Background regarding the sea-ice model configuration and forcings, and the use of sea-ice model output to identify potential habitat for Antarctic krill larvae

Stevens [2013] evaluates the sensitivity of the model to the number of ice thickness categories. Sea ice thickness sensitivities in the CICE model are considered in detail in Hunke [2010, 2014]. For the warm climate scenario, changes were implemented that are consistent with the A1B scenario from the Fourth Assessment from the IPCC [Meehl et al., 2007].

This is a mid-range scenario that assumes rapid economic growth before introduction of new and more efficient technologies mid century. Specifically, the following changes were applied uniformly to the current climate forcing field for a single year: a 2 degrees C increase in air temperature, a 0.2 mm/day increase in rain, a 1.5% increase in cloud fraction, a -2.3 hPa change in surface air pressure, a 25% increase in wind, a 12 Wm-2 increase in long wave downward radiation and a 20% increase in humidity.

Outputs and forcings from CICE4 that are relevant for consideration of under-ice habitats for larval krill include: snow depth, ice thickness, ice concentration, movement, ridging rate, day length (dependent on day-of-year and latitude), radiation above the ice (influenced by cloud cover), and radiation below the ice (influenced by ice and snow depth). Table 1 in the main text describes how these were used in the following two filters and one overlay for evaluating the location and suitability of potential larval krill habitat during winter.

Taken from the abstract of the main paper: Over-wintering of larvae underneath Antarctic pack ice is a critical stage in the life cycle of Antarctic krill. However, there are no circumpolar assessments of available habitat for larval krill, making it difficult to evaluate how climate change may impact this life stage. We use outputs from a circumpolar sea-ice model, together with a set of simple assumptions regarding key habitat features, to identify possible regions of larval krill habitat around Antarctica during winter.

In particular we assume that the location and suitability of habitat is determined by both food availability and three dimensional complexity of the sea ice. We then compare the combined area of these regions under current conditions to that under a warm climate scenario. Results indicate that, while total areal sea-ice extent decreases, there is a consistently larger area of potential larval krill habitat under warm conditions.

These findings highlight that decreases in sea-ice extent may not necessarily be detrimental for krill populations and underline the complexity of predicting future trajectories for this key species in the Antarctic ecosystem.