Life Support: How sea creatures control the climate
Episode four of Life Support, a series about why the global nature crisis matters for our lives.
Krill isn’t just whale food. These tiny shrimp-like creatures help move carbon out of the surface ocean down to the deep, where it can be locked away for millennia – all thanks to their poo.
Thanks to Professor Harindra Joseph Fernando for speaking to us for this episode. Thanks also to Seeking Survivors and IPBES.
Life Support is a series about why the global nature crisis matters for our lives.
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Written and narrated by Emma Howard
Produced by Georgie Johnson
Edited by Charlie Denholm
Filmed by Isabelle Povey
Music and sound design by JPML.agency
Featuring Rima Sonigara as ‘the human’
Sources and further reading:
> ‘Krill faecal pellets drive hidden pulses of particulate organic carbon in the marginal ice zone’, Anna Belcher et al. (2019) https://go.nature.com/2XKVWWN
> ‘Krill (Euphausia superba) distribution contracts southward during rapid regional warming’, Angus Atkinson et al. (2019) https://go.nature.com/2XGG2MR
> ‘Oceanic swarms of Antarctic krill perform satiation sinking’, Geraint A. Tarling et al. (2017) http://bit.ly/2XEbhYZ
> ‘Fish Carbon: Exploring Marine Vertebrate Carbon Services’, Lutz SJ and Martin AH (2014) http://bit.ly/2XEbueJ
> ‘The Significance and Management of Natural Carbon Stores in the Open Ocean’, D Laffoley et al. (2014) http://bit.ly/2XH9brg
> ‘Natural Climate Solutions’, Bronson W. Griscom et al. (2017) http://bit.ly/2XCUF3S