areas, but must be in a more private space to mate, breed and give birth. In the first instance, the calves do not have the energy to turn it into these long distances, the way in which the mothers can and will remain in more shallow or sandy water to dampen their sounds.
“Mothers and newborns call all the time, stay in communication and they don’t want predators, such as murderous whales or humpbacks, to pick it up,” says Roman.
[ Related: Biologists vastly underestimated how much whales eat and poop. ]
The blood circulation system of the planet
In future research, the team is planning to look in the intestinal microbiome of these whales. Various microorganisms help them to survive their incredible journeys and the Roman team is curious how they provide this support.
“They couldn’t do it without their microbes,” says Roman.
The team is also of the opinion that in the days before industrial human whaling, this output of the long -distance of nutrients may have been three or more times larger than they are now. Maintaining and increasing whale population worldwide can help stimulate the ocean health.
“We often think of plants like the lungs of the planet. Animals are the blood circulation, “says Roman. “Walvis populations were shortened by commercial whaling by more than two -thirds, with some species such as Antarctic blue whales reduced by 99 percent. By restoring these populations, we can restore the blood circulation system of the planet. I am sure there will be many surprises. “
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