The Biogeochemical Role of Baleen Whales and Krill in Southern Ocean Nutrient Cycling
The availability of micronutrients is a key factor that affects primary productivity in High Nutrient Low Chlorophyll (HNLC) regions of the Southern Ocean. Nutrient supply is governed by a range of physical, chemical and biological processes, and there are significant feedbacks within the ecosystem....
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4254789 2023-05-15T15:36:58+02:00 The Biogeochemical Role of Baleen Whales and Krill in Southern Ocean Nutrient Cycling Ratnarajah, Lavenia Bowie, Andrew R. Lannuzel, Delphine Meiners, Klaus M. Nicol, Stephen 2014-12-03 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4254789 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25469984 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114067 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25469984 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114067 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2014 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114067 2014-12-14T00:57:41Z The availability of micronutrients is a key factor that affects primary productivity in High Nutrient Low Chlorophyll (HNLC) regions of the Southern Ocean. Nutrient supply is governed by a range of physical, chemical and biological processes, and there are significant feedbacks within the ecosystem. It has been suggested that baleen whales form a crucial part of biogeochemical cycling processes through the consumption of nutrient-rich krill and subsequent defecation, but data on their contribution are scarce. We analysed the concentration of iron, cadmium, manganese, cobalt, copper, zinc, phosphorus and carbon in baleen whale faeces and muscle, and krill tissue using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Metal concentrations in krill tissue were between 20 thousand and 4.8 million times higher than typical Southern Ocean HNLC seawater concentrations, while whale faecal matter was between 276 thousand and 10 million times higher. These findings suggest that krill act as a mechanism for concentrating and retaining elements in the surface layer, which are subsequently released back into the ocean, once eaten by whales, through defecation. Trace metal to carbon ratios were also higher in whale faeces compared to whale muscle indicating that whales are concentrating carbon and actively defecating trace elements. Consequently, recovery of the great whales may facilitate the recycling of nutrients via defecation, which may affect productivity in HNLC areas. Text baleen whale baleen whales Southern Ocean PubMed Central (PMC) Southern Ocean PLoS ONE 9 12 e114067 |
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Research Article Ratnarajah, Lavenia Bowie, Andrew R. Lannuzel, Delphine Meiners, Klaus M. Nicol, Stephen The Biogeochemical Role of Baleen Whales and Krill in Southern Ocean Nutrient Cycling |
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Research Article |
description |
The availability of micronutrients is a key factor that affects primary productivity in High Nutrient Low Chlorophyll (HNLC) regions of the Southern Ocean. Nutrient supply is governed by a range of physical, chemical and biological processes, and there are significant feedbacks within the ecosystem. It has been suggested that baleen whales form a crucial part of biogeochemical cycling processes through the consumption of nutrient-rich krill and subsequent defecation, but data on their contribution are scarce. We analysed the concentration of iron, cadmium, manganese, cobalt, copper, zinc, phosphorus and carbon in baleen whale faeces and muscle, and krill tissue using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Metal concentrations in krill tissue were between 20 thousand and 4.8 million times higher than typical Southern Ocean HNLC seawater concentrations, while whale faecal matter was between 276 thousand and 10 million times higher. These findings suggest that krill act as a mechanism for concentrating and retaining elements in the surface layer, which are subsequently released back into the ocean, once eaten by whales, through defecation. Trace metal to carbon ratios were also higher in whale faeces compared to whale muscle indicating that whales are concentrating carbon and actively defecating trace elements. Consequently, recovery of the great whales may facilitate the recycling of nutrients via defecation, which may affect productivity in HNLC areas. |
format |
Text |
author |
Ratnarajah, Lavenia Bowie, Andrew R. Lannuzel, Delphine Meiners, Klaus M. Nicol, Stephen |
author_facet |
Ratnarajah, Lavenia Bowie, Andrew R. Lannuzel, Delphine Meiners, Klaus M. Nicol, Stephen |
author_sort |
Ratnarajah, Lavenia |
title |
The Biogeochemical Role of Baleen Whales and Krill in Southern Ocean Nutrient Cycling |
title_short |
The Biogeochemical Role of Baleen Whales and Krill in Southern Ocean Nutrient Cycling |
title_full |
The Biogeochemical Role of Baleen Whales and Krill in Southern Ocean Nutrient Cycling |
title_fullStr |
The Biogeochemical Role of Baleen Whales and Krill in Southern Ocean Nutrient Cycling |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Biogeochemical Role of Baleen Whales and Krill in Southern Ocean Nutrient Cycling |
title_sort |
biogeochemical role of baleen whales and krill in southern ocean nutrient cycling |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4254789 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25469984 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114067 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
baleen whale baleen whales Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
baleen whale baleen whales Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25469984 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114067 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
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CC-BY |
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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114067 |
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PLoS ONE |
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e114067 |
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