Limnology and Oceanography Article about Cetaceans

A recent research article led by Dr. Matthew Woodstock and two other DEEPENDers, Dr. Tracey Sutton and Dr. Yuying Zhang, was recognized by Limnology and Oceanography, one of the world’s premier oceanographic journals, as one of the most viewed new papers for the journal.

A In the study, Woodstock et al. developed a computer model that estimated the nitrogen (an important nutrient for primary production) that is vertically transported by cetaceans (dolphins and whales) from deep depths to the near surface waters as they dive deep to eat deep-pelagic (greater than 200m depth) animals and then surface to breathe. The study highlights the important ecological role cetaceans have in biogeochemical cycles and indicates that the mesopelagic zone is a major nutrient source for near surface productivity. It also suggests that dolphins and whales can be a direct link between nutrients on the ocean bottom and the surface waters that are often nutrient limited in the oceanic Gulf of Mexico (and other nutrient-poor regions). The study was the first of its kind for the Gulf of Mexico and one of the few examples of cetacean-mediated nutrient transport in the world.

Matt is a postdoctoral researcher at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and specializes in developing ecological models that explore energy, nutrient, and carbon fluxes in deep-sea ecosystems. His work focuses on leveraging existing data and ecological knowledge to develop baselines for current levels of ecosystem functioning and to predict the response of disturbances.