Ecology of whale falls at the deep-sea floor

Whales are the giants of the ocean, with the eight largest cetacean species attaining body weights of 30 t to 160 t (Lockyer 1976). A sunken whale carcass provides a massive food fall to the normally organic-poor deep-sea floor; for example, the organic carbon contained in a 40-t whale (2106 gC) is equivalent to that typically sinking from the euphotic zone to a hectare of abyssal sea floor over 100yr to 200yr (e.g. Smith & Demopoulos 2003). The sediments directly underlying a sunken whale carcass (which covers roughly 50m2) experience an initial pulse of labile organic material equivalent to 2000yr of background organiccarbon flux.