the most unique environments on Earth. Although the Antarctic food web is diverse, it is characterized by short trophic linkages that are domi-nated by fewer than four to six species. These short trophic connections arise because the basic prey types available to predators are limited, with Antarcti...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.464.9406 http://www.usglobec.org/reports/tos-files/lagle64-74.pdf |
| Summary: | the most unique environments on Earth. Although the Antarctic food web is diverse, it is characterized by short trophic linkages that are domi-nated by fewer than four to six species. These short trophic connections arise because the basic prey types available to predators are limited, with Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) serving as a primary prey. As a result, predators concentrate on a sin-gle prey, such as Antarctic krill, or on a core group of species, such as other euphausiids and some fish. Thus, envi-ronmental or biological perturbations can potentially affect all components of the Antarctic marine ecosystem irre-spective of their initial impact. The knowledge base on which predictions about potential trophic changes that might be expected from climate and population variations is very limited. In particular, lit-tle is known about how marine animal populations adapt to austral winter, which is a critical part of many life cycles. It is the strong linkage to climate and close cou-pling between trophic levels that resulted in the choice of the Southern Ocean as one of the first study sites for the Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (GLOBEC) program, which has the goal of understanding marine population variability in response to environmental change. The primary objective of the Southern Ocean GLOBEC (SO GLOBEC) program is to understand the physical and biological factors that contribute to enhanced Antarctic krill growth, reproduction, recruit- |
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