User:Kils/Antarctic krill
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this page frozen by faculty patron Uwe Kils on June 10 2005 as teaching material for the Virtual_university proposals "Biology of Antarctica" - for the active page go Antarctic krill - this will by updated soon again
{{Taxobox_begin | color = pink | name = Antarctic Krill}} {{Taxobox_image | image = [[Image:Krill.jpg|200px|]] | caption = ''Euphausia superba''}} {{Taxobox_begin_placement | color = pink}} {{Taxobox_regnum_entry | taxon = [[Animal]]ia}} {{Taxobox_phylum_entry | taxon = [[Arthropod]]a}} {{Taxobox_subphylum_entry | taxon = [[Crustacea]]}} {{Taxobox_classis_entry | taxon = [[Malacostraca]]}} {{Taxobox_ordo_entry | taxon = [[Euphausiacea]]}} {{Taxobox_familia_entry | taxon = [[Euphausiidae]]}} {{Taxobox_genus_entry | taxon = ''[[Euphausia]]''}} {{Taxobox_species_entry | taxon = '''''E. superba'''''}} {{Taxobox_end_placement}} {{Taxobox_section_binomial | color = pink | binomial_name = Euphausia superba | author = [[James Dwight Dana|Dana]] | date = [[1850]] }} {{Taxobox_end}}
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is a species of krill (Arthropoda / Crustacea / Malacostraca / found in Antarctic waters in the Southern Ocean.
Krill live in large and dense schools (swarms) (up to 20 000 individuals per cubic meter) and convert the primary production directly into a relatively large animal : they grow to a length of 6 cm, weigh 2 grammes, and live probably for 6 years. The step between predator and prey is unusually large, normally it takes 3 or 4 steps from the 20 micrometer small phytoplankton to organisms of krill size (via copepods and small fish). The next size-step in the food chain to the whales is also enormous, a phenomenon of the Antarctic ecosystem which is found nowhere else in the world.