Slide 1
A large meal reaches the bottom
A whale fall begins when a dead whale sinks to the seabed. Its body supplies concentrated food to deep-water organisms.
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Not every dead whale reaches the deep floor intact. For those that do, the carcass creates a temporary resource in a setting where food often arrives as smaller scattered particles.
Slide 2
Scavengers arrive first
Mobile scavengers consume the whale's soft tissues. Different animals can gather around a carcass as this rich food becomes available.
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Feeding also scatters fragments into nearby sediment. The influence of the carcass extends beyond its outline, creating enriched ground for smaller organisms after the biggest pieces are gone.
Slide 3
The community changes
A whale fall supports successive communities as decomposition proceeds. Animals using fresh flesh differ from organisms using the enriched sediment.
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These stages can overlap rather than change on a strict calendar. Water depth, carcass size and local conditions influence how long particular food sources and their consumers remain.
Slide 4
Bones contain another resource
Whale bones retain organic compounds after the flesh is removed. Their breakdown can support microbes using chemical energy in the surrounding habitat.
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Some associated animals benefit from those microbes or their products. The bones also provide hard surfaces in otherwise soft sediment, adding habitat as well as an energy source.
Slide 5
A patch that eventually fades
A whale fall can support life long after the original animal dies. Its community changes as the available resources are depleted.
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The event links an animal's surface feeding history with deep-sea ecology. Studying several carcasses helps researchers distinguish a general pattern from the unusual history of one whale.
Sources
- What is a whale fall?
NOAA
- Whale Fall
NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries