On April 2, 2020, the Chinese Academy of Sciences "Exploration No. 1" research ship
Successfully completed 22 deep-sea missions and returned to Sanya Pier
They also brought back a surprising and significant discovery:
The first whale drop was spotted in the South China Sea
Sunlight nourishes and all things grow
The clearest water
Below 200 meters, it is also pitch black
For humans
This is a dark and mysterious world
For deep-sea creatures
But it is a paradise for multiplication
The body of the giant whale fell by chance
Transformed into an oasis and island in the deep desert
A new ecosystem is lit up
It has been supporting thousands of deep-sea animals for 100 years
When premonition death is approaching
Whales will look for a deep sea
Loneliness awaits the last minute
Life faded, and the huge body sank into the deep sea
The fall process can take months
It attracts thousands of animals to come and forage
A magical and sophisticated independent ecosystem
And that kicks off
Whale falls go through four succession stages
Each stage is a miracle of life
From the moment the whale dies
It has already entered the first stage
- Mobile scavenger stage
As the huge corpse gradually sank to the bottom of the sea
Hagfish, sleeping sharks, and a small number of them
Stone crab, sagefish
and millions of marine crustaceans
Get treated like a feast
They feed on the soft tissue of whale carcasses
It was the first beneficiaries of the whale fall
Scavengers of more than 40 species cover it in groups
Whale falls can be a daily food-starved deep sea
Provides 40-60 kg of precious nutrients
5-ton juveniles can make this stage
The ecology lasts for 4 months
The 35-ton behemoth allows the scavenger
Full meals for 9 months, or even up to 2 years
Until 90% of the tissue is broken down
The scavengers were full
More than 20 small creatures have arrived
The whale fall ecology has entered its second stage
- Opportunist stage
Polychaetes, Cerambycidae, and mollusks led by snails
Make your home on the wreckage of whale carcasses as an opportunist
At this stage, whale falls are even cultivated
A new species of its own independent ecosystem – the bone-eating worm
Nutrients that are difficult to identify with the naked eye,
It can create a living space for small animals for 4-5 years
Until the last trace of flesh and blood is eaten away
Do you think that's the end of it?
On the contrary, the drama has just begun.
After the opportunists left.
At this point, the third stage has begun
-—— autotrophic stage
The whale fall ecosystem begins to exert its unique "charm"
A large number of anaerobic bacteria enter the whale bone
Abundant lipids are broken down and hydrogen sulfide is produced
A sulphur-rich environment similar to hydrothermal vents in the deep sea is present
Provides an energy source for deep-sea bacteria
Mussels, cap scallops, clams, and conchs
Organisms climb and grow around whale bones
Micro-ecological energy supply systems provide them with sufficient nutrients
The vulcanization process is extremely long, taking 50 years
Even up to 100 years
Wait until the organic matter in the whale bone is thoroughly consumed
Eventually, the whale fell into a pile of reefs
Never again will you see the beautiful and massive body of a whale
Only the reef inhabited by countless animals can be seen
This time
It will sleep longer at the bottom of the sea
Until it turns into grains of deep-sea white sand
A tragic and romantic whale fall
Finally, it came to a successful end
The whale fell to the bottom of the sea and fed the beings of the dark world for fifteen years.
—Gary Snyder, "Meditating on the Wilderness"
To bacteria, to shellfish, from crustaceans
To the fish, nearly a hundred years
Tens of millions of organisms thrive
Everything starts with the fall of a whale
The death of the whale, the hope of condensation
In search of this hope, scientists have traveled thousands of mountains
Every year, there are about 70,000 whales
Died during the migration, fell randomly
Finding a natural whale fall in the middle of the ocean is like finding a needle in a haystack
Only 50 have been found in the world
In search of whale falls, scientists excavated
Methods for artificial whale falls
- They put the dead whales stranded on the beach
Return to the ocean floor to track the whale fall
American marine biologist Greg Rouse
Received a stranded whale
This ugly rotten whale
He gave a beautiful name - bud
Greg Rouse firmly believes that when it sleeps deep at the bottom of the sea
It will eventually come back to life.
Four years later, the elderly Greg had retired
Students return to the bottom of the sea to see the "buds"
It is covered with creatures of various colors
It's like really blooming a brilliant flower
For a minute, the doctor's posture kept rising
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