Meynecke et al. (2023): Do whales really increase the oceanic removal of atmospheric carbon?
Jan-Olaf Meynecke, Saumik Samanta, Jasper de Bie, Elisa Seyboth, Subhra Prakash Dey, Giles Fearon, Marcello Vichi, Ken Findlay, Alakendra Roychoudhury, Brendan Mackey IN: Front. Mar. Sci. 10:1117409. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2023.1117409
The authors present an overview of the role of baleen whales relative to the global ocean carbon cycle, and frame their potential effects in the light of existing literature. They further review the knowledge of whale ecology in the context of the ocean carbon cycle, to provide a better understanding on baleen whales’ claimed role as climate engineers and propose a range of fundamental research requiring further investigation.