Southern Ocean Sperm Whale Useful Ally in Struggle against Climate Change
16.06.2010 - Atmosphere & Space, Water & Oceans, Flora & Fauna, Antarctic
New research shows that the Southern Ocean Sperm whale can remove large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, which makes the species a special ally in the struggle against climate change.
In a paper published in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Australian biologists led by Trish Lavery of the School of Biological Sciences at Flinders University in Adelaide say that the 50 tons of iron pumped into the Southern Ocean by the mammals every year are an ideal fertilizer for phytoplankton (marine plants living near the ocean surface). Pytoplankton then remove CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. With their fecal fertilization, the whales indirectly become powerful carbon “sinks” removing up to 400,000 tons of carbon (approximately the emissions of 40,000 passenger cars) from the atmosphere each year.
