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Density and distribution of euphausiid larvae in the Scotia Sea in the 2011 summer

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Abstract

Monitoring of early euphausiid larvae provides valuable information on the mechanisms involved in recruitment to the adult populations. As the Antarctic is undergoing rapid environmental change, these mechanisms are key to ecosystem-based management of the krill fishery. We analyzed the distribution and abundance of early euphausiid larvae (calyptopes I to late furciliae) from 76 plankton samples from surface to 300 m depth in the Atlantic sector in January 2011 in relation with a previous survey and published information. Thysanoessa macrura (mean density: 209 ind m−2) dominated the sampling while Euphausia superba (mean density: 13.63 ind m−2) and Euphausia frigida (mean density: 10.05 ind m−2) were also present. T. macrura density increased while E. superba experienced a high decrease respect to historical data. Clustering of stations and correspondence analysis showed that the associations of larvae and water masses are in agreement with literature reports, so the differences on the abundance of early larvae are within the observed variability and cannot be attributed to any single factor, suggesting that it is due to more subtle changes such as the stability of the water column and/or vorticity in the fronts.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank members of Puerto Deseado Oceanographic vessel and scientists from Instituto Antártico Argentino for their logistic help during the campaign. The financial support was partially covered by PICTO 118-2010 (Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica) and Instituto Antártico Argentino, the Dirección Nacional del Antártico provided the logistic support of the campaign. We wish to thank reviewer #3 M Hamame and the other anonymous referees for comments that greatly improved the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Antártico Argentino. Dirección Nacional del Antartico, 25 de Mayo 1143, San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Rombolá E., Franzosi C., Tosonotto G., Vivequin S., Alder V. & Marschoff E.

  2. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas Y Técnicas, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Rombolá E. & Alder V.

  3. Departamento de Ecología, Genética Y Evolución. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Intendente Güiraldes 2160. Ciudad Universitaria. C1428EGA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Alder V.

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Contributions

All authors made contributions to the present work. The conception of the study was designed by EM. Material preparation and data collection were performed by ER, EM, SV and CF. Data analysis were performed by EM and ER. Figures were designed by CF and VA; GT made de oceanographic analysis from the CTD data. Logistic support for the campaign by SV. ER and EM wrote the manuscript, which was revised by all authors. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rombolá E..

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The authors declare that no conflicts of interest exist. Procedures used in this study comply with the current laws for working in Antarctica. Permission to work was granted by the Environmental Management and Tourism Program of the Dirección Nacional del Antártico (DNA), Argentina.

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E., R., C., F., G., T. et al. Density and distribution of euphausiid larvae in the Scotia Sea in the 2011 summer. Polar Biol 44, 783–794 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-021-02836-1

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