Journal
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
Volume 129, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107934
Keywords
Climate change; Sea ice; Antarctic krill; Euphausia superba; Overwinter survival; Recruitment
Categories
Funding
- Tasmania Graduate Research Scholarship by the University of Tasmania
- Australian Research Council Australian Discovery Early Career Award [DE180100828]
- BAS ALI-Science Ecosystems project
- Australian Government [Antarctic Science Projects] [4408, 4512]
- Antarctic Science Collaboration Initiative program, Australian Antarctic Program Partnership
- JSPS KEKENHI [JP19K12301, JP17H06323]
- Cnes
- Australian Research Council [DE180100828] Funding Source: Australian Research Council
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Climate change affects sea ice environments, which in turn impact habitat and recruitment of polar species like Antarctic krill. Identifying sea ice characteristics as indicators of habitat quality is crucial for monitoring climate change impacts and understanding how krill populations respond to changing sea ice. The research highlights the complexity of larval dependence on sea ice and the importance of studying regional variations in sea ice influence on krill populations.
Climate change alters the extent and structure of sea-ice environments, which affects how they function as a habitat for polar species. Identifying sea-ice characteristics that serve as indicators of habitat quality will be crucial to the monitoring and management of climate change impacts. In the Southern Ocean, Antarctic krill is a key prey species and fishery target. Krill larvae depend upon sea-ice habitats to survive the winter and recruit to the population in spring. Existing observations of sea-ice characteristics lack sufficient spatiotemporal coverage to quantify which ones contribute to favourable overwintering habitat, leading to uncertainties in how current and future changes in sea ice affect krill populations. Here, we derive regional-scale indices of annual krill recruitment spanning 35 years across the southwest Atlantic. To develop meaningful indicators of sea-ice habitat, we selected variables from a high-resolution sea-ice model that are hypothesized as relevant for larval habitat use. The resulting correlations between recruitment and sea-ice indicators vary by region and show remote connections to sea ice that correspond with established theories of larval transport. Through an improved representation of sea-ice habitat quality, as compared with using more traditional satellite-derived variables such as sea-ice extent and duration, we highlight plausible regions of overwintering habitat. Our findings improve current understanding of how krill are likely responding to changing sea ice and support emerging views that larval habitat use is complex. Furthermore, regional variation in larval dependence on sea ice may provide pockets of resilience to change for the broader krill population.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available