Fig. 5: Comparison of krill pellet blue carbon with coastal vegetation blue carbon stores.
From: Antarctic krill sequester similar amounts of carbon to key coastal blue carbon habitats
The krill pellet carbon sequestered in MtC per October-April growing season is given and converted to per km2. Krill sequester less per surface area of the ocean than coastal vegetation blue carbon, but the vast area krill inhabit puts the pellet carbon sequestered in the same order of magnitude as the coastal vegetation stores, according to data in Bertram et al. We also include best estimates of the contribution of sinking moults and daily migration (active transfer of CO2). If these are correct, krill could sequester a similar amount of carbon as seagrasses do globally. There is insufficient data to yet do this analysis for krill carcasses, but we include them graphically as they are an important carbon sink. Note, that other krill habitat size estimates find krill habitat to be 19 km2 using a different grid resolution.
