Euphausia Superba Distribution Research Articles

Krill (Euphausia superba) distribution contracts southward during rapid regional warming

High-latitude ecosystems are among the fastest warming on the planet1. Polar species may be sensitive to warming and ice loss, but data are scarce and evidence is conflicting2–4. Here, we show that, within their main population centre in the southwest Atlantic sector, the distribution of Euphausia superba (hereafter, ‘krill’) has contracted southward over the past 90 years. Near their northern limit, numerical densities have declined sharply and the population has become more concentrated towards the Antarctic shelves. A concomitant increase in mean body length reflects reduced recruitment of juvenile krill. We found evidence for environmental controls on recruitment, including a reduced density of juveniles following positive anomalies of the Southern Annular Mode. Such anomalies are associated with warm, windy and cloudy weather and reduced sea ice, all of which may hinder egg production and the survival of larval krill5. However, the total post-larval density has declined less steeply than the density of recruits, suggesting that survival rates of older krill have increased. The changing distribution is already perturbing the krill-centred food web6 and may affect biogeochemical cycling7,8. Rapid climate change, with associated nonlinear adjustments in the roles of keystone species, poses challenges for the management of valuable polar ecosystems3. As the southwest Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean has warmed, the distribution of a key species, Antarctic krill, has contracted southwards. This has occurred in tandem with a decline in recruitment of juveniles, linked to increasingly positive anomalies of the Southern Annular Mode.

A Scenario of the Late‐Pleistocene‐Holocene Changes in the Distributional Range of Antarctic Krill (Euphausia superba)

Abstract. Oceanographic evidence along with the data on Euphausia superba distribution indicate that the reproductive range of this species is related to the southernmost core of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), the Weddell Gyre, the Ross Gyre, and the systems of mesoscale eddies in the Bellingshausen Sea, in the Prydz Bay area. and the D'Urville Sea. During the Last Glaciation Maximum, at ca. 18 ka BP, both the Weddell and the Ross Gyres as well as near‐coastal circulations probably lost their importance in the maintenance of Antarctic krill populations due to cooling of the water column and development of multi‐year sea ice. Within the ACC at that time, some smaller‐scale circulations related to islands and seamounts could have played a major role in controlling krill distribution. If, nevertheless. refugia for self‐maintained krill populations remained in the near‐coastal zone, particularly in the eastern Indian sector, geographical isolation might have caused divergence between the two species of the gregarine Cephaloidophora commonly infesting krill at present.