A new study involving British Antarctic Survey researchers highlights the influence of krill (Euphausia superba) on atmospheric carbon levels. It is published in the journal Nature Communications today (18th October 2019).
Antarctic krill are well-known for their role at the base of the Southern Ocean food web, where they’re food for marine predators such as seals, penguins and whales. Less well-known is their importance to the ocean’s carbon sink, where CO2 is removed from the atmosphere during photosynthesis by phytoplankton and sequestered to the deep ocean as organic material sinks to the seafloor.
Lead author Dr Emma Cavan, at Imperial College London, worked with an international team to review current scientific knowledge of the role of krill in processes that each year remove up to 12 billion tonnes of carbon from Earth’s atmosphere.
Read more at British Antarctic Survey
Photo Credit: Øystein Paulsen via Wikimedia Commons
