[Rally]

Speaking of dead whales...

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/novembe...ater-feast

They apparently create an underwater ecosystem that can last decades:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_fall

Stage 1
The initial period begins with "mobile scavengers" such as hagfish and sleeper sharks actively consuming soft tissue from the carcass. Consumption can be at a rate of 40–60 kilograms (88–132 lb) per day over a two-year period.[5]

Stage 2
The second stage introduces the "enrichment opportunists". These are animals which colonize the bones and surrounding sediments that have been contaminated with organic matter from the carcass and any other tissue left by the scavengers. This process can take up to two years.[5]

Stage 3
Finally "sulfophilic bacteria" anaerobically break down the lipids embedded in the bones. Instead of oxygen, they reduce dissolved sulfate SO2−
4 and excrete hydrogen sulfide. Due to the toxicity of H
2S, only resistant chemosynthetic bacteria survive. The bacterial mats provide nourishment for mussels, clams, limpets and sea snails. As whale bones are rich in lipids, representing 4–6% of its body weight, the final digestion stage can last between 50 and possibly 100 years.[5]

BC

Sounds like salmon but on a larger, longer scale.  Salmon swim upriver, to be eaten by bears, who toss the scraps into the woods.  Small critters eat what flesh/soft bones are left, insects move in, then bacteria, remains fertilize the soil so berries can grow which the Bears eat while waiting for the salmon.  Meanwhile, the salmon who escape the Bears spawn, die, and sink to the stream bed, where little fish pick away and even littler things do their thing, thus producing even littler things which the salmon fry eat.  All we have to do is reproduce that cycle and we can colonize Mars.  Simple.

[Rally]

Speaking of dead whales...

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/novembe...ater-feast

They apparently create an underwater ecosystem that can last decades:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_fall

Stage 1
The initial period begins with "mobile scavengers" such as hagfish and sleeper sharks actively consuming soft tissue from the carcass. Consumption can be at a rate of 40–60 kilograms (88–132 lb) per day over a two-year period.[5]

Stage 2
The second stage introduces the "enrichment opportunists". These are animals which colonize the bones and surrounding sediments that have been contaminated with organic matter from the carcass and any other tissue left by the scavengers. This process can take up to two years.[5]

Stage 3
Finally "sulfophilic bacteria" anaerobically break down the lipids embedded in the bones. Instead of oxygen, they reduce dissolved sulfate SO2−
4 and excrete hydrogen sulfide. Due to the toxicity of H
2S, only resistant chemosynthetic bacteria survive. The bacterial mats provide nourishment for mussels, clams, limpets and sea snails. As whale bones are rich in lipids, representing 4–6% of its body weight, the final digestion stage can last between 50 and possibly 100 years.[5]

BC

Sounds like salmon but on a larger, longer scale.  Salmon swim upriver, to be eaten by bears, who toss the scraps into the woods.  Small critters eat what flesh/soft bones are left, insects move in, then bacteria, remains fertilize the soil so berries can grow which the Bears eat while waiting for the salmon.  Meanwhile, the salmon who escape the Bears spawn, die, and sink to the stream bed, where little fish pick away and even littler things do their thing, thus producing even littler things which the salmon fry eat.  All we have to do is reproduce that cycle and we can colonize Mars.  Simple.