Question

When a whale carcass sinks to the ocean floor it creates an environment appropriate for succession to happen. How would you explain this phenomenon?

Answer 1

Succession in Marine Ecosystem the deep dark ocean floor is a: barren, inhospitable environment. The disturbance begins when a large whale dies and sinks to the barren ocean floor. What happens after whale death: The whale carcass attracts: many scavengers and decomposers that begin to feast on the decaying carcass. 

Answer 2

Answer:

An ecological succession involves the series of changes in the biotic community with respect to changes in the non-living factors such as water, availability of sunlight and other factors along with time, until the ecosystem attains stability.

When a whale carcass sinks to the ocean floor it creates an environment appropriate for succession to happen because an oceanic floor exhibiting low biological activity before the carcass sinks at the oceanic floor, attains the high biological activity after the carcass sinks. The range of decomposers and scavengers organisms can feed on this carcass. This will result in increase in population of these feeding organisms. Hence, the whale carcass has initiated the succession in the previously less active ocean floor.