Decline in animal 'poop' threatens our food supply
Credit: Diagram from PNAS; designed by Renate Helmiss This diagram shows an interlinked system of animals that carry nutrients from ocean depths to deep inland -- through their poop, urine, and, upon death, decomposing bodies. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that -- in the past -- this chain of whales, seabirds, migratory fish and large land mammals transported far greater amounts of nutrients than they do today. Here, the red arrows show the estimated amounts of phosphorus and other nutrients that were moved or diffused historically -- and how much these flows have been reduced today. Grey animals represent extinct or reduced densities of animal populations. If the world's food chain collapses. . . if. What would the effects be on your characters? It is said that our civilized behavior only runs skin deep. Given the choice between starvation and access to food and water, what would your cha...