Did you know that the poop of whales is an essential source of nutrients for the entire ocean? The phenomenon is called Whale Pump And it has been documented by several studies in recent years. But now one has come out, published on Nature Communicationswhich also does justice to the other dejection: the pee of the whales, in fact, has an equally central role for the distribution of nutrients in the ocean – perhaps even more important than that of the poop.
The great conveyor belt. The study focused in particular on the megattere, which are among the whales that make the longest migrations: every year they come to travel even 8,300 km to go from the water of the Antarctica to the hottest ones where the winter pass. This journey also brings with it large quantities of nutrients, which are “taken” by polar waters (richer) and transported to the hottest and “poor” ones.
So far we knew that this transport of nutrients took place thanks to the poop, which however “disseminates” them vertically in the water column. The pee of the whales, on the other hand, which contains nitrogen and other nutrients, disperses horizontally, in what the authors of the study have baptized “the great conveyor belt of the whales”.
The pee from Alaska to Hawaii. One of the reasons why distribution via urine is so efficient has to do with the sex life of the whales. When they have to nourish, in fact, megattees cover large areas of the ocean, but when they have to reproduce and then give light the puppies channe them into more restricted areas, often near the coast to better protect the offspring.
The study gives the example of the megattees that seek food in the Alaska Gulf but who pass the winter off the coast of Hawaii: in this way, between pee and poop, they transport twice the nutrients produced on site, and make coastal environments more fertile – among which, says the study, the coral reefs. And these calculations concern for now only a few whales: when we have more precise data on the migrations of other species, including the blue whale, we will also be able to add their contribution to the large transporter of excrement.
