Whale would you look at what you've done with the place

Three things I learned in the blog this week was how large land mammals were vital to the nutrient cycle, how whales affect how the ocean reacts to climate change, and that the amount of phosphorus moved to plants is about 23% of what it was. Apparently creatures like giant sloths were a big reason why nutrients were moved around so much many years ago. Their feces and decaying bodies helped bring to life the ecosystems we have now. Unfortunately, modern day equivalents like whales have been dying off, so nutrients aren't being passed around so much. This is especially true with things like phosphorus, which get pushed from the bottom to the to then on land by many aquatic mammals. When they die, plants go with them. And that also means us for anyone wondering.

Two ways this relates to APES is by looking at the human activity in the oceans and back at the nutrient cycles. As people continue to whale or remain inconsiderate with their oil and fuel spillages, we continue to kill of whales, which as we have learned is pretty awful for everyone. Their absence disrupts the nutrient cycle of phosphorus, but also just reduces general biodiversity. Without whales, I'd imagine that the krill population would explode to a fairly unnatural level. The imbalance all this could cause is scary to think about.

A question I have is how connected are whales? We learned of a few examples in the article, but I bet they play a much bigger role in the world than you'd be led to believe. Can we link whale deaths to some economic issue? Maybe we'd care then.