A recent theory proposes that whales weren't just predators in the ocean environment: Nutrients that whales excreted may have provided a key fertilizer to these marine ecosystems. Oceanographers now ...

What can whale poop teach us about ocean nutrients? This is what a recent study published in Communications Earth & Environment hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated a link between a ...

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When we think about climate change, giant whales are not usually part of the conversation. Yet these ocean giants play a surprisingly important role in keeping the planet balanced. One of the most ...

Whales of all shapes and sizes play a significant role in the health of marine ecosystems. About 50% of the air humans breathe is produced by the ocean, thanks to phytoplankton and whale waste. The ...

This, I would think, should be self-evident: Generally speaking, big creatures eat smaller creatures that, in turn, eat even smaller creatures, like this ... And just as obviously, one would expect ...

An illustration of the (A) pre-whaling and (B) post-whaling interactions between whales, shrimp-like krill (pink), and photosynthesizing organisms known as phytoplankton (top left of each panel) in ...