KRILL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does krill mean? 

• KRILL (noun)
  The noun KRILL has 1 sense:

1. shrimp-like planktonic crustaceans; major source of food for e.g. baleen whales

  Familiarity information: KRILL used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• KRILL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Shrimp-like planktonic crustaceans; major source of food for e.g. baleen whales

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("krill" is a kind of...):

malacostracan crustacean (a major subclass of crustaceans)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "krill"):

Euphausia pacifica (food for jellyfish)

Holonyms ("krill" is a member of...):

Euphausiacea; order Euphausiacea (small commonly luminescent crustaceans; important element of marine plankton: krill)

 Context examples 

In contrast, chinstrap penguins have remained krill specialists.

(Whaling and climate change lead to 100 years of feast or famine for Antarctic penguins, National Science Foundation)

They are especially abundant in tiny crustaceans such as krill and copepods — favorite prey of filter-feeding bowhead and endangered North Atlantic right whales.

(Whales may owe their efficient digestion to millions of tiny microbes, National Science Foundation)

Steep slopes in the seabed also cause an upwelling of sea currents that stimulate plankton and small crustaceans such as krill that the whale sharks feed on.

(New study of endangered whale shark youth shows vital habitat similarities, Wikinews)

The Ross Sea - home to penguins, seals, Antarctic toothfish, whales and huge numbers of krill - a staple food for many species - is one of the last intact marine ecosystems in the world.

(Deal Reached to Create World's Largest Marine Reserve in Antarctica, VOA News)

Stukel and his team found that some groups of particle-feeding organisms may influence carbon transport as much as more abundant suspension-feeders like krill, which dine on floating organic matter closer to the ocean's surface.

(Research provides new view of the critical role of plankton in marine carbon storage, National Science Foundation)

Because humans have never commercially harvested penguins, Polito and colleagues expected that changes in penguins' diets and populations would mirror shifts in krill availability.

(Whaling and climate change lead to 100 years of feast or famine for Antarctic penguins, National Science Foundation)

As seal and whale populations dwindled, a surplus of krill was likely available.

(Whaling and climate change lead to 100 years of feast or famine for Antarctic penguins, National Science Foundation)

Seals, whales and penguins all feast on shrimplike crustaceans called Antarctic krill.

(Whaling and climate change lead to 100 years of feast or famine for Antarctic penguins, National Science Foundation)

As the availability of krill has decreased, gentoo penguins have diversified their diets to include fish and squid along with krill.

(Whaling and climate change lead to 100 years of feast or famine for Antarctic penguins, National Science Foundation)

More recently, the combined effects of commercial krill fishing, climate change, and the recovery of seal and whale populations may have drastically decreased the abundance of krill.

(Whaling and climate change lead to 100 years of feast or famine for Antarctic penguins, National Science Foundation)