Recovery of carbon benefits by overharvested baleen whale populations is threatened by climate change
Despite the importance of marine megafauna on ecosystem functioning, their contribution to the oceanic carbon cycle is still poorly known. Here, we explored the role of baleen whales in the biological carbon pump across the southern hemisphere based on the historical and forecasted abundance of five...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rspb.2022.0375 2024-06-02T08:04:01+00:00 Recovery of carbon benefits by overharvested baleen whale populations is threatened by climate change Durfort, Anaëlle Mariani, Gaël Tulloch, Vivitskaia Savoca, Matthew S. Troussellier, Marc Mouillot, David 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0375 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2022.0375 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2022.0375 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 289, issue 1986 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 journal-article 2022 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0375 2024-05-07T14:16:20Z Despite the importance of marine megafauna on ecosystem functioning, their contribution to the oceanic carbon cycle is still poorly known. Here, we explored the role of baleen whales in the biological carbon pump across the southern hemisphere based on the historical and forecasted abundance of five baleen whale species. We modelled whale-mediated carbon sequestration through the sinking of their carcasses after natural death. We provide the first temporal dynamics of this carbon pump from 1890 to 2100, considering both the effects of exploitation and climate change on whale populations. We reveal that at their pre-exploitation abundance, the five species of southern whales could sequester 4.0 × 10 5 tonnes of carbon per year (tC yr −1 ). This estimate dropped to 0.6 × 10 5 tC yr −1 by 1972 following commercial whaling. However, with the projected restoration of whale populations under a RCP8.5 climate scenario, the sequestration would reach 1.7 × 10 5 tC yr −1 by 2100, while without climate change, recovered whale populations could sequester nearly twice as much (3.2 × 10 5 tC yr −1 ) by 2100. This highlights the persistence of whaling damages on whale populations and associated services as well as the predicted harmful impacts of climate change on whale ecosystem services. Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whale baleen whales The Royal Society Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 289 1986 |
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crroyalsociety |
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English |
description |
Despite the importance of marine megafauna on ecosystem functioning, their contribution to the oceanic carbon cycle is still poorly known. Here, we explored the role of baleen whales in the biological carbon pump across the southern hemisphere based on the historical and forecasted abundance of five baleen whale species. We modelled whale-mediated carbon sequestration through the sinking of their carcasses after natural death. We provide the first temporal dynamics of this carbon pump from 1890 to 2100, considering both the effects of exploitation and climate change on whale populations. We reveal that at their pre-exploitation abundance, the five species of southern whales could sequester 4.0 × 10 5 tonnes of carbon per year (tC yr −1 ). This estimate dropped to 0.6 × 10 5 tC yr −1 by 1972 following commercial whaling. However, with the projected restoration of whale populations under a RCP8.5 climate scenario, the sequestration would reach 1.7 × 10 5 tC yr −1 by 2100, while without climate change, recovered whale populations could sequester nearly twice as much (3.2 × 10 5 tC yr −1 ) by 2100. This highlights the persistence of whaling damages on whale populations and associated services as well as the predicted harmful impacts of climate change on whale ecosystem services. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Durfort, Anaëlle Mariani, Gaël Tulloch, Vivitskaia Savoca, Matthew S. Troussellier, Marc Mouillot, David |
spellingShingle |
Durfort, Anaëlle Mariani, Gaël Tulloch, Vivitskaia Savoca, Matthew S. Troussellier, Marc Mouillot, David Recovery of carbon benefits by overharvested baleen whale populations is threatened by climate change |
author_facet |
Durfort, Anaëlle Mariani, Gaël Tulloch, Vivitskaia Savoca, Matthew S. Troussellier, Marc Mouillot, David |
author_sort |
Durfort, Anaëlle |
title |
Recovery of carbon benefits by overharvested baleen whale populations is threatened by climate change |
title_short |
Recovery of carbon benefits by overharvested baleen whale populations is threatened by climate change |
title_full |
Recovery of carbon benefits by overharvested baleen whale populations is threatened by climate change |
title_fullStr |
Recovery of carbon benefits by overharvested baleen whale populations is threatened by climate change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Recovery of carbon benefits by overharvested baleen whale populations is threatened by climate change |
title_sort |
recovery of carbon benefits by overharvested baleen whale populations is threatened by climate change |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0375 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2022.0375 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2022.0375 |
genre |
baleen whale baleen whales |
genre_facet |
baleen whale baleen whales |
op_source |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 289, issue 1986 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0375 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
289 |
container_issue |
1986 |
_version_ |
1800748630973349888 |