Antarctic pteropod size tracked water conditions—not a demonstrated warming response
WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
Grillo and colleagues measured 72 Limacina rangii specimens from the austral summer 2017 expedition. Random-forest analysis linked size variation most strongly with temperature, longitude and conductivity, with offshore larval prevalence.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Adding body-size distributions to abundance records may improve detection of ecological change in a small but important calcifying prey group.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
One cruise and a non-random biometric subset; modeled correlations do not measure temporal climate trends or direct thermal causation.
SOURCE
Polar Biology — Grillo et al. (2026)
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