ArticleNature communications2023
Composition of cetacean communities worldwide shapes their contribution to ocean nutrient cycling.
Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Importance, Challenges and Solutions of a Changing Climate for Conserving Migratory Animals and the Ecosystem Services They Provide.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Two Decades of Cetacean Population Status and Mortality in Thailand: Spatiotemporal Trends, Environmental Drivers, and Anthropogenic Stressors.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Impact of baleen whales on ocean primary production across space and time.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Diversity and Distribution of Deep-Sea Cetaceans in the Northern South China Sea Based on Visual and Acoustic Surveys.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Late Paleolithic whale bone tools reveal human and whale ecology in the Bay of Biscay.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Humpback whale (Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Migrating baleen whales transport high-latitude nutrients to tropical and subtropical ecosystems.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Energyscapes pinpoint marine megafauna feeding hotspots in the Mediterranean.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Marine mammals as indicators of Anthropocene Ocean Health.npj biodiversity · 2024Review
- Identifying prey capture events of a free-ranging marine predator using bio-logger data and deep learning.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Defecation by large whales is known to fertilise oceans with nutrients, stimulating phytoplankton and ecosystem productivity. However, our current understanding of these processes is limited to a few species, nutrients and ecosystems. Here, we investigate the role of cetacean communities in the worldwide biological cycling of two major nutrients and six trace nutrients. We show that cetaceans release more nutrients in mesotrophic to eutrophic temperate waters than in oligotrophic tropical waters, mirroring patterns of ecosystem productivity. The released nutrient cocktails also vary geographically, driven by the composition of cetacean communities. The roles of small cetaceans, deep diving cetaceans and baleen whales differ quantitatively and functionally, with contributions of small cetaceans and deep divers exceeding those of large whales in some areas. The functional diversity of cetacean communities expands beyond their role as top predators to include their role as active nutrient vectors, which might be equally important to local ecosystem dynamics.
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