Document Type
Article
Department/Program
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Publication Date
2017
Journal
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA
Volume
9
Issue
1
First Page
193
Last Page
210
Abstract
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and salps are major macroplankton contributors to Southern Ocean food webs and krill are also fished commercially. Managing this fishery sustainably, against a backdrop of rapid regional climate change, requires information on distribution and time trends. Many data on the abundance of both taxa have been obtained from net sampling surveys since 1926, but much of this is stored in national archives, sometimes only in notebooks. In order to make these important data accessible we have collated available abundance data (numerical density, no. m(-2)) of postlarval E. superba and salp individual (multiple species, and whether singly or in chains). These were combined into a central database, KRILLBASE, together with environmental information, standardisation and metadata. The aim is to provide a temporal-spatial data resource to support a variety of research such as biogeochemistry, autecology, higher predator foraging and food web modelling in addition to fisheries management and conservation. Previous versions of KRILLBASE have led to a series of papers since 2004 which illustrate some of the potential uses of this database. With increasing numbers of requests for these data we here provide an updated version of KRILLBASE that contains data from 15 194 net hauls, including 12 758 with krill abundance data and 9726 with salp abundance data. These data were collected by 10 nations and span 56 seasons in two epochs (1926-1939 and 1976-2016). Here, we illustrate the seasonal, inter-annual, regional and depth coverage of sampling, and provide both circumpolar-and regional-scale distribution maps. Krill abundance data have been standardised to accommodate variation in sampling methods, and we have presented these as well as the raw data. Information is provided on how to screen, interpret and use KRILLBASE to reduce artefacts in interpretation, with contact points for the main data providers.
DOI
10.5194/essd-9-193-2017
Keywords
SOUTH SHETLAND ISLANDS; SEA-ICE EXTENT; EUPHAUSIA-SUPERBA; FOOD-WEB; ATLANTIC SECTOR; WHALING RECORDS; AUSTRAL SUMMER; OCEAN; PENINSULA; ABUNDANCE
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Statement
Supplement https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-193-2017-supplement Data sets The KRILLBASE (1926–2016) Antarctic krill and salp abundance database A. Atkinson, S. L. Hill, E. A. Pakhomov, V. Siegel, R. Anadon, S. Chiba, K. L. Daly, R. Downie, S. Fielding, P. Fretwell, L. Gerrish, G. W. Hosie, M. J. Jessopp, S. Kawaguchi, B. A. Krafft, V. Loeb, J. Nishikawa, H. J. Peat, C. S. Reiss, R. M. Ross, L. B. Quetin, K. Schmidt, D. K. Steinberg, R. C. Subramaniam, G. A. Tarling, and P. Ward https://doi.org/10.5285/8b00a915-94e3-4a04-a903-dd4956346439 Palmer LTER time series Palmer Antarctica Long- Term Ecological Research (Palmer LTER) project http://pal.lternet.edu/ AMLR time series Antarctic Marine Living Resources (AMLR) project https://swfsc.noaa.gov/aerd/
Sponsor
We are greatly indebted to the crews and scientists who have collected thousands of net samples over the last 90 years, analysed the catches, and then provided data in a format that is useable. Boris Trotsenko was a major facilitator in rescuing old Soviet Union data. Marie-Fanny Racault accessed satellite temperature climatology data and Janet Silk helped with spatial data checks. We are grateful to Peter Rothery for the original standardisation of the krill density data. D. K. Steinberg acknowledges the US National Science Foundation (grant PLR-1440435). B. A. Krafft was supported by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal affairs, the Institute of Marine Research, the University of Bergen, the Norwegian Antarctic Research Expeditions (NARE), the Norwegian Research Council, Statoil Hydro and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. In the last 5 years the funding to update the database was via the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem Cooperative Research Centre (for R. C. Subramaniam) and the UK Natural Environment Research Council and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs grant NE/L003279/1, Marine Ecosystems Research Program (for Angus Atkinson). After this the final production of the database and creation of this data paper was funded by the World Wildlife Fund.
Recommended Citation
Atkinson, A., Hill, S. L., Pakhomov, E. A., Siegel, V., Anadon, R., Chiba, S., Daly, K. L., Downie, R., Fielding, S., Fretwell, P., Gerrish, L., Hosie, G. W., Jessopp, M. J., Kawaguchi, S., Krafft, B. A., Loeb, V., Nishikawa, J., Peat, H. J., Reiss, C. S., Ross, R. M., Quetin, L. B., Schmidt, K., Steinberg, D. K., Subramaniam, R. C., Tarling, G. A., and Ward, P.: KRILLBASE: a circumpolar database of Antarctic krill and salp numerical densities, 1926–2016, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 193-210, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-193-2017, 2017.
