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Oceanographic Conditions of Bowhead Whale Habitat

Great collection of resources for this class, Lisa - thanks!

Looking at the "Arctic Ocean Diversity" site, there are several krill species noted. I am guessing that bowheads eat whatever krill are around. However I was wondering if there are some species of krill that are more common at specific locations than other species of krill (the site did note that several of the species are rare or uncommon in Arctic waters)?

Wed, 10/30/2013 - 14:39

Lisa Seff

Hi Carol-
Great question! I think it is so important for students to realize that there are many different species of krill out there, that each live in different habitats. Sometimes it's easy to lump everything together, but realizing many organisms, including krill, are incredibly habitat specific (temperature, salinity, pH, etc), can make everyone start to appreciate how devastating a sudden changes to a habitat can be.
Here is a paper completed in part by Dr. Campbell and Dr. Ashjian, both researchers that ran the expedition I was on which focuses in specifically on Euphausiid transport in the Western Arctic Ocean.
http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v360/p163-178/
There are actually more than 80 different species of krill found around the world! Amazing diversity, and many are very specific to their locations. Here's are two good links, that provide nice details about krill, as well as the locations you can find them:
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02quest/background/krill/kril...
http://www.arcodiv.org/watercolumn/Euphausiids.html
It's interesting that you ask about the species as I'm hoping to learn more about the genetic work that Dr. Campbell is conducting so I can pass on the knowledge to our students. I hope these sites are helpful and thanks so much for joining the class! Awesome collaborative effort between educators!
take care,
Lisa