Connecting Recruitment of Antarctic Krill and Sea Ice

We develop an age-structured model for two krill populations near the Antarctic Peninsula and estimate the relative recruitment events that reproduce observed trends in krill abundance and age structure. Estimates of recruitment in both regions show a nonlinear relationship between recruitment and s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Limnology and oceanography 2009-05, Vol.54 (3), p.799-811
Main Authors: Wiedenmann, John, Cresswell, Katherine A., Mangel, Marc
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Demecology
Euphausia
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Marine
Protozoa. Invertebrata
Sea water ecosystems
Synecology
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Summary:We develop an age-structured model for two krill populations near the Antarctic Peninsula and estimate the relative recruitment events that reproduce observed trends in krill abundance and age structure. Estimates of recruitment in both regions show a nonlinear relationship between recruitment and sea ice area in the combined Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas from the previous winter and spring, with large recruitment events occurring over a narrow range of ice area, and minimal recruitment otherwise. This finding may allow for an adaptive approach in which future catch limits are adjusted based on predictions of biomass. This result also suggests that the ecosystem may change dramatically once average ice area drops below the recruitment threshold.
ISSN:0024-3590
1939-5590
DOI:10.4319/lo.2009.54.3.0799