Regional diet in Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) as determined by lipid, fatty acid, and sterol composition

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are a circumpolar species with an omnivorous diet. Knowledge of krill diet within different regions will help predict how environmental change may impact local krill populations. Krill from the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific sectors of the Southern Ocean were compared. The total lipid, lipid class, neutral lipid fraction fatty acid and sterol content and composition of whole krill, their digestive glands, and stomachs during the late-summer were examined. Indian sector krill had a distinctly different dietary lipid pattern to Atlantic and Pacific sector krill based on their fatty acid profiles (