Synonyms
Biogenic substrates; Food falls; Nekton falls; Organic falls; Sunken wood
Definition
Whale fall: Carcass of a large marine mammal of the order Cetacea (whales) that has sunken to the seafloor.
Wood fall: A piece of wood that has sunken to the seafloor.
History
The first examples of specialized invertebrates inhabiting bones and wood in the deep sea (qv) were recognized during the deep-sea expeditions in the early to mid 1900s. Because these samples were recovered by dredging, the complexity of whale- and wood-fall ecosystems was not recognized before the advent of deep-sea research vessels. Pioneering experimental work on wood-falls was carried out in the early 1970s by Ruth Turner (1914–2000), using the deep-sea research vessel Alvin. This research came to a halt in the late 1970s when deep-sea hydrothermal vent systems (qv) and their fascinating fauna were discovered and Alvinwas occupied by exploring these systems. The first deep-sea whale-fall ecosystem was accidentally...
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Kiel, S. (2011). Whale and Wood Falls. In: Reitner, J., Thiel, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geobiology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9212-1_218
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