Susceptibility of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba Dana) to ultraviolet radiation

We irradiated captive juvenile Euphausia superba in the laboratory with lower than spring surface levels of ultraviolet-B, ultraviolet-A and photosynthetically active radiation, in order to examine their response in terms of mortality and generalised activity. Levels of photosynthetically active rad...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar Biology
Main Authors: Newman, SJ, Nicol, S, Ritz, DA, Marchant, H
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Springer-Verlag 1999
Subjects:
Biological Sciences
Ecology
Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology)
Antarctic
Antarc*
Antarctic Krill
Euphausia superba
Polar Biology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/s003000050389
http://ecite.utas.edu.au/16395
Description
Summary:We irradiated captive juvenile Euphausia superba in the laboratory with lower than spring surface levels of ultraviolet-B, ultraviolet-A and photosynthetically active radiation, in order to examine their response in terms of mortality and generalised activity. Levels of photosynthetically active radiation 3-5 times below surface irradiance caused krill to die within a week, while animals in the dark survived. Addition of ultraviolet-B typical of depths up to 15 m were found to significantly accelerate mortality and lead to a drop in activity in all experiments. A drop in activity in krill exposed to ultraviolet-A wavelengths was evident without an increase in mortality. The protein content of animals from various treatments was found not to vary.

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