Standard Presentation 2024 Australian Marine Sciences Association Annual Meeting combined with NZMSS

Mapping the changing distributions of krill and their life-history stages in the Southern Ocean. (#113)

Yash Gimonkar 1 , Nicole Hill 1 , Skipton Wooley 2 , Scott Foster 2 , Joel Williams 1
  1. Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
  2. Data 61, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

In the last five decades, the Southern Ocean has faced rapid environmental shifts due to anthropogenic pressures like climate change. These environmental changes are likely influencing the distribution and abundance of zooplankton communities. Due to the complexities associated with zooplankton communities and their ecology, they are difficult to monitor for detecting changes at the community level. To simplify, we focus on detecting ecological changes in the euphausiid (krill) community, the most studied zooplankton taxa in the Southern Ocean. Despite extensive research on some krill species, knowledge gaps remain regarding the distribution and interactions of many non-endemic Southern Ocean krill species and their life-history stages. We use the long-term and extensive SO-CPR (Southern Ocean-Continuous Plankton Recorder) dataset to examine the changes in species and community attributes. Using Species Distribution Models, we model the spatio-temporal changes in the distribution of 7 krill species and their life-history stages in the Indian Ocean Sector of the Southern Ocean over 15-year period. We discuss which species and their life-history stages have shifted due to environmental factors and further discuss the implications of these shifts on ecosystem monitoring and conservation management.