Sex differences in Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) retrieved from Adélie penguin stomachs: implications for diet analysis

• Published in: Polar biology Vol. 25; no. 10; pp. 717 - 720
• Main Author: IRVINE, Lyn G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Springer 01.10.2002; Berlin Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Birds; Cephalothorax; Crustaceans; Diet; Euphausia superba; Feeding. Feeding behavior; Food chains; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects. Techniques; Marine; Methods and techniques (sampling, tagging, trapping, modelling...); Morphology; Pygoscelis adeliae; Vertebrates: anatomy and physiology, studies on body, several organs or systems; Southern Ocean; Stomach; Euphausiacea; Digestive system; Bias; Pygoscelis adeliae; Feeding; Crustacea; Marine environment; Vertebrata; Morphological classification; Analysis method; Krill; Diet; Sexing; Arthropoda; Euphausia superba; Methodological bias; Polar region; Aves; Invertebrata; Cephalothorax; Content analysis
• ISSN: 0722-4060; 1432-2056
• DOI: 10.1007/s00300-002-0397-4

The morphological condition of Euphausia superba samples, retrieved from the stomachs of Adelie penguins, was examined to assess current methods of diet analysis. Male E. superba specimens were generally separated between the cephalothorax and abdomen while the majority of the females were intact. This finding has implications for current methods of analysis that use an "intact carapace" as a criterion for subsample selection. Such a criterion eliminates all individuals without a cephalothorax, which in this study were mostly male. Consequently, this subsampling method may lead to an underestimation of the male component of the sample.