Will the South Antarctic krill fishery exist by end of this century?

AGU PublicationsNot much of it as recently published on “Geophysical Research Letters“. This is a research made at the University of Yale by Andrea Piñones and Alexey Fedorov titled “Projected changes of Antarctic krill habitat by the end of the 21st century“.

Mrs. Piñones explains that the South Antarctic krill biomass has shrunk between 80 and 90% since 1970, a situation that has generated an ample scientific debate about the causes of this decline. The majority think that this is related to a change in environmental conditions, more specifically on a raise of South Antarctic waters temperature.

Both researchers combined climate simulations models with krill’s growth model. They determined that an increase of water temperature and ice thawing could reduce krill’s hábitat up to 80% towards 2100.

Climate models predict that as world oceans gain temperature from the greenhouse effect, deep circumpolar waters will see a raise of its temperature of 1 to 1,5°C towards the end of this century, and shallower waters around Antarctica could see up to 2°C raise of water temperature.

 

Dimitri Sclabos
Dimitri Sclabos

Founder and Co-owner