By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | June 21, 2017 04:52pm ET
If you enjoy swimming, snorkeling, surfing or scuba diving in
the ocean, at some point you may have wondered how much of what you were
floating in originated in the body of a marine animal.
The ocean is home
to millions of known species — about 2.2 million, according to a study
published in August 2011 in the journal PLOS
Biology — which translates into untold numbers of creatures, large and
small, from microscopic zooplankton to enormous marine mammals that weigh
hundreds of thousands of pounds.
However, the ocean isn't just their home; it's also their
toilet. It may be a little daunting to contemplate the vast quantities of waste
expelled into seawater every day by the ocean's various creatures, but urine
and feces are also nutrient-rich reinvestments that are constantly being
consumed and recycled, maintaining the overall health of ocean ecosystems, and
playing an important role in supporting food webs.
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