Ecophysiology - SBS researcher in the Antarctic

Jo Kershaw, a lecturer from the School of Biological Sciences in the Ecophysiology research  cluster, is currently doing fieldwork in South Georgia, a sub-Antarctic island, as part of a project led by the British Antarctic Survey. Whales are the largest krill-predators in South Georgia, yet their impacts on local krill stocks are poorly understood. The project will measure whale foraging patterns (using satellite tracking) and krill consumption rates (using UAV measurements of body condition) across age, sex and reproductive classes (through the analysis of skin and blubber biopsy samples). Data collected from this foraging ecology and bioenergetics study will be used to inform krill fishery quota-setting for the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) krill risk assessment.