The collapse and recovery potential of carbon sequestration by baleen whales in the Southern Ocean
Limiting climate warming below 2°C requires both reducing anthropic greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering more atmospheric carbon. Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) rely on the ability of ecosystems to capture and store carbon. Despite the important role of marine megafauna on the ocean carbon cyc...
Main Authors: | , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2020
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82038.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82039.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82040.pdf https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-92037/v1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/ |
id |
ftarchimer:oai:archimer.ifremer.fr:79434 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftarchimer:oai:archimer.ifremer.fr:79434 2023-05-15T15:36:56+02:00 The collapse and recovery potential of carbon sequestration by baleen whales in the Southern Ocean Durfort, Anaelle Mariani, Gael Troussellier, Marc Tulloch, Vivitskaia Mouillot, David 2020-10-23 application/pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82038.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82039.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82040.pdf https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-92037/v1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/ eng eng https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82038.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82039.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82040.pdf doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-92037/v1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use Research Square, 2020-10-23 , P. Version 1 Natural Climate Solutions climate change population dynamics modelling krill text Publication info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2020 ftarchimer https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-92037/v1 2022-02-22T23:50:59Z Limiting climate warming below 2°C requires both reducing anthropic greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering more atmospheric carbon. Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) rely on the ability of ecosystems to capture and store carbon. Despite the important role of marine megafauna on the ocean carbon cycle, its potential as a NCS has not yet been explored. Here, we quantify the amount of carbon potentially sequestered by five baleen whale species across the Southern Hemisphere between 1890 and 2100 through both the sinking of carcasses after natural death and the fertilisation of phytoplankton by nutrients in faeces. At their pre-exploitation abundances, the five whales could sequester 10.6 106 tonnes of carbon per year (tC.yr-1) but this natural carbon sink was reduced at 2 106 tC.yr-1 in 1965 due to commercial whaling. However, the restoration of whale populations could sequester 8.7 106 tC.yr-1 at the end of the 21st century suggesting an efficient but neglected NCS that remains to be estimated globally including all marine vertebrates. Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whale baleen whales Southern Ocean Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) Southern Ocean |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) |
op_collection_id |
ftarchimer |
language |
English |
topic |
Natural Climate Solutions climate change population dynamics modelling krill |
spellingShingle |
Natural Climate Solutions climate change population dynamics modelling krill Durfort, Anaelle Mariani, Gael Troussellier, Marc Tulloch, Vivitskaia Mouillot, David The collapse and recovery potential of carbon sequestration by baleen whales in the Southern Ocean |
topic_facet |
Natural Climate Solutions climate change population dynamics modelling krill |
description |
Limiting climate warming below 2°C requires both reducing anthropic greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering more atmospheric carbon. Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) rely on the ability of ecosystems to capture and store carbon. Despite the important role of marine megafauna on the ocean carbon cycle, its potential as a NCS has not yet been explored. Here, we quantify the amount of carbon potentially sequestered by five baleen whale species across the Southern Hemisphere between 1890 and 2100 through both the sinking of carcasses after natural death and the fertilisation of phytoplankton by nutrients in faeces. At their pre-exploitation abundances, the five whales could sequester 10.6 106 tonnes of carbon per year (tC.yr-1) but this natural carbon sink was reduced at 2 106 tC.yr-1 in 1965 due to commercial whaling. However, the restoration of whale populations could sequester 8.7 106 tC.yr-1 at the end of the 21st century suggesting an efficient but neglected NCS that remains to be estimated globally including all marine vertebrates. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Durfort, Anaelle Mariani, Gael Troussellier, Marc Tulloch, Vivitskaia Mouillot, David |
author_facet |
Durfort, Anaelle Mariani, Gael Troussellier, Marc Tulloch, Vivitskaia Mouillot, David |
author_sort |
Durfort, Anaelle |
title |
The collapse and recovery potential of carbon sequestration by baleen whales in the Southern Ocean |
title_short |
The collapse and recovery potential of carbon sequestration by baleen whales in the Southern Ocean |
title_full |
The collapse and recovery potential of carbon sequestration by baleen whales in the Southern Ocean |
title_fullStr |
The collapse and recovery potential of carbon sequestration by baleen whales in the Southern Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
The collapse and recovery potential of carbon sequestration by baleen whales in the Southern Ocean |
title_sort |
collapse and recovery potential of carbon sequestration by baleen whales in the southern ocean |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82038.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82039.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82040.pdf https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-92037/v1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/ |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
baleen whale baleen whales Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
baleen whale baleen whales Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Research Square, 2020-10-23 , P. Version 1 |
op_relation |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82038.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82039.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/82040.pdf doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-92037/v1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00682/79434/ |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-92037/v1 |
_version_ |
1766367366410665984 |