Fatty acid analysis is a powerful tool in food web research for estimating dietary sources in marine predators. However, the utility of fatty acids as dietary indicators from whole lipid samples, rather than from separate lipid classes, has been questioned. Samples are often collected at a single time point, precluding seasonal dietary comparisons. We investigated variations in the fatty acid composition of structural (phospholipids) and storage lipids (triacylglycerols) of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) using fisheries samples obtained over one year. Seasonal variation was observed in fatty acid biomarkers within triacylglycerol and phospholipid fractions of krill. Fatty acids in krill triacylglycerols (thought to better represent recent diet), reflected omnivorous feeding with highest percentages of flagellate biomarkers (18:4n-3) in summer, and diatom biomarkers (16:1n-7c) in autumn, winter and spring. Carnivory biomarkers (∑ 20:1 + 22:1 and 18:1n-9c/18:1n-7c) in krill were greater in autumn. Phospholipid fatty acids were less variable and higher in 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3, which are essential components of cell membranes. Sterol composition did not yield detailed dietary information, but percentages of the major krill sterol, cholesterol, were significantly higher in winter and spring compared with summer and autumn. Unexpectedly, 18:4n-3 and copepod markers ∑ 20:1 + 22:1 were not strongly associated with the triacylglycerol fraction during some seasons. Krill may mobilise 18:4n-3 to phospholipids for conversion to long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, which would have implications for its role as a dietary biomarker. For the first time, we demonstrate the dynamic seasonal relationship between specific biomarkers and krill lipid classes.

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are a keystone species in the Southern Ocean, but little is known about how they will respond to climate change. Ocean acidification, caused by sequestration of carbon dioxide into ocean surface waters (pCO2), is known to alter the lipid biochemistry of some organisms. This can have cascading effects up the food chain. In a year-long laboratory experiment adult krill were exposed to ambient seawater pCO2 levels (400 μatm), elevated pCO2 levels that mimicked near-future ocean acidification (1000, 1500 and 2000 μatm) and an extreme pCO2 level (4000 μatm). The laboratory light regime mimicked the seasonal Southern Ocean photoperiod and krill received a constant food supply. Total lipid mass (mg g -1 DM) of adult krill was unaffected by near-future levels of seawater pCO2. Fatty acid composition (%) and fatty acid ratios associated with immune responses and cell membrane fluidity were also unaffected by near-future pCO2, apart from an increase in 18:3n-3/18:2n-6 ratios in krill in 1500 μatm pCO2 in winter and spring. Extreme pCO2 had no effect on krill lipid biochemistry during summer. During winter and spring, krill in extreme pCO2 had elevated levels of omega-6 fatty acids (up to 1.2% increase in 18:2n-6, up to 0.8% increase in 20:4n-6 and lower 18:3n-3/18:2n-6 and 20:5n-3/20:4n-6 ratios), and showed evidence of increased membrane fluidity (up to three-fold increase in phospholipid/sterol ratios). These results indicate that the lipid biochemistry of adult krill is robust to near-future ocean acidification.

This data may be used to reproduce the analyses (including figures and tables), of 'Two scales of distribution and biomass of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in the eastern sector of the CCAMLR Division 58.4.2 (55°E to 80°E)'. The data describe krill biomass density distribution and krill net samples (krill total length and krill wetmass) collected during the 2021 TEMPO voyage on R/V Investigator. During the TEMPO voyage krill biomass was estimated using observations from two sampling instruments: a calibrated EK80 scientific echosounder operating at 120 kHz and an rectangular midwater trawl (RMT 1+8). The supporting data sets, all in CSV format, are split by instrument type. The EK80 has two datafiles: krill_density.csv – krill areal density from the TEMPO transects, and krill_swarms.csv -krill swarms detected during the TEMPO transects. The RMT1+8 has four datafiles net_locations.csv krill_lengths.csv krill_wet_mass_to_length.csv krill_wet_mass_to_length_model_predictions.csv The fields (columns) in each data file are: krill_density.csv "lat_M" – centre latitude of an echo integration interval [degrees] (dd.ddddd) WGS84 spheroid (GPS latitude) "lon_M" - centre longitude of an echo integration interval [degrees] (dd.ddddd) WGS84 spheroid (GPS longitude), "areal_biomass_density_g_per_m2" – Echo integration interval krill areal biomass density [g wet-mass / m^2] "daynight" – flag for when the sampling took place [day/night] "survey" – Either the main survey for the TEMPO biomass survey or the smaller-scale ‘Mawson box’ survey krill_swarms.csv "transect" – transect number "lat" – latitude [degrees] (dd.ddddd) WGS84 spheroid (GPS latitude) "swarm_depth_m" – mean depth of a krill swarm [m] "daynight" – flag for when the sampling took place [day/night] ”volumetric_density_g_per_m3" – krill swarm internal volumetric biomass density [g wet-mass / m^3] net_locations.csv "station" – Station name for net trawl R for routine haul, T for target trawl "lat" – mean latitude of a net trawl [degrees] (dd.ddddd) WGS84 spheroid (GPS latitude) "lon" – mean longitude of a net trawl [degrees] (dd.ddddd) WGS84 spheroid (GPS longitude) "daynight" – flag for when the sampling took place [day/night] krill_lengths.csv "station" – Station name for net trawl R for routine haul, T for target trawl "total_length_mm” – total length of an individual krill [mm] krill_wet_mass_to_length.csv "total_length_mm" – total length of an individual krill [mm] "wet_mass_g" - wet-mass an individual krill [g] krill_wet_mass_to_length_model_predictions.csv "total_length_mm" - total length of an individual krill [mm] "predicted_wet_mass_g" – predicted mean wet-mass an individual krill of length ("total_length_mm" ) [g] "LB_wet_mass_g" – Lower bound (lower 95% confidence interval) for the predicted_wet_mass_g [g] "UB_wet_mass_g"– Upper bound (upper 95% confidence interval) for the predicted_wet_mass_g [g]

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) have a keystone role in the Southern Ocean, as the primary prey of Antarctic predators. Any decreases in krill abundance could result in a major ecological regime shift, but there is currently limited information on how climate change may affect krill. Increasing anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are causing ocean acidification, as absorption of atmospheric CO2 in seawater alters ocean chemistry. Ocean acidification increases mortality and negatively affects physiological functioning in some marine invertebrates, and is predicted to occur most rapidly at high latitudes. Here we show that, in the laboratory, adult krill are able to survive, grow, store fat, mature, and maintain respiration rates when exposed to near-future ocean acidification (1000 – 2000 μatm pCO2) for one year. Despite differences in seawater pCO2 incubation conditions, adult krill are able to actively maintain the acid-base balance of their body fluids in near-future pCO2, which enhances their resilience to ocean acidification.

This dataset contains fatty acid data expressed as mass percent of total fatty acids from Chukchi Sea polar bears.

Microscopy imaging of live Antarctic krill using a Leica M205C dissecting stereo-microscope with a Leica DFC 450 camera and Leica LAS V4.0 software. Krill were held in a custom made 'krill trap', details provided in manuscript in section eight of this form. The data are available as a single video file. These data are part of Australian Antarctic Science (AAS) projects 4037 and 4050. Project 4037 - Experimental krill biology: Response of krill to environmental change The experimental krill research project is designed to focus on obtaining life history information of use in managing the krill fishery - the largest Antarctic fishery. In particular, the project will concentrate on studies into impacts of climate change on key aspects of krill biology and ecology. Project 4050 - Assessing change in krill distribution and abundance in Eastern Antarctica Antarctic krill is the key species of the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Its fishery is rapidly expanding and it is vulnerable to changes in climate. Australia has over a decade of krill abundance and distribution data collected off Eastern Antarctica. This project will analyse these datasets and investigate if krill abundance and distribution has altered over time. The results are important for the future management of the fishery, as well as understanding broader ecological consequences of change in this important species.

These data represent the results of the first study to use Earth System Model (ESM) outputs of SST and chlorophyll-a to simulate circumpolar krill growth potential for the recent past (1960-1989) and future climate change scenarios (2070-2099). Growth potential is obtained using an empirically-derived krill growth model (Atkinson et al. 2006, Limnol. Oceanogr.), where growth is modeled as a function of SST and chlorophyll-a. It serves as an approximation of habitat quality, as areas that support high growth rates are assumed to be good habitat (see Murphy et al., 2017, Sci Rep). To increase confidence in the future projections, ESMs were selected and weighted for each season based on their skill at reproducing observation-based krill growth potential for the recent past. First, eleven ESMs which provided SST and chlorophyll-a outputs were obtained from the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project 5 archive. These included: CanESM2, CMCC-CESM, CNRM-CM5, GFL-ESM2G, GFDL-ESM2M, GISS-E2-H-CC, HadGEM2-CC, IPSL-CM5A-LR, MPI-ESM-MR, MRI-ESM1 and NorESM1-ME. For each ESM, seasonal surface averages of SST and chlorophyll-a were used to calculate growth potential for the historical scenario (1960-1989), which was then bilinearly interpolated on to the same 1°x1° grid. Satellite observation-based datasets for SST and chlorophyll-a were used to calculate observation-based growth potential for the recent past (1997-2010). These comprised seasonal surface averages of SST (from the OISST v2 daily dataset, 1/4⁰ horizontal resolution) and chlorophyll-a (the mean of the SeaWiFS and Johnson et al. (2013) corrected estimate of SeaWiFS daily datasets, 1/12⁰ horizontal resolution). Observation-based growth potential was then bilinearly interpolated onto the same grid as the ESMs. ESM skill for each season was subsequently assessed against observation-based growth potential using a Taylor Diagram. The ESMs were selected and weighted according to their performance to produce a weighted subset (see "ESM_weighting_method.pdf" file). Of the netcdfs provided, "hist_mean_ensemble.nc" represents the unweighted mean of seasonal growth potential, calculated from the initial ensemble of eleven ESMs for the historical scenario. The "hist_mean_subset.nc" file represents the analogous output of the weighted subset. Future projections of seasonal growth potential for Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5 were obtained using the weighted subset for the period of 2070-2099. These projected seasonal surface averages are provided in the "rcp45_mean_subset.nc" and "rcp85_mean_subset.nc" files. RCPs represent standard climate change scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with 4.5 reflecting some mitigation of carbon emissions, and 8.5 being the "business as usual" scenario. Analogous netcdfs for the weighted subset outputs of chlorophyll-a (chl) and SST (tos) for the historical and RCP scenarios are also provided in the "chl_tos_netcdfs.zip" file so that the driving environmental variables underlying growth potential can be examined.

This restriction site associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq) dataset for Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) includes raw sequence data and summaries for 148 krill from 5 Southern Ocean sites. A detailed README.pdf file is provided to describe components of the dataset. DNA library preparation was carried out in two separate batches by Floragenex (Eugene, Oregon, USA). RAD fragment libraries (SbfI) were sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq 2000 using single-end 100 bp chemistry. As there is no reference genome for Antarctic krill, a set of unique 90 bp sequences (RAD tags) was assembled from 17.3 million single-end reads from an individual krill. We obtained over a billion raw reads from the 148 krill in our study (a mean of 6.8 million reads per sample). The reference assembly contained 239,441 distinct RAD tags. The core genotype dataset exported for downstream data filtering included just those SNPs with genotype calls in at least 80% of the krill samples and contained 12,114 SNPs on 816 RAD tags. Sample collection table (comma separated): Southern Ocean Location, Sample Size, Austral Summer, Latitude, Longitude, ID East Antarctica (Casey), 21, 2010/2011, 64S, 100E, Cas East Antarctica (Mawson), 22, 2011/2012. 66S, 70E, Maw Lazarev Sea, 38, 2004/2005 and 2007/2008, 66S, 0E, Laz Western Antarctic Peninsula, 16, 2010/2011, 69S, 76W, WAP Ross Sea, 23, 2012/2013, 68S, 178E, Ross

Robust prediction of population responses to changing environments requires the integration of factors controlling population dynamics with processes affecting distribution. This is true everywhere but especially in polar pelagic environments. Biological cycles for many polar species are synchronised to extreme seasonality, while their distributions may be influenced by both the prevailing oceanic circulation and sea-ice distribution. Antarctic krill (krill, Euphausia superba) is one such species exhibiting a complex life history that is finely tuned to the extreme seasonality of the Southern Ocean. Dependencies on the timing of optimal seasonal conditions has led to concerns over the effects of future climate on krill’s population status, particularly given the species’ important role within Southern Ocean ecosystems. Under a changing climate, established correlations between environment and species may breakdown. Developing the capacity for predicting krill responses to climate change therefore requires methods that can explicitly consider the interplay between life history, biological conditions, and transport. The Spatial Ecosystem And Population Dynamics Model (SEAPODYM) is one such framework that integrates population and general circulation modelling to simulate the spatial dynamics of key organisms. Here, we describe a modification to SEAPODYM, creating a novel model – KRILLPODYM – that generates spatially resolved estimates of krill biomass and demographics. This new model consists of three major components: (1) an age-structured population consisting of five key life stages, each with multiple age classes, which undergo age-dependent growth and mortality, (2) six key habitats that mediate the production of larvae and life stage survival, and (3) spatial dynamics driven by both the underlying circulation of ocean currents and advection of sea-ice. Here we present the first results of KRILLPODYM, using published deterministic functions of population processes and habitat suitability rules. Initialising from a non-informative uniform density across the Southern Ocean our model independently develops a circumpolar population distribution of krill that approximates observations. The model framework lends itself to applied experiments aimed at resolving key population parameters, life-stage specific habitat requirements, and dominant transport regimes, ultimately informing sustainable fishery management. This dataset represents KRILLPODYM modelled estimates of Antarctic krill circumpolar biomass distribution for the final year of a 12-year spin up. Biomass distributions are given for each of the five key life stages outlined above. The accompanying background, model framework and initialisation description can be found in the following reference paper: Green, D. B., Titaud, O., Bestley, S., Corney, S. P., Hindell, M. A., Trebilco, R., Conchon, A. and Lehodey, P. in review. KRILLPODYM: a mechanistic, spatially resolved model of Antarctic krill distribution and abundance. - Frontiers in Marine Science

This dataset contains hydroacoustic results from the Antarctic Division Biomass Experiment II (ADBEX II) cruise of the Nella Dan. This cruise is the third in a series of six cruises, performing a long term survey of krill and other zooplankton distribution and abundance. Australia was to have participated in the Second International Biomass Experiment I (SIBEX I), but withdrew due to resupply problems. ADBEX II is a reduced sampling program of what was to have been sampled during SIBEX I. Three transects were made off Antarctica in the Mawson region of the Australian sector, in January to March 1984, covering a survey area of 70,000 square kilometers. Quantitative and geographic krill distribution, abundance, mean and variance of the krill weight density, and total krill biomass were obtained. Biomass estimates for ADBEX II are given as 3.5 million tonnes, obtained by extrapolating over the survey area used on the SIBEX II cruise (1.28x10^6 square kilometers). Temperature, nutrient and salinty data were also obtained, as well as trawl results. Summary results are listed in the documentation. The fields in this dataset are: pressure temperature salinity volume geopotential samples deviation