The oceans are mostly composed of warm salty water near the surface over cold, less salty water in the ocean depths. These two regions don't mix except in certain special areas, which creates a large ...

Researchers have taken a close look at the global ocean's great "conveyor belt," and they don't like what they've found. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current, a clockwise current that helps to ...

Through urine, feces, placentas, carcasses and sloughing skin, whales bring thousands of tons of nitrogen and other nutrients from high-latitude areas like Alaska and Antarctica to low-nutrient ...

The study focused on a handful of baleen species — namely, gray whales, humpback whales and right whales — which display ...

Ocean currents and upwellings also transport ... have declined precipitously over the last few centuries, the great whale conveyor belt has weakened. The nutrient transport numbers — by the ...

“We call it the ‘great whale conveyor belt,’” Joe Roman ... It’s super-cool, and changes how we think about ecosystems in the ocean.” This research also highlights the potential ...