Antarctic krill, tiny shrimp-like creatures, are an important species in the Southern Ocean ecosystem and global carbon cycle, in part because of their poop. Their dense and rich fecal pellets sink rapidly, transporting carbon from surface waters to the deep ocean. In a new study published in the journal Biology Letters, scientists have discovered another way these crustaceans keep carbon locked away from the atmosphere—by ejecting carbon-rich masses of rejected food, called food boluses, that also plummet to the ocean depths.
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