Iron defecation by sperm whales stimulates carbon export in the Southern Ocean. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London
International audience The iron-limited Southern Ocean plays an important role in regulating atmospheric CO2 levels. Marine mammal respiration has been proposed to decrease the efficiency of the Southern Ocean biological pump by returning photosynthetically fixed carbon to the atmosphere. Here, we s...
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Online Access: | https://hal.science/hal-00766540 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0863 |
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ftunivlille:oai:HAL:hal-00766540v1 2024-06-23T07:56:13+00:00 Iron defecation by sperm whales stimulates carbon export in the Southern Ocean. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Lavery, Tj Roudnew, B. Gill, P. Seymour, Jr Seuront, Laurent Johnson, G. Mitchell, Jg Smetacek, V. Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences (LOG) - UMR 8187 (LOG) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale (ULCO)-Université de Lille-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Nord ) 2010-06-16 https://hal.science/hal-00766540 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0863 en eng HAL CCSD info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1098/rspb.2010.0863 hal-00766540 https://hal.science/hal-00766540 doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.0863 PUBMEDCENTRAL: PMC2982231 Biological sciences https://hal.science/hal-00766540 Biological sciences, 2010, 277 (1699), pp.3527-3531. ⟨10.1098/rspb.2010.0863⟩ [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2010 ftunivlille https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0863 2024-06-10T14:26:43Z International audience The iron-limited Southern Ocean plays an important role in regulating atmospheric CO2 levels. Marine mammal respiration has been proposed to decrease the efficiency of the Southern Ocean biological pump by returning photosynthetically fixed carbon to the atmosphere. Here, we show that by consuming prey at depth and defecating iron-rich liquid faeces into the photic zone, sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) instead stimulate new primary production and carbon export to the deep ocean. We estimate that Southern Ocean sperm whales defecate 50 tonnes of iron into the photic zone each year. Molar ratios of Cexport ∶Feadded determined during natural ocean fertilization events are used to estimate the amount of carbon exported to the deep ocean in response to the iron defecated by sperm whales. We find that Southern Ocean sperm whales stimulate the export of 4 × 105 tonnes of carbon per year to the deep ocean and respire only 2 × 105 tonnes of carbon per year. By enhancing new primary production, the populations of 12 000 sperm whales in the Southern Ocean act as a carbon sink, removing 2 × 105 tonnes more carbon from the atmosphere than they add during respiration. The ability of the Southern Ocean to act as a carbon sink may have been diminished by large-scale removal of sperm whales during industrial whaling. Article in Journal/Newspaper Physeter macrocephalus Southern Ocean LillOA (HAL Lille Open Archive, Université de Lille) Southern Ocean Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277 1699 3527 3531 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
LillOA (HAL Lille Open Archive, Université de Lille) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivlille |
language |
English |
topic |
[SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography |
spellingShingle |
[SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography Lavery, Tj Roudnew, B. Gill, P. Seymour, Jr Seuront, Laurent Johnson, G. Mitchell, Jg Smetacek, V. Iron defecation by sperm whales stimulates carbon export in the Southern Ocean. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London |
topic_facet |
[SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography |
description |
International audience The iron-limited Southern Ocean plays an important role in regulating atmospheric CO2 levels. Marine mammal respiration has been proposed to decrease the efficiency of the Southern Ocean biological pump by returning photosynthetically fixed carbon to the atmosphere. Here, we show that by consuming prey at depth and defecating iron-rich liquid faeces into the photic zone, sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) instead stimulate new primary production and carbon export to the deep ocean. We estimate that Southern Ocean sperm whales defecate 50 tonnes of iron into the photic zone each year. Molar ratios of Cexport ∶Feadded determined during natural ocean fertilization events are used to estimate the amount of carbon exported to the deep ocean in response to the iron defecated by sperm whales. We find that Southern Ocean sperm whales stimulate the export of 4 × 105 tonnes of carbon per year to the deep ocean and respire only 2 × 105 tonnes of carbon per year. By enhancing new primary production, the populations of 12 000 sperm whales in the Southern Ocean act as a carbon sink, removing 2 × 105 tonnes more carbon from the atmosphere than they add during respiration. The ability of the Southern Ocean to act as a carbon sink may have been diminished by large-scale removal of sperm whales during industrial whaling. |
author2 |
Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences (LOG) - UMR 8187 (LOG) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale (ULCO)-Université de Lille-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Nord ) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lavery, Tj Roudnew, B. Gill, P. Seymour, Jr Seuront, Laurent Johnson, G. Mitchell, Jg Smetacek, V. |
author_facet |
Lavery, Tj Roudnew, B. Gill, P. Seymour, Jr Seuront, Laurent Johnson, G. Mitchell, Jg Smetacek, V. |
author_sort |
Lavery, Tj |
title |
Iron defecation by sperm whales stimulates carbon export in the Southern Ocean. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London |
title_short |
Iron defecation by sperm whales stimulates carbon export in the Southern Ocean. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London |
title_full |
Iron defecation by sperm whales stimulates carbon export in the Southern Ocean. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London |
title_fullStr |
Iron defecation by sperm whales stimulates carbon export in the Southern Ocean. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London |
title_full_unstemmed |
Iron defecation by sperm whales stimulates carbon export in the Southern Ocean. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London |
title_sort |
iron defecation by sperm whales stimulates carbon export in the southern ocean. proceedings of the royal society of london |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-00766540 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0863 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Physeter macrocephalus Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Physeter macrocephalus Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Biological sciences https://hal.science/hal-00766540 Biological sciences, 2010, 277 (1699), pp.3527-3531. ⟨10.1098/rspb.2010.0863⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1098/rspb.2010.0863 hal-00766540 https://hal.science/hal-00766540 doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.0863 PUBMEDCENTRAL: PMC2982231 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0863 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
277 |
container_issue |
1699 |
container_start_page |
3527 |
op_container_end_page |
3531 |
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1802649163987419136 |