Whale falling

 What is whale falling?  

  
Whale fall refers to the process of sinking a whale body to the seafloor after a whale dies.  After the whale fell, an extraordinary whale-fall ecosystem was formed on the bottom of the sea. Together with hydrothermal fluids and cold springs, it was called the “oasis” of life in the deep sea.  In the depths of the barren ocean, whale falls support many creatures, including a few invertebrates that live with the whale falls.  Fossil studies indicate that the symbiosis between whale landing and a few invertebrates may have existed 30 million years ago.

  During the sinking of the whale carcasses to the bottom of the sea, blind eels, sharks, and some crustaceans feed on the soft tissues of the whale carcasses. During this period, 90% of the whale carcasses will be decomposed; afterward, some marine organisms-including worms and blind  Eye shrimp, etc.-will eat the residue a little bit next to the corpse; then the bacteria will break down the bone lipids to make hydrogen sulfide-a chemical that smells like rotten eggs, thousands of chemically self-supporting marine life  Then convert hydrogen sulfide into energy for them to grow and reproduce; finally, when the organic matter in the remaining whale falls is consumed, the mineral remains of the whalebone will be used as reefs to become a habitat for living things.  This process is the mobile scavenger stage, opportunist stage, and self-supporting stage introduced by the experts in the news, and finally becomes the reef rock. The entire process promotes the prosperity of deep-sea life.

  In 1998, researchers from the University of Hawaii discovered that in the deep ocean of the North Pacific, at least 43 species of 12,490 organisms depended on whales to survive.  At present, there are less than 50 modern natural whale landings in the world. The reduction or disappearance of whale landings will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the biodiversity of marine ecosystems. The whale in the South China Sea fell. There were dozens of white armored shrimps, red shrimps, and several ferret fishes. It is still possible to observe the ferret fishes tearing their muscles at the tail, indicating that it is still in the first stage. It may be an Only the whale that died soon has long-term observation value.

  There is a large amount of data showing that even at relatively shallow depths, whale landings still exist and form on the seafloor, just as this sperm whale whale fell on a 20-meter deep seafloor.  In the news, the whale falling on the seafloor of 1600 meters in the deep sea and seamounts cannot be photographed by divers, because human beings cannot reach such depth without the use of submersibles.

Figure 2: The whale found on the mountainside of the deep-sea seamounts at 1600 meters fell to Sun Yat-sen University Photo courtesy Xie Wei (Source: Sanya Daily).

  The whale falling found in this deep-sea exploration is of great significance for understanding the mechanisms of how marine ecosystems maintain deep-sea life and the protection and utilization of China’s deep-sea biodiversity resources.  According to research data, as of 2015, 129 new species have been discovered on the whale landings. With the deepening of scientific research, the number may increase.

  The significance of ocean observations is not limited to this. "The 13th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" is included in the "Global Ocean Stereo Observation Network" of "Major Ocean Projects", which is to gather marine space, environment, Various types of data, such as resources, integrate advanced ocean observation technologies and methods to achieve high-density, multi-factor, all-weather, fully automatic global ocean stereo observation.  It will play an essential role in many aspects such as marine economic development, marine scientific research, marine disaster prevention,  mitigation, marine pollution prevention, marine ecological and environmental protection.

• Tweet
• Share
• Share
• Share
• Share

About Admin MC3

This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.

Related Post