The Prolific Afterlife
A.
- The Alvin discovered a 20-meter long whale skeleton
- Whale was probably a blue or a fin whale
- Dead for years but the bones were surrounded by life
- Discovered several species previously unknown to science
- Observed in unusual environment
- Investigators documented dozens of communities that are supported by whale carcasses that are deep underwater
- More than 400 species are living in and around them
- 30 have not been seen anywhere else
- Dead whales could host specialized animal communities
- Some organisms are harbor chemosynthetic bacteria
- Sometimes form the basis of entire ecosystem
- Whale falls go through 3 ecological stages:
- Hagfish tunnel though the meat and take away the bulk of the whale soft tissue
- Communities of animals colonize the sediments surrounding the whale carcasses and the newly exposed bones and they feed on nutritious soft tissue left over by scavengers
- Sulforphilic state: bacteria anaerobically break down lipids contained in the bones
- Consistent group of organisms depend on whale falls throughout the worlds oceans
B. After discovering a whale body deep in the ocean, scientists discovered many species in the ocean that rely on the whales carcasses. The discovered whale carcass seemed to contain organisms that were previously unknown to us and it seems that these organisms actually live off the whale. The scientist that made this discovery decided to investigate the whale carcass and they discovered that some of these organisms that live within the whale bodies actually are harbor chemosynthetic bacteria. Some of these bacteria form the basis of the entire ecosystem. Whale falls go through three ecological stages: the mobile scavenger stage, the enrichment opportunist stage, and the sulfophilic stage. Using this data, the researchers estimate around 69,000 great whales die every year. They determined that consistent groups of organisms depend on dead whale bodies to throughout the worlds oceans.
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C. Before reading this article I was completely unaware that organisms rely on the death of whales. Reading about how the important organisms rely on their bodies was very interesting and I learned a lot about how the ecosystem works. This is a for the ecosystem because some of the organisms that rely on the whales carcasses are essential and act as the basis for the entire ecosystem. According to Craig Smith, more than 400 species live either inside or around whales carcasses. This is very important because without their dead bodies, these organisms don't have a habitat that they can live in nor can they survive without any stable food source. The death of whales are essential to these organisms lives and without their bodies, they won't be able to live. I was reminded about my info chart and how dead bodies of animals are actually beneficial to the lives of other animals. This made me realize that there is a natural cycle to the lives of the ecosystem and things happen how their suppose to happen and its necessary for the lives of many organisms.
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