Migrating baleen whales transport high-latitude nutrients to tropical and subtropical ecosystems.

Abstract

Baleen whales migrate from productive high-latitude feeding grounds to usually oligotrophic tropical and subtropical reproductive winter grounds, translocating limiting nutrients across ecosystem boundaries in their bodies. Here, we estimate the latitudinal movement of nutrients through carcasses, placentas, and urea for four species of baleen whales that exhibit clear annual migration, relying on spatial data from publicly available databases, present and past populations, and measurements of protein catabolism and other sources of nitrogen from baleen whales and other marine mammals. Migrating gray, humpback, and North Atlantic and southern right whales convey an estimated 3784 tons N yr^-1 and 46,512 tons of biomass yr^-1 to winter grounds, a flux also known as the "great whale conveyor belt"; these numbers might have been three times higher before commercial whaling. We discuss how species recovery might help restore nutrient movement by whales in global oceans and increase the resilience and adaptative capacity of recipient ecosystems.