The Impact of Salps on the Antarctic Krill Population - An Individual-based Modelling Study

The Impact of Salps on the Antarctic Krill Population - An Individual-based Modelling Study | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The Impact of Salps on the Antarctic Krill Population - An Individual-based Modelling Study Bruno Walter Pietzsch, Aaron Schmidt, Jürgen Gröneveld, Dominik Bahlburg, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2271484/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 09 Oct, 2023 Read the published version in Ecological Processes → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background Krill and salps are key macro zooplankton grazers in the Southern Ocean ecosystem but due to differing habitat requirements, there used to be only little spatial overlap of both species. With ongoing climate change-induced seawater temperature increase and regional loss of sea ice, salps are now able to extend their spatial distribution into areas that are historically krill dominated and capable to increase rapidly due to asexual reproduction when environmental conditions are favorable. It is crucial to understand potential effects on krill since krill is a species of exceptional trophic significance of the Southern Ocean food web and negative impacts on krill could trigger cascading effects on its predators and prey. To address this question, we combined two individual-based models on salp and krill, which describe the whole life cycle of salp individuals as well as the dynamic energy budget of individual krill. The resulting new model PEKRIS (PErformance of KRIll vs. Salps) is used to simulate a krill population for 100 years under varying chlorophyll a concentration in the presence or absence of salps. Results The investigated krill population properties (dynamics of krill abundance, mean length and yearly number of released eggs) were impacted but not significant by the presence of salps. On the other hand, salp abundance was significantly reduced if krill was present. The medians of krill and salp population properties deviated when the other species was introduced by <1% (150 individuals) for krill abundance, -25% (-417,934 eggs) for krill eggs, 2% (0.49 mm) for mean length of krill and -38% (-427 individuals) for maximum seasonal salp abundance. Conclusions While no significant impact of salp presence on the krill population was detectable, a considerable reduction for eggs released by krill prevailed. In the future, the model could serve as a tool to investigate the possible effect of a climate change related increase in water temperature and the associated physiological effects on both species and, consequently, their population trends. Euphausia superba Salpa thompsoni Individual-based model food competition population dynamics DEB theory Full Text Supplementary Files S1File.pdf S2File.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 09 Oct, 2023 Read the published version in Ecological Processes → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-2271484","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":158510398,"identity":"ee7bcad9-0fdf-48ad-8c4e-79eaba7db275","order_by":0,"name":"Bruno Walter Pietzsch","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1232-6062","institution":"Technische Universität Dresden: Technische Universitat Dresden","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Bruno","middleName":"Walter","lastName":"Pietzsch","suffix":""},{"id":158510399,"identity":"dd5d9662-3ff4-45aa-8e21-de70581bd129","order_by":1,"name":"Aaron Schmidt","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Technische Universität Dresden: Technische Universitat Dresden","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Aaron","middleName":"","lastName":"Schmidt","suffix":""},{"id":158510400,"identity":"1a99493a-b03c-4606-b2b1-bea35defb678","order_by":2,"name":"Jürgen Gröneveld","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - 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An Individual-based Modelling Study","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":true,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Euphausia superba, Salpa thompsoni, Individual-based model, food competition, population dynamics, DEB theory","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2271484/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2271484/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBackground\u003c/strong\u003e Krill and salps are key macro zooplankton grazers in the Southern Ocean ecosystem but due to differing habitat requirements, there used to be only little spatial overlap of both species. With ongoing climate change-induced seawater temperature increase and regional loss of sea ice, salps are now able to extend their spatial distribution into areas that are historically krill dominated and capable to increase rapidly due to asexual reproduction when environmental conditions are favorable. It is crucial to understand potential effects on krill since krill is a species of exceptional trophic significance of the Southern Ocean food web and negative impacts on krill could trigger cascading effects on its predators and prey. To address this question, we combined two individual-based models on salp and krill, which describe the whole life cycle of salp individuals as well as the dynamic energy budget of individual krill. The resulting new model PEKRIS (PErformance of KRIll vs. Salps) is used to simulate a krill population for 100 years under varying chlorophyll a concentration in the presence or absence of salps.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eResults\u003c/strong\u003e The investigated krill population properties (dynamics of krill abundance, mean length and yearly number of released eggs) were impacted but not significant by the presence of salps. On the other hand, salp abundance was significantly reduced if krill was present. The medians of krill and salp population properties deviated when the other species was introduced by \u0026lt;1% (150 individuals) for krill abundance, -25% (-417,934 eggs) for krill eggs, 2% (0.49 mm) for mean length of krill and -38% (-427 individuals) for maximum seasonal salp abundance.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConclusions\u003c/strong\u003e While no significant impact of salp presence on the krill population was detectable, a considerable reduction for eggs released by krill prevailed. In the future, the model could serve as a tool to investigate the possible effect of a climate change related increase in water temperature and the associated physiological effects on both species and, consequently, their population trends.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"The Impact of Salps on the Antarctic Krill Population - An Individual-based Modelling Study","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2022-12-23 00:37:33","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2271484/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"bd616317-3ad7-4a64-8c3f-e8d59e7f8fda","owner":[],"postedDate":"December 23rd, 2022","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2023-10-16T15:04:38+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-2271484","link":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13717-023-00462-9","journal":{"identity":"ecological-processes","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Ecological Processes"},"publishedOn":"2023-10-09 15:01:43","publishedOnDateReadable":"October 9th, 2023"},"versionCreatedAt":"2022-12-23 00:37:33","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1186/s13717-023-00462-9","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13717-023-00462-9","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-2271484","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-2271484","identity":"rs-2271484","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"GqpaHPwrfC8PjnIFayRh5","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}