Understanding the energy pathways through Southern Ocean mesopelagic communities ...

• Main Author: Woods, BL
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: University Of Tasmania 2023
• Subjects: Antarctic; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Antarctic Krill; Euphausia superba
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25959/23246798.v1; https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/thesis/Understanding_the_energy_pathways_through_Southern_Ocean_mesopelagic_communities/23246798/1

Mesopelagic fishes and squids play critical roles in mediating the transfer of energy through Southern Ocean pelagic food webs. However, the energy pathways comprised of mesopelagic fishes and squids remain understudied compared to those mediated by Antarctic krill Euphausia superba. In part, this has been due to the difficulty of sampling and observing taxa in the remote and harsh environment of Southern Ocean pelagic ecosystems. This has limited our understanding of mesopelagic fish and squid functional roles and baselines of community structure and function. Increasingly, evidence suggests that environmental change is likely to have effects on mesopelagic communities that may result in shifting food web dynamics. It is therefore essential to establish baseline understanding of the structure and function of mesopelagic groups to predict and assess the magnitude of future change. This thesis examined the poorly studied trophic pathways mediated by mesopelagic fishes and squids across regional and ...