A whale appeared, and the dome was shocked.
A whale chirps, the sea is quiet.
A whale falls, and everything lives.
Whale Fall
Have you ever heard of this word?
American Poet Laureate of Deep Ecology
Gary Snyder,
In his book Meditation on the Wilderness, he wrote a sentence,
Translated by Chinese, it touches people's hearts:
Whales fall to the bottom of the sea,
Feed the beings of the Dark Realm for fifteen years.
"Whale fall", literally,
It depicts a dead whale slowly sinking to the bottom of the sea,
A process that is constantly being decomposed and consumed.
In the study, whale carcasses, the process of falling
and the formation of marine ecosystems, etc.,
It is collectively referred to by the biological community as "whale fall".
The "falling" here is not only a verb, but also a noun,
A place to thrive like a village.
Is there a way to die that is so grand?
Alive, it is known as "the largest mammal on earth"
Swallow and float, and be aweed by the small.
Gone, it still stands up to our deepest admiration.
The researchers said,
A 40-ton whale settles to the seabed,
Approximately equivalent to the same area
Organic matter that settles naturally for at least 2,000 years.
Whales fall, with hot liquid, cold springs
Together, they are known as "oases" of deep-sea life.
Is there a way to die that is so gentle?
Whales are said to predict their own death.
When it senses that life is coming to an end, it leaves alone,
Sink, sink, sink... Then
Quiet as water, those who come do not refuse,
Let yourself be absorbed and enjoyed.
Born in the sea, died in the sea,
Then, return to the sea and feed the sea.
All this is quietly staged in the realm of the deep sea.
Is there a way to die that is so generous?
Its death is not the end of life,
It's the beginning of the hustle and bustle.
When a whale dies, the moment it dies,
In fact, it is heralding the beginning of countless lives.
In the deep sea of the North Pacific, whale fall sustained
At least 43 species of 12,490 organisms survive.
It returns to the abyss,
But let other lives go further.
Such a miracle of life, the first smell of "whale" strange,
Seeing it with your own eyes is even more "whale" happy.
At the beginning of April this year, when Chinese scientists were conducting scientific expeditions,
At a depth of 1600 meters in the South China Sea,
A whale fall about 3 meters long was spotted.
This is the first discovery made by Chinese scientists
This type of ecosystem.
This is a whale fall that has not long been formed.
The weasel is tearing the muscles of the tail,
Crabs and other "scavengers"
Come from all over to share the feast.
Scientist analysis,
This whale is most likely a toothed cetacean ori-billed whale,
There are still organized remnants on the whale's tail,
It is estimated that the time of death is not very long,
Therefore, it has long-term observational value.
Before we died, we don't know,
And the South China Sea, the whale fell "from now on",
We are fortunate to witness.
"Under the sadness and silence, prosperity is open in the middle."
Its existence,
Demonstrated the replacement of an ecological community,
↓↓The whole process can be divided into four stages↓↓
First: The mobile scavenger stage
When whales sink to the bottom of the sea, the initial large amount of protein and organic matter on the carcass attracts sharks, hagfish, crustaceans, they feed on the soft tissues in the whale fall, if the whale is large enough, the protein on the whale fall can be eaten by these creatures for 4-24 months.
Second: the opportunist phase
Next, some polychaetes and crustacean invertebrates appeared, and these "opportunists" were able to adapt to their environment in a short period of time and reproduce rapidly. They harvest food from whale colonies while breeding as a place to live.
Third: the stage of self-cultivation of chemical energy
When all that was left was the skeleton, it was just beginning. A large number of microorganisms enter the depths of the whale bone, decompose the lipids in it, and use the sulfate dissolved in the seawater as an oxidant to produce hydrogen sulfide, which is obtained by thousands of autotrophic organisms.
Fourth: the reef stage
Finally, when the organic material is depleted, the mineral remains of the whale bones become a colony of organisms in the form of reef rocks, such as coral reefs full of life. Whales, even if they are zero into mud, will conserve one party's life.
The whole process,
Tight seams, interlocking,
It can be decades or even hundreds of years.
Scholars involved in the expedition said,
"The whale falls from formation to final complete decomposition,
This period can not only be changed
the environment and biological population distribution of the whale's landing site,
It can even affect the evolution of new species. ”
"The death of a whale,
A deep-sea ecosystem has been created. ”
Such a statement is not an exaggeration .
A whale falls, and all things live,
For the dark deep sea,
Desperate times,
This is undoubtedly an extremely valuable gift.
Does all whale deaths form whale drops?
The answer is no,
Not all marine environments
Both are conducive to the formation of natural whale falls.
so far
The number of modern natural whale drops discovered by humans,
No more than 50.
contingency
This makes such encounters and gifts particularly rare and precious.
If last second, you were still moving for the whale,
This second, you can start to sigh -
Before the whale falls,
Whales have died of human indifference and cruelty.
Invincible,
They're still being by one end, one end at a time.
Hunt and kill one by one.
There is no way to avoid it,
Whales stranded by sonar interference,
It is also increasing at one end, one end at a time, and one end at a time.
With the impact of human activities and global climate change,
The current number of cetaceans is decreasing dramatically,
Whale drops have become rarer.
The resilience of deep-sea organisms to environmental change
Shallower and lower offshore,
Once the potential marine ecosystem balance is upset,
The harm caused should not be underestimated.
A whale, cruising all his life,
It falls only once, when it dies.
Born like a pengqi,
In the end, it should be like a whale falling.
A whale,
Know better than humans what a magnificent fall is.
Our "view of life and death" should be washed away by it.
May the word "whale fall",
For you and me,
More than just a distant and tragic existence,
Whale fall,
It is poetry, it is revelation, it is yearning,
Or the starting point and daily life of guarding azure.
Source: CCTV News