Review: the energetic value of zooplankton and nekton species of the Southern Ocean

• Published in: Marine Biology
• Main Authors: Schaafsma, Fokje, Cherel, Yves, Flores, Hauke, van Franeker, Jan Andries, Lea, Mary-Anne, Raymond, Ben, Van De Putte, Anton
• Other Authors: Wageningen Marine Research The Netherlands, Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), Université de La Rochelle (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (AWI), Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies Horbat (IMAS), University of Tasmania Hobart, Australia (UTAS), Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), Australian Government, Department of the Environment and Energy, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE-CRC), Laboratory of Animal Diversity and Systematics, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)-Catholic University of Leuven - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2018
• Subjects: [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Antarctica; Copepods
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01877068; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-018-3386-z

International audience Understanding the energy flux through food webs is important for estimating the capacity of marine ecosystems to supportstocks of living resources. The energy density of species involved in trophic energy transfer has been measured in a largenumber of small studies, scattered over a 40-year publication record. Here, we reviewed energy density records of SouthernOcean zooplankton, nekton and several benthic taxa, including previously unpublished data. Comparing measured taxa,energy densities were highest in myctophid fishes (ranging from 17.1 to 39.3 kJ g−1 DW), intermediate in crustaceans (7.1to 25.3 kJ g−1 DW), squid (16.2 to 24.0 kJ g−1 DW) and other fish families (14.8 to 29.9 kJ g−1 DW), and lowest in jellyfish (10.8 to 18.0 kJ g−1 DW), polychaetes (9.2 to 14.2 kJ g−1 DW) and chaetognaths (5.0–11.7 kJ g−1 DW). Data revealsdifferences in energy density within and between species related to size, age and other life cycle parameters. Important taxain Antarctic food webs, such as copepods, squid and small euphausiids, remain under-sampled. The variability in energydensity of Electrona antarctica was likely regional rather than seasonal, although for many species with limited data itremains difficult to disentangle regional and seasonal variability. Models are provided to estimate energy density morequickly using a species’ physical parameters. It will become increasingly important to close knowledge gaps to improve theability of bioenergetic and food web models to predict changes in the capacity of Antarctic ecosystems to support marine life.