What are the most successful species in the world today? Don't rush to answer this question, let's give a few options.
A. Humans
Needless to say.
B. Cockroaches
It came from ancient times, and it ran toward the future. Ancient cockroaches adapted to the human living environment, and even if humans become extinct, cockroaches will continue to live.
C. Virus
The parasite who was born at the same time as life is really playing.
D. Antarctic krill
？？？ Where does this come from?
The correct answer, it's really possible to be D. First of all, A, humans belong to the open and hanging players, excluded. B cockroaches are adaptable and ancient, but from ancient times, it is not only cockroaches that are adaptable, insects have many competitors. There are too many members of the C virus family, and we choose a single "species" to exclude.
Antarctic krill, with a biomass of 0.05 gigatons of carbon (1 gigaton = 1 billion tonnes), is about the same as 7.8 billion human biomass.
The biomass energy of Antarctic krill is roughly between 125 million and 725 million tons. Antarctic krill are an important player in the Antarctic ecosystem, a staple food for whales, and an important food source for penguins, seabirds, seals and other animals.
These animals eat 313 million tons of krill alone every year, and then the Antarctic krill is still alive and well.
In satellite maps, sometimes the water near the Antarctic Ocean turns red, which is the Antarctic krill passing by.
What kind of animal is this? Why is the number so large?
More importantly, can humans eat Antarctic krill? If it is introduced to China, will the price of shrimp meat drop sharply, so that everyone can have shrimp to eat?
Antarctic krill belongs to the krill family of the krill family under the subclass Euphroptaceae, and there is still a difference between the shrimp we often eat, and the shrimp and sea shrimp are full of order.
In addition to Antarctic krill, other krill relatives living in Antarctica include crystal krill, cold krill, long-fronted cherry krill, etc., but their numbers are far less than those of Antarctic krill. So in scientific research and commercial fishing, Antarctic krill does not refer to krill living in Antarctica, but to a species called "Antarctic krill " ( Euphausia superba ) , with a body length of about 5 centimeters.
Antarctic krill are abundant and animals can't eat them all, thanks to their strong fertility. During the mating season, females can produce 6,000 to 10,000 eggs at a time.
They live in groups and emit a faint biolude, which is why they are called krill.
From a distance, Antarctic krill is like a glowing red mist, beautiful and full of life. Such group action can play a role in protecting individuals.
One is that the huge number and size will intimidate weak predators, and the other is that individuals in the collective, there is a high probability that they will not be eaten, just like sheep, and those who are eaten are marginal individuals.
The sheer volume is a defense in itself. No matter how hungry the ocean predators can't consume much, Antarctic krill, they continue to produce offspring, and the individuals who are eaten, like metabolism, have little effect on overall prosperity.
In the coldest region of the earth, Antarctic krill have a slow metabolism and can live up to 6 years. This is a gift of longevity for species that win by numbers.
A large number of eggs released by females will sink to a depth of two or three kilometers on the seabed, and after the eggs grow into small shrimp, it will take two or three years to reach sexual maturity and begin to reproduce.
However, due to the harsh environment in Antarctica, they will spend it in a very extreme way during the season of food shortage.
That is, it becomes smaller and smaller, and even becomes a juvenile, and the sexual characteristics that have developed are developed back. They can go 200 days without eating. By observing how much an Antarctic krill shrinks, it can be estimated how long it has endured starvation.
The main food of Antarctic krill is plankton, and the total amount of plankton in the Southern Ice Ocean is very impressive, so the starvation of Antarctic krill is not very bad, they are generally able to reproduce themselves like crazy, providing valuable protein to other animals in the Southern Ice Ocean Biosphere.
Beginning in the 1970s, the Soviet Union first targeted Antarctic krill. However, by the mid-1980s, it was found that the fluoride in Antarctic krill exceeded the standard, which seriously affected the process of commercial fishing. However, with the improvement of the technical level, the problem of fluoride has gradually been solved, but today, the country that catches the most Antarctic krill, Norway, mainly fishes for shrimp to feed salmon.
It is said that the reason why Norwegian salmon is so red is because it eats a large number of Antarctic krill and eats the red pigment of krill.
Humans eat Antarctic krill directly with a certain technical threshold. One is the treatment of fluoride, if not handled well, after the krill dies, the fluoride will penetrate into the shrimp meat. Second, it must be quickly disposed of after fishing, otherwise it will enzymatically dissolve the odor.
Because of the technical threshold and commercial inertia, the main purpose of krill fishing is to make a variety of animal feed, but also as fishing bait.
As for antarctic krill eaten by people, there are currently freeze-dried red shrimp, as well as krill oil. Red shrimp is larger than shrimp skin and tastes similar to shrimp skin.
Krill oil is a health supplement that unclogs blood vessels and looks like red cod liver oil.
Other ways to eat include peeled krill tail meat, krill slices, protein powder, etc., which can be seen to require complex processes. Even if the fluoride problem is dealt with well, because the Southern Ocean is far away, it is not easy to eat this bite of shrimp meat.
Even so, krill is worth developing as a health supplement. Shrimp meat contains a lot of nutrients, which can be called the protein of the Southern Ocean walking, and is also rich in unsaturated fatty acids, all amino acids needed by the human body, and linoleic acid and other substances.
Under the restrictions of the Antarctic Treaty, the remote distance of the Southern Ice Ocean, and the complex processing of Antarctic krill, human fishing for Antarctic krill is only a dime of its total, far less than the amount of animals. But the biggest enemy of Antarctic krill is not fishing, but climate change.
In recent years, Antarctic sea ice has declined, affecting the plankton on which Antarctic krill depend, as well as the algae under the ice floes. Once the overall number is affected by the reduction of food sources, Antarctic krill can still shrink into larvae and retreat back into the cold and barren ocean, while those animals that survive on Antarctic krill, such as cetaceans and penguins, may not be so resistant. I am afraid that they will be hit quite a bit.
Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/euphausia-superbahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_krill
Pay attention to the "always curious platypus" and watch more in-depth hunting science every day.