Sentences with phrase «krill populations»

The phytoplankton - dependent krill populations in the Southern Ocean which are the staple food of all the great baleen whales are now down by 80 % and the shortfall is now also starving local fish species, penguins and seals.)

Concentrated industrial fishing is depleting local krill populations, potentially forcing penguins and other species to shift their foraging patterns.

But the new study notes that krill populations remained constant or even declined after great whales experienced big declines.

The sea - ice decline in the winter, however, has become so big that it is now impacting krill populations, said Barbosa, of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid.

Furthermore, we must understand how changes in sea ice cover affect the feeding ecology of humpback whales and their competitors in the short - term and the dynamics of krill populations over the longer term, particularly given the increasing pressure from commercial krill harvests [36].

The researchers found that the release of terrestrial material trapped by icebergs creates a «halo effect» with significantly increased phytoplankton and krill populations out to a two - mile radius around the icebergs.

A loss of sea ice, or change in seasonal timings, could hurt krill populations and those that depend on them.

Research shows krill populations have already dropped by 80 percent since the 1970s.

Krill also face another threat, which was not a focus of our research: Concentrated industrial fishing is depleting local krill populations, potentially forcing penguins and other species to shift their foraging patterns.

«When the sea ice is low, the krill populations crash the next summer.

Rather, a dip in the krill population may be to blame, an idea supported by the fact that Adélie penguin population (P. adeliae) in the region is also declining, while the gentoo penguin population (P. papua), which has a more variable diet, is not.

The krill population is vital, but it's depleting fast.