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Antarctic krill play an important role in mitigating climate change by acting as carbon sinks – helping to remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the deep ocean.
However, climate change is affecting krill behaviours and threatening their occurrence in the Southern Ocean. As their habitat shrinks due to rising sea temperatures and depleting ice levels, the krill are forced to move further south towards colder waters. Scientists fear this movement is having damaging ripple-on effects.
Amongst the most numerous animal species in the world, Antarctic krill are the primary diet of many Antarctic animals, including whales, seals, penguins, and fish. Changes to krill behaviour and population density, therefore, have major implications for the food chain and the potential to alter the Antarctic’s entire ecosystem.
In October 2023, we donated £35,000 to kick off the Turner Kirk Trust Antarctic Krill Project, a research collaboration between Imperial College London, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), and other partners.
The project uses advanced spatio-temporal modelling to understand Antarctic krill distribution and its role in the Southern Ocean ecosystem, particularly within the Southwest Atlantic's CCAMLR Area 48, home to 70% of the global krill stock.
The researchers modelled krill abundance using a novel dataset comprising acoustic in situ data of krill swarms. To achieve this, they integrated climate covariates obtained from satellite imagery with information gathered by floating buoys (also known as drifters).
By incorporating remotely sensed data with new data from drifting buoys, the project set out to improve predictions of krill abundance and inform decision-making for krill management.
The project has successfully enabled improved understanding of krill abundance which will contribute to informed decision making for krill management and fishing regulations. It has fostered vital learnings which are helping to address retention, dispersal, and movement pathways affecting krill availability for predators and fisheries. The modelling has been successful in the South Georiga Island region, which is critical for understanding krill availability in the Scotia Sea.
The project has also catalysed vital further research that will contribute to further understanding of krill ecology with applications for climate change sensitivity and sustainable fisheries management.
Two PhD projects have already been designed and advertised, focusing on biological carbon sinks and ocean dynamics modelling. Future research aims to expand these insights to other regions and investigate broader impacts on the carbon cycle. Discussions with BAS are planned in 2025 to explore next steps.
The Turner Kirk Trust Antarctic krill project is a key example of how experimental research can develop knowledge and understanding that has the potential to impact policy and practice in complex areas such as biodiversity.
You can access the full scientific article by André Victor Ribeiro Amaral, Adam M. Sykulski, Emma Cavan & Sophie Fielding here.
“Krill are of vital importance but measuring the abundance of these tiny creatures is somewhat of a needle in a haystack problem in a vast ocean. What this project showed is that improvements and new insights can be made by fusing multiple sources of data in combination with powerful statistical spatio-temporal models and modern computational power.”
In collaboration with The University of Glasgow, the project aims to develop the evidence needed to produce a transformative method for improving children’s ability across STEM subjects, independent of background or birth.
In partnership with Imperial College London, the Turner Kirk Trust Sprint Challenge was established to bring together conservation scientists and mathematicians from Imperial’s Centre for Environmental Policy, Department of Life Sciences, and Department of Mathematics.
A child protection programme that aims to develop a replicable model for preventing harmful institutionalised care, in favour of family-based care.
An innovative pilot project by SolarAid to provide solar lights to every household in an off-grid village in central Malawi, aiding their mission to light up all of rural Africa by 2030.
The University of Cambridge and the Turner Kirk Trust have launched the Kirk Global Challenge, a competition designed to jump-start economic growth in the developing world.
A new global fellowship programme at the Cambridge Conservation Initiative to protect biodiversity and foster interdisciplinary collaboration.