Nature Communications (Feb 2019)

Krill faecal pellets drive hidden pulses of particulate organic carbon in the marginal ice zone

  • A. Belcher,
  • S. A. Henson,
  • C. Manno,
  • S. L. Hill,
  • A. Atkinson,
  • S. E. Thorpe,
  • P. Fretwell,
  • L. Ireland,
  • G. A. Tarling

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08847-1
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Particulate organic carbon (POC) fluxes in the oceans, particularly the Southern Ocean, remain poorly constrained. Here the authors modelled the potential underestimated flux of POC originating from Antarctic krill and discovered a seasonal krill faecal pellet export flux of 0.039 GT C yr-1 across the marginal ice zone (MIZ) of the Southern Ocean.