Krill: the planet's smallest influencers?

It was late March 2024, and the Antarctic summer was nearing its end. Just a few days earlier, I was on the Sylvia Earle, a small expedition ship that had departed from Ushuaia and crossed the infamous Drake Passage, the body of water separating South America from the white continent. 

The undeniable visual acknowledgement that the Antarctic winter was coming presented itself to us in the form of the sea ice of the Weddell Sea pushing north, and surrounding the tiny landmass in front of us, Paulet Island. The island was a prominent location on the expedition cruise that I had joined, due mainly to the incredible survival story of a Swedish scientist, Otto von Nordenskjöld, who led a Swedish expedition here in 1901.