Nature Communications (Dec 2021)

Krill and salp faecal pellets contribute equally to the carbon flux at the Antarctic Peninsula

  • Nora-Charlotte Pauli,
  • Clara M. Flintrop,
  • Christian Konrad,
  • Evgeny A. Pakhomov,
  • Steffen Swoboda,
  • Florian Koch,
  • Xin-Liang Wang,
  • Ji-Chang Zhang,
  • Andrew S. Brierley,
  • Matteo Bernasconi,
  • Bettina Meyer,
  • Morten H. Iversen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27436-9
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Zooplankton impact Southern Ocean carbon cycling. Here, the authors examine carbon export at the Antarctic Peninsula, finding that krill pellets are efficiently exported, while salp pellets are retained and recycled in surface waters.