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In “How Whales Change Climate,” a groundbreaking narrative unfolds, revealing the monumental yet often overlooked role of whales in ocean ecosystems and global climate regulation. This video delves into the concept of trophic cascades and the surprising discovery that whales, the giants of the ocean, are pivotal not just as predators but as nurturers of marine life and balancers of the Earth’s climate. Through their feeding habits and the remarkable phenomenon of “fecal plumes,” whales contribute vital nutrients like iron and nitrogen to the ocean’s surface, facilitating the growth of plankton, the foundation of the marine food web.
The story deepens as it explores the intricate ways in which whales influence the ocean’s biological pump. By feeding in the ocean’s depths and releasing nutrients at the surface, whales enhance plankton growth, which in turn supports a richer marine biodiversity and plays a crucial role in carbon sequestration. This plankton not only forms the basis of marine food chains but also absorbs significant amounts of CO2, transferring it to the ocean floor over time. The video illuminates how the decline of whale populations has had far-reaching implications, impacting fish and krill numbers and disrupting this vital carbon capture process.
“How Whales Change Climate” presents a compelling case for the conservation of whale populations as a natural and effective means to combat climate change. Highlighting the interconnectedness of all life, it suggests that the recovery of whale populations could be a key factor in mitigating the effects of human-induced climate change, drawing carbon out of the atmosphere and fostering a healthier ocean. Narrated by George Monbiot, this video is a call to action, urging us to recognize and protect the critical role whales play in sustaining the health of our planet.
One of the most exciting scientific findings of the past half century has been the discovery of widespread trophic cascades. A trophic cascade is an ecological process which starts at the top of the food chain and tumbles all the way down to the bottom.
We all know that whales eat fish and krill and some people have argued that killing whales is good for human beings as it boosts the food available for us to eat – and so you would think. But as the great whales declined so did the numbers of fish and krill.
It seems counterintuitive – surely their numbers would rise as their major predators disappeared – but it now turns out that whales not only eat these animals they also keep them alive. In fact, they help to sustain the entire living system of the ocean.
Whales feed a depth in waters that are often pitch dark and then they return to the surface to the photic zone where there’s enough light for photosynthesis to happen. There they release what biologists call fecal plumes – vast outpourings of poo – poonamis. These plumes are rich in iron and nitrogen – nutrients which are often very scarce in the surface waters and these nutrients fertilize plant plankton that lives in the only place where plants can survive – the photic zone.
Fertilizing the surface waters isn’t the only thing the whales do. By plunging up and down through the water column, they also keep kicking the plankton back up into the photic zone giving it more time to reproduce before it sinks into the abyss. Even today, the whale populations have been greatly reduced, the vertical mixing of water caused by movements of animals up and down through the column of the oceans is astonishingly roughly the same as the amount of mixing caused by all the world’s wind and waves and tides.
More plant plankton means more animal plankton on which a larger creatures then feed. In other words, more whales means more fish and krill. But the story doesn’t end here because plant plankton not only feeds the animals of the sea, it also absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When eventually it sinks to the ocean floor, it takes this carbon out of circulation down to a place where it remains for thousands of years
The more whales there are, the more plankton there is. The more plankton there is the more carbon is drawn out of the air. When whales were at their historic populations, before great numbers of them were killed, it seems that they might have been responsible for removing tens of millions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere every year.
Whales change the climate.
The return of the great whales if they’re allowed to recover could be seen as a benign form of geoengineering. It could undo some of the damage we’ve done both to the living systems of the sea and to the atmosphere.
“Thank you so much for educating people on the importance of these creatures. They are not here to serve our petty lives but to be a part of a greater system that keeps this earth alive. Thank you.”
“Every single animal on this earth, has a part in keeping it sustainable, from sharks to krill, and bears to bees* And what role do humans have? Was there even a time when humans actually helped life….other than destroy it. What is our purpose?”
“Brilliant! A very good reason for a total moratorium on whaling.”
“This is my favorite type of content…videos that help me to understand the world. We just need about a billion more views of this one to make real change.”
“I’m crying… Thank you so much for this video.. Please stop the killers and save our whales. Save our planet!”
“The greatest folly of man is that we met everything we didn’t understand with a spear rather than with an open mind.”
“So much of our co-existence is not known yet so critical to our very livelihood for a future world for generations to come. Thank you for helping to make us all more aware.”
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