In a heroic calculation, Australian biologists estimated that the estimated 12,000 sperm whales in the Southern Ocean each defecate around 50 tonnes of iron into the sea every year after digesting the fish and squid they hunt.
The iron is a terrific food for phytoplankton -- marine plants that live near the ocean surface and which suck up CO2 from the atmospherethrough photosynthesis.
As a result of faecal fertilisation, the whales remove 400,000 tonnes of carbon each year, twice as much as the 200,000 tonnes of CO2 that they contribute through respiration.
By way of comparison, 200,000 tonnes of CO2 is equal to the emissions of almost 40,000 passenger cars, according to an equation on the website of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
1 comment:
It's alive! 453 Inbound lives! How are you guys? I now live in biking distance of work. Any of you still ride the bus? I saw the crazy old coot waiting to go home a week or so ago.
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