Continuous moulting by Antarctic krill drives major pulses of carbon export in the north Scotia Sea, Southern Ocean

Abstract Antarctic krill play an important role in biogeochemical cycles and can potentially generate high-particulate organic carbon (POC) fluxes to the deep ocean. They also have an unusual trait of moulting continuously throughout their life-cycle. We determine the krill seasonal contribution to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Communications
Main Authors: Manno, C., Fielding, S., Stowasser, G., Murphy, E. J., Thorpe, S. E., Tarling, G. A.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2020
Subjects:
General Physics and Astronomy
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Chemistry
Antarctic
Scotia Sea
Southern Ocean
Antarc*
Antarctic Krill
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19956-7
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19956-7.pdf
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19956-7
Description
Summary:Abstract Antarctic krill play an important role in biogeochemical cycles and can potentially generate high-particulate organic carbon (POC) fluxes to the deep ocean. They also have an unusual trait of moulting continuously throughout their life-cycle. We determine the krill seasonal contribution to POC flux in terms of faecal pellets (FP), exuviae and carcasses from sediment trap samples collected in the Southern Ocean. We found that krill moulting generated an exuviae flux of similar order to that of FP, together accounting for 87% of an annual POC flux (22.8 g m −2 y −1 ). Using an inverse modelling approach, we determined the krill population size necessary to generate this flux peaked at 261 g m −2 . This study shows the important role of krill exuviae as a vector for POC flux. Since krill moulting cycle depends on temperature, our results highlight the sensitivity of POC flux to rapid regional environmental change.

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