{"id":625920,"date":"2026-09-16T01:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T01:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625920\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T01:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T01:42:10","slug":"tiny-krill-are-turning-up-in-deep-sea-hydrothermal-vents-scientists-want-to-know-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625920\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny krill are turning up in deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Scientists want to know why"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Antarctic<\/p>\n

Antarctic krill, a shrimp-like crustacean that holds up the food web at the South Pole, were found at a hydrothermal vent off the Antarctic Peninsula during the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Southern Ocean Expedition in collaboration with the Schmidt Ocean Institute.<\/p>\n

Antarctic krill are the lifeblood of the South Pole.<\/p>\n

These shrimp-like crustaceans serve as a crucial food source for penguins, seals, and whales. \u201cMost of them feed on Antarctic krill,\u201d says Kim Bernard<\/a>, a biological oceanographer at Oregon State University and a National Geographic explorer. \u201cAnd if they don\u2019t, they feed on something else that feeds directly on Antarctic krill. So they are absolutely fundamental to the functioning and health of that ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krill also recycle nutrients that allow tiny algae called phytoplankton to grow. In addition, krill are fished in large numbers to produce aquaculture feed and omega-3 fatty acids as dietary supplements.<\/p>\n

But experts say this rich habitat in the Southern Ocean at the bottom of the world is shifting rapidly due to climate change. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the most rapidly warming areas on the planet,\u201d says Bernard. \u201cAnd that\u2019s cascading through the food web and affecting the Antarctic krill population.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Bernard and her colleagues report in the journal Communications Biology<\/a> the discovery of a surprising habitat for the krill \u2014 hydrothermal vents, which are basically hot springs on the ocean floor. Characterizing the importance of this habitat, especially for reproductive females, may help inform how to safeguard these crucial crustaceans.<\/p>\n

Venting feelings<\/p>\n

Antarctic krill tend to be located in the upper layer of the ocean. \u201cThey can be found forming swarms and layers at the surface,\u201d says Bernard. \u201cYou can photograph them from airplanes.\u201d<\/p>\n

They can also be found at the sea floor at different depths, but she says these deeper observations have been sparse and anecdotal.<\/p>\n

Then, in late 2024, Bernard was in Bransfield Strait off the Antarctic Peninsula while aboard the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Southern Ocean Expedition in collaboration with the Schmidt Ocean Institute.<\/p>\n

One of her colleagues, UCLA benthic ecologist Andrew Thurber<\/a>, was using a remotely operated vehicle in a trough some 3,600 feet below the surface to study and video record a hydrothermal vent. Picture \u201cextremely hot water coming from deep within the Earth\u2019s crust,\u201d says Bernard, \u201cand it\u2019s bringing with it metals and sulfides and all sorts of other chemicals that form almost like a tower.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Biological<\/p>\n

Biological oceanographer Kim Bernard and her colleagues examine the krill that they collected from a hydrothermal vent some 3,600 feet below the surface.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a seemingly inhospitable place. Bernard wasn\u2019t studying the vent but she was eager to observe the sampling nevertheless.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile having a little tea break upstairs in the galley,\u201d she recalls, \u201cI was watching the big screens showing in real time what was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s when she saw a flicker of movement in the corner of the screen. It was, unmistakably, a krill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like underwater ballet,\u201d she says, describing the krill\u2019s backflips. \u201cIt just looks like pirouetting. I pretty much threw the tea in the air and ran down to the control room, screaming, \u2018There\u2019s krill, there\u2019s krill!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Krill had never been spotted at a hydrothermal vent before. The other research team had planned to sample the geology and microbiology of the vent, but they gave Bernard a precious 15 minutes to try to catch a few specimens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have what they call a suction sampler, which is essentially a vacuum that slurps whatever you want to slurp up,\u201d she explains. The team managed to nab four individual krill, all reproductive females, \u201cvery heavily laden with eggs. Should be releasing them any moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to see something like that at a hydrothermal vent,\u201d Bernard continues, \u201cis completely opposite to what we would have normally expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers had thought that females probably released their eggs near the surface over deep water, but it had never been observed before. So Bernard found herself with a single basic question: \u201cWhy on earth are they down there?,\u201d she says. \u201cI really wanted to just try and understand, what are they getting from that site?\u201d<\/p>\n

It takes a lot of energy for little krill to get down that deep. In addition, they\u2019re exposed to potentially toxic heavy metals like cadmium, barium and lead.<\/p>\n

So whatever is bringing the krill to the hydrothermal vent, Bernard figured, it must be worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really critical that we put our efforts into trying to understand the role of the deep sea environment for reproductive krill,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Four little krill, one big question <\/p>\n

To get a better sense of what was going on, Bernard brought the handful of krill to the surface and compared their stomach contents to others she collected elsewhere on the seafloor in shallower, non-vent waters. The four females had clearly been feeding on microbes living down there. (And such a microbial food source would be available year-round rather than seasonal phytoplankton that rely on sunlight and photosynthesis.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest of the krill tissue,\u201d she says, \u201cI dried up and literally carried in my backpack on the way home. I didn\u2019t want to put it anywhere out of my sight because it was so important.\u201d<\/p>\n

That tissue later revealed that the krill had accumulated higher levels of metals released by the vent, like manganese. \u201cThat\u2019s an important nutrient or mineral for embryo development in crustaceans,\u201d says Bernard. \u201cAnd it\u2019s very scarce in the Southern Ocean. So potentially that\u2019s a reason for them to go down there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The warmer waters near the vent may also speed up embryo development.<\/p>\n

All or some combination of these reasons may motivate the krill to journey downwards to the hydrothermal vent repeatedly and to then stay there for some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe study shows that krill can make use of hydrothermal vent habitats, but it doesn\u2019t provide enough evidence to suggest that they are dependent on these habitats,\u201d says Simeon Hill<\/a>, a marine ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey who didn\u2019t participate in the research.<\/p>\n

Still, he\u2019s reassured that krill can flexibly use different parts of the ocean to live and feed as it demonstrates their resilience.<\/p>\n

And he says that even though hydrothermal vents are reasonably well protected from destructive human activities, additional conservation measures may be needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me think it would be sensible to develop a marine protected area process that allows new vulnerable habitats to be added as they\u2019re discovered,\u201d says Hill.<\/p>\n

That kind of protection may be especially necessary if those habitats are critical to the krill\u2019s reproductive cycle.<\/p>\n

Two months after the original research cruise, the same vessel visited another Antarctic hydrothermal vent some 1,000 miles away. That vent also abounded with egg-laden female krill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was incredible,\u201d says Bernard. \u201cSo I am sure that this is something that is not just a once-off, and there\u2019s more to this than we ever expected.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Antarctic krill, a shrimp-like crustacean that holds up the food web at the South Pole, were found at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1594,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-625920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}