Massive circumpolar biomass of Southern Ocean zooplankton: Implications for food web structure, carbon export, and marine spatial planning
Abstract With rapid, sector‐specific climatic changes impacting the Southern Ocean, we need circumpolar‐scale biomass data of its plankton taxa to improve food web models, blue carbon budgets and resource management. Here, we provide a new dataset on mesozooplankton biomass with 2909 records spannin...
Published in: | Limnology and Oceanography |
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crwiley:10.1002/lno.12219 2024-09-30T14:25:26+00:00 Massive circumpolar biomass of Southern Ocean zooplankton: Implications for food web structure, carbon export, and marine spatial planning Yang, Guang Atkinson, Angus Pakhomov, Evgeny A. Hill, Simeon L. Racault, Marie‐Fanny National Natural Science Foundation of China World Wildlife Fund 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/lno.12219 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/lno.12219 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/lno.12219 https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/lno.12219 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Limnology and Oceanography volume 67, issue 11, page 2516-2530 ISSN 0024-3590 1939-5590 journal-article 2022 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12219 2024-09-11T04:13:45Z Abstract With rapid, sector‐specific climatic changes impacting the Southern Ocean, we need circumpolar‐scale biomass data of its plankton taxa to improve food web models, blue carbon budgets and resource management. Here, we provide a new dataset on mesozooplankton biomass with 2909 records spanning the last 90 yr, and describe, in comparable carbon units, their circumpolar distribution alongside those of phytoplankton, Antarctic krill, and salps. With our datasets, we estimate total summer carbon biomasses for phytoplankton (36 MT), mesozooplankton (67 MT), krill (30 MT), and salps (1.7 MT). The mesozooplankton value is much higher than previously reported and, added to that of krill and salps, points to an enormous overall biomass of zooplankton in the Southern Ocean. This means that the pyramids of biomass are often inverted, with higher biomass of zooplankton than of phytoplankton. Such high biomasses suggest key roles of grazers in nutrient cycling and we estimate an export of ~ 50 Mt C yr −1 , solely from mortality of overwintering zooplankton that typically reside at depth. Deep lipid respiration (the lipid pump), for example, would increase this export even further. While inverted biomass pyramids prevailed at mid latitudes (50°–70°S), the balance of taxa differed regionally: for example, with biomass dominance by phytoplankton (highest latitudes and Pacific sector), mesozooplankton (Kerguelen Plateau), krill (north and east Scotia Sea), and salps (Crozet area). In light of contrasting climate change impacts between these sectors, we provide data that will underpin biogeochemical and food web models, blue carbon budgets, and the planning of marine protected areas. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Krill Scotia Sea Southern Ocean Wiley Online Library Antarctic Southern Ocean Kerguelen Scotia Sea Pacific Limnology and Oceanography 67 11 2516 2530 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract With rapid, sector‐specific climatic changes impacting the Southern Ocean, we need circumpolar‐scale biomass data of its plankton taxa to improve food web models, blue carbon budgets and resource management. Here, we provide a new dataset on mesozooplankton biomass with 2909 records spanning the last 90 yr, and describe, in comparable carbon units, their circumpolar distribution alongside those of phytoplankton, Antarctic krill, and salps. With our datasets, we estimate total summer carbon biomasses for phytoplankton (36 MT), mesozooplankton (67 MT), krill (30 MT), and salps (1.7 MT). The mesozooplankton value is much higher than previously reported and, added to that of krill and salps, points to an enormous overall biomass of zooplankton in the Southern Ocean. This means that the pyramids of biomass are often inverted, with higher biomass of zooplankton than of phytoplankton. Such high biomasses suggest key roles of grazers in nutrient cycling and we estimate an export of ~ 50 Mt C yr −1 , solely from mortality of overwintering zooplankton that typically reside at depth. Deep lipid respiration (the lipid pump), for example, would increase this export even further. While inverted biomass pyramids prevailed at mid latitudes (50°–70°S), the balance of taxa differed regionally: for example, with biomass dominance by phytoplankton (highest latitudes and Pacific sector), mesozooplankton (Kerguelen Plateau), krill (north and east Scotia Sea), and salps (Crozet area). In light of contrasting climate change impacts between these sectors, we provide data that will underpin biogeochemical and food web models, blue carbon budgets, and the planning of marine protected areas. |
author2 |
National Natural Science Foundation of China World Wildlife Fund |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Yang, Guang Atkinson, Angus Pakhomov, Evgeny A. Hill, Simeon L. Racault, Marie‐Fanny |
spellingShingle |
Yang, Guang Atkinson, Angus Pakhomov, Evgeny A. Hill, Simeon L. Racault, Marie‐Fanny Massive circumpolar biomass of Southern Ocean zooplankton: Implications for food web structure, carbon export, and marine spatial planning |
author_facet |
Yang, Guang Atkinson, Angus Pakhomov, Evgeny A. Hill, Simeon L. Racault, Marie‐Fanny |
author_sort |
Yang, Guang |
title |
Massive circumpolar biomass of Southern Ocean zooplankton: Implications for food web structure, carbon export, and marine spatial planning |
title_short |
Massive circumpolar biomass of Southern Ocean zooplankton: Implications for food web structure, carbon export, and marine spatial planning |
title_full |
Massive circumpolar biomass of Southern Ocean zooplankton: Implications for food web structure, carbon export, and marine spatial planning |
title_fullStr |
Massive circumpolar biomass of Southern Ocean zooplankton: Implications for food web structure, carbon export, and marine spatial planning |
title_full_unstemmed |
Massive circumpolar biomass of Southern Ocean zooplankton: Implications for food web structure, carbon export, and marine spatial planning |
title_sort |
massive circumpolar biomass of southern ocean zooplankton: implications for food web structure, carbon export, and marine spatial planning |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/lno.12219 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/lno.12219 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/lno.12219 https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/lno.12219 |
geographic |
Antarctic Southern Ocean Kerguelen Scotia Sea Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Southern Ocean Kerguelen Scotia Sea Pacific |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Krill Scotia Sea Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Krill Scotia Sea Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Limnology and Oceanography volume 67, issue 11, page 2516-2530 ISSN 0024-3590 1939-5590 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12219 |
container_title |
Limnology and Oceanography |
container_volume |
67 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
2516 |
op_container_end_page |
2530 |
_version_ |
1811644914925043712 |