Sentences with phrase «fecal pellets transported»

The scientists estimated that the swarm consumed up to 74 percent of microscopic carbon - containing plants from the surface water per day, and their sinking fecal pellets transported up to 4,000 tons of carbon a day to deep water.

Not exact matches

Lacking natural predators, salps can often be found clustering in huge swarms, sometimes numbering in the billions, and eating every microscopic organism in their path — producing huge quantities of waste, in the form of large, fast - sinking fecal «pellets,» which are transported (and sequestered) to the deep sea.