Whales are increasingly recognised not merely as apex consumers,but as ecosystem engineers whose behaviour, biomass, and lifecycles drive nutrient redistribution across vast spatial scales.Through feeding at depth and defecating at the surface, whales fuelprimary productivity via the whale pump, redistributing nitrogen, iron,and other limiting nutrients in both coastal and pelagic systems.Their long migrations transfer nutrients across biomes—fromhigh‑latitude feeding grounds to low‑latitude breeding areas—forming a transoceanic whale conveyor belt of biogeochemicalconnectivity.
Whale carcasses create intense pulses of carbon sequestration (“whale falls”) that deliver organic matter to theseafloor and sustain deep‑sea communities for decades. Carcasses also nourish coastal and terrestrial predators and scavengers, historically supporting populations from polar bears to California condors, whose declines have been linked to historical commercial whaling.
This Collection invites research on the mechanisms, magnitudes, and ecological consequences of nutrient transfermediated by whales, including their roles in the biological pump, diel vertical migration interactions, cross‑ecosystemsubsidies, carbon cycling, and ecosystem resilience. We invite studies spanning ecology, oceanography, biogeochemistry, conservation science, and modelling.
Guest Editors
Jan Olaf Meynecke, Whales and Climate Research Program, Australia
Marianne Helene Rasmussen, University of Iceland, Iceland
Saumik Samanta, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and Whales and Climate Program
Please click here to visit the website.
Submission Deadline: 10 th December 2026
