High density of ice krill (Euphausia cristallorophias) in the Amundsen sea coastal polynya, Antarctica

High densities of ice krill Euphausia crystallorophias were observed along six acoustic transects within the Amundsen Sea Coastal Polynya, Antarctica. Two-frequency acoustic backscatter data was examined in the austral summers of January 2011 and February 2012. A dB identification window (Sv120-38)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers
Main Authors: La, Hyoung Sul, Lee, Hyungbeen, Fielding, Sophie, Kang, Donhyug, Ha, Ho Kyung, Atkinson, Angus, Park, Jisoo, Siegel, Volker, Lee, SangHoon, Shin, Hyoung Chul
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2014.09.002
https://www.openagrar.de/receive/timport_mods_00013874
https://www.openagrar.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/timport_derivate_00013874/dn054477.pdf
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Summary:High densities of ice krill Euphausia crystallorophias were observed along six acoustic transects within the Amundsen Sea Coastal Polynya, Antarctica. Two-frequency acoustic backscatter data was examined in the austral summers of January 2011 and February 2012. A dB identification window (Sv120-38) identified ice krill dominating the acoustic backscatter. The density of ice krill, calculated with the stochastic distorted-wave born approximation model, ranged between 4.5 and 30 g wet mass m-2 for each transect (a mean of 16 g wet mass m-2 for all transects), these high values are an order of magnitude higher than recorded previously in the Ross Sea Polynya. High densities were detected along the ice shelf and near the boundary between pack ice and coastal polynya, and we postulate that these could be important habitats for ice krill. The high densities observed along the transects make ice krill a potentially important, but poorly known contributor to these high-latitude shelf food webs