{"id":59727,"date":"2015-01-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-research-expedition-to-antarctica-reveals-new-insights-into-krill-plankton-behaviors\/"},"modified":"2015-01-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T00:00:00","slug":"uri-research-expedition-to-antarctica-reveals-new-insights-into-krill-plankton-behaviors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/01\/uri-research-expedition-to-antarctica-reveals-new-insights-into-krill-plankton-behaviors\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 research expedition to Antarctica reveals new insights into krill, plankton behaviors"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tNARRAGANSETT, R.I. — January 23, 2015 \u2013 A team of faculty and students from the 溏心vlog免费B站 returned on New Year\u2019s Day from a month-long research expedition to the waters off the West Antarctica peninsula to study the behavior of krill, a small crustacean that plays a key role in the food chain in the Southern Ocean. The expedition follows a similar cruise in May 2013 that will enable the scientists to compare seasonal differences in krill behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to learn what the krill are doing in the environment, their swimming and schooling patterns, and what prey they are eating,\u201d said Ted Durbin, the professor at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Graduate School of Oceanography who led the expedition. \u201cKrill are a keystone species in Antarctica. They are the primary diet of most penguins, seals and whales.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe need to understand what the krill eat,\u201d added doctoral student Alison Cleary, \u201cbecause as the environment changes in Antarctica, what is available for them to eat may change, and that could affect all the other creatures up the food chain.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tSome of the scientists\u2019 work consisted of observational studies using 3-dimensional camera systems developed by Professor Chris Roman to learn about krill swimming behaviors. \u201cWe prefer to let the animals tell us what they\u2019re doing rather than make them jump through hoops,\u201d said Durbin, who has spent almost a year of his life aboard research ships around the world studying krill, plankton and fish.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe research team also collected samples of krill on which to conduct feeding experiments in a ship-based laboratory and to calculate how much they eat and what species of prey they prefer in the wild.<\/p>\n


\n\tWhile extensive studies have been conducted on krill for many years, Durbin said that there are a surprising number of unanswered questions about their behaviors and movement patterns, including the timing of their migrations and what they feed on during the dark winter months.<\/p>\n


\n\tAlthough the research team still has many months of data analysis to go before drawing conclusions, it made a number of interesting observations that shed light on krill ecology. They observed, for instance, dense aggregations of mostly juvenile krill spending the winter months in the bays and fjords close to shore while the adults remained far offshore. But in the summer the juveniles dispersed in small groupings from the coastal waters to the continental shelf, where they feed on phytoplankton near the surface.<\/p>\n


\n\tThey also noticed large phytoplankton blooms that turned the water green. Durbin expected that there would be large numbers of zooplankton feeding on the microscopic plants. \u201cBut the zooplankton apparently hadn\u2019t woken up yet from their winter diapause,\u201d he said. \u201cNothing was eating it except for the krill. That was a surprise to me. The bloom may sink to the bottom and be a reservoir of potential food for krill.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tFor Cleary, who had participated in research expeditions to Antarctica twice before, the difference between the summer and winter cruises were literally like night and day. \u201cThis year we were in the Antarctic summer, so it was incredible having sunshine all the time,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was amazing being able to see the icebergs, mountains and penguins every hour of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWith a great deal of work still ahead, Durbin said the two expeditions provided \u201ca lot of insights about how the ecosystem is functioning and what new questions should be asked. The more we know about krill behavior and their life history, the more we\u2019ll understand how the system will be effected by climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe research expedition was funded by the National Science Foundation\u2019s Office of Polar Programs.<\/p>\n


\nCaption: The research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer with a team of 溏心vlog免费B站 scientists and students aboard prepares to depart Antarctica in December. (Photo by Ted Durbin.)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — January 23, 2015 \u2013 A team of faculty and students from the 溏心vlog免费B站 returned on New Year\u2019s Day from a month-long research expedition to the waters off the West Antarctica peninsula to study the behavior of krill, a small crustacean that plays a key role in the food chain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}