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Climate change impacts on Antarctic krill behaviour and population dynamics

  • Review Article
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From Nature Reviews Earth & Environment

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Abstract

Krill habitats in the Southern Ocean are impacted by changing climate conditions, reduced sea ice and rising temperatures. These changes, in turn, affect krill occurrence, physiology and behaviour, which could have ecosystem impacts. In this Review, we examine climate change impacts on Antarctic krill and the potential implications for the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Since the 1970s, there have been apparent reductions in adult population density and the occurrence of very dense swarms in the northern Southwest Atlantic. These changes were associated with latitudinal and longitudinal rearrangement of population distribution — including a poleward contraction in the Southwest Atlantic — and were likely driven by ocean warming, sea-ice reductions and changes in the quality of larval habitats. As swarms are targeted by fishers and predators, this contraction could increase fishery–predator interactions, potentially exacerbating risk to already declining penguin populations and recovering whale populations. These risks require urgent mitigation measures to be developed. A circumpolar monitoring network using emerging technologies is needed to augment existing surveys and better record the shifts in krill distribution.

Key points

  • The massive abundance and swarming behaviour of Antarctic krill makes them the primary prey for numerous Antarctic megafauna and important mediators of biogeochemical cycling in the Southern Ocean, particularly in processes that enhance carbon sequestration.

  • Analyses of an existing dataset collectively support southward habitat contraction in the Southwest Atlantic sector, likely due to ocean warming and hence changing sea-ice dynamics, including the reduction of sea ice.

  • Changes in habitat conditions affect krill physiology, which in turn could be accompanied by changes in their behaviour, such as changes in distribution and swarm size and frequency.

  • Reduction in krill biomass is potentially associated with a reduction in the number of swarms. Such changes will have implications for predator–prey relationships and interactions with the fishery.

  • An overall reduction in krill biomass and abundance could decrease the contribution of krill to the biological carbon pump in the region, with fewer faecal pellets, carcasses and moults sinking to the deep ocean, thereby reducing this important route of carbon sequestration.

  • Future studies must aim for deeper understanding of the energy budget in krill as it pertains to their swarming behaviour, and should deepen our understanding of climate change impacts on the pelagic lifestyle of krill.

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Fig. 1: Krill life history.
Fig. 2: Circumpolar distribution of Antarctic krill.
Fig. 3: Range shift in the Southwest Atlantic sector.
Fig. 4: Krill behaviour during winter under sea ice.
Fig. 5: Key objectives for Southern Ocean krill research.

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Acknowledgements

S.K. and M.J.C. were supported by the Australian Antarctic Program and received grant funding from the Australian Government as part of the Antarctic Science Collaboration Initiative programme. The contribution by A.A. was supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the European Space Agency (ESA) project ‘Biodiversity in the Open Ocean: Mapping, Monitoring and Modelling’ (BOOMS, no. 4000137125/22/I-DT). S.L.H. was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) British Antarctic Survey (BAS) ALI-Science Southern Ocean Ecosystems project. D.B. was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG; grant number 411096565). E.L.C. was supported by an Imperial College Research Fellowship and the WWF. We thank G. Yang for providing data for Fig. 2, and S. McCormack for ideas and input on the designs of Figs. 1, 4 and 5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southern Ocean Ecosystems Program, Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia

    So Kawaguchi

  2. Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    So Kawaguchi & Martin J. Cox

  3. Marine Ecosystems and Biodiversity Department, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK

    Angus Atkinson

  4. Department of Forest Sciences, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Dominik Bahlburg

  5. Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany

    Dominik Bahlburg

  6. College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Kim S. Bernard

  7. Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK

    Emma L. Cavan

  8. Integrated Digital East Antarctica, Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia

    Martin J. Cox

  9. Ecosystems Team, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK

    Simeon L. Hill

  10. Polar Biological Oceanography, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremehaven, Germany

    Bettina Meyer

  11. Conservation and Management, Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity, Oldenburg, Germany

    Bettina Meyer

  12. Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Bettina Meyer

  13. CESAB - FRB, 5 Rue de l’École de Médecine, Montpellier, France

    Devi Veytia

  14. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Devi Veytia

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S.K. led the overall conceptual design, led the activity and coordinated the writing. All authors discussed the concepts presented and significantly contributed to the writing.

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Kawaguchi, S., Atkinson, A., Bahlburg, D. et al. Climate change impacts on Antarctic krill behaviour and population dynamics. Nat Rev Earth Environ 5, 43–58 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00504-y

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