Marine Ecology Progress Series
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14899
copiedSeasonal and spatial patterns of adult Antarctic krill at the Antarctic Peninsula: insights from a 41 year data analysis
Locating the spawning grounds of Antarctic krill Euphausia superba is key to understanding their population dynamics and managing the commercial krill fishery. In the shelf waters of the Antarctic Peninsula where krill and their fishery are concentrated, a recent relaxation of fishing quotas has meant that locally successful spawning grounds could become increasingly targeted. This study revisits the existing paradigm that in summer, larger adult krill migrate away from these shelf-based fishing grounds, out towards oceanic waters to spawn off the shelf break (>1000 m). Our findings support a seasonal on-shelf division of adult krill, with smaller krill closer inshore. However, contrary to current understanding, our results suggest that 85% of the largest and most fecund >50 mm krill remain on-shelf during the summer spawning season. All adults (>30 mm) were strongly concentrated over the shelf throughout the whole spring-summer-autumn transition, with no evidence for any summer redistribution off-shelf. The Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) has strong on-shelf-off-shelf gradients in chlorophyll a and sea surface temperature, and based on generalised additive models, our study suggests that the high food requirement of adult krill, coupled with an oligotrophic off-shelf environment, contributes to the distribution of krill observed at the Antarctic Peninsula. The concentration of large, nutritious krill over the shelf throughout the season may be advantageous to land-based predators but raises concern for the management of fisheries that are becoming increasingly concentrated within the key adult krill habitat along the northern shelf of the WAP.
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F. A. Perry (Corresponding Author)
- Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4PS, UK
S. F. Sailley (Co-author)
- Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth PL1 3DH, UK
A. Atkinson (Co-author)
- Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth PL1 3DH, UK
D. J. Mayor (Co-author)
- Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4PS, UK
- National Oceanography Centre Southampton, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
- University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
- British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environmental Research Council, High Cross, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
Handling Editor:
Marsh Youngbluth, Fort Pierce, Florida, USA
Reviewers:
Previous version in MEPS reviewed by K. Bernard and 2 anonymous referees
Acknowledgements:
This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) (grant number NE/L002531/1) to F.A.P. The NERC program Marine LTSS: Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science NE/R015953/1 supported S.F.S.’s time on this project. A.A. was funded by the Antarctic Wildlife Research Fund. D.J.M. received funding from the Natural Environment Research Council, UK (DIAPOD; NE/P006353/1). G.A.T. contributed to this work as part of the Ecosystems program at the British Antarctic Survey.