Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 257 See the link below for public details on this project. From the abstracts of some of the referenced papers: Anatomical and physiological studies of southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina), particularly in the post-natal period, raise questions of relative musculature growth, control of metabolism, circulation and temperature regulation, which could be important in our understanding of these processes in mammals and of their contribution to adaptation to environmental extremes. The diving behaviour of 14 adult southern elephant seals was investigated using time depth recorders. Each of the seals performed some dives that were longer than its theoretical aerobic dive limit. Forty-four percent of all dives made by post-moult females exceeded the calculated limit compared with 7% of those made by postbreeding females and less than 1% of those made by adult males. The extended dives displayed characteristics that suggested they were predominantly foraging dives, although some were apparently rest dives. Dives longer than the calculated aerobic limits often occurred in bouts; the longest consisted of 63 consecutive dives and lasted 2 days. Postmoult females performed longer bouts of extended dives than postbreeding females. Extended surface periods (longer than 30 min) were not related to the occurrence of extended dives or bouts of extended dives. The possible physiological mechanisms that permit such prolonged continuous dives are discussed. Southern elephant seals may increase the aerobic capacity of dives by lowering their metabolism to approximately 40% of the resting metabolic rate on long dives. There is substantial interseal variability in the methods used to cope with long dives. Some animals appear to use phsyiological strategies that allow them to prolong the time available to them at the bottom of a dive, while others use alternative strategies that may limit the time available at the bottom of their dives. Fourteen time-depth-temperature recorders were recovered from adult southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) returning to Macqaurie Island to breed or moult. The resulting temperature/depth profiles indicated that all four males spent most of their time in waters lying over the Antarctic Continental Shelf, whereas only one of the ten females spent any time there. Five of the females foraged just off the Antarctic Continental Shelf, and the other five remained near the Antarctic Polar Front. 1) Mark-resight data were analysed for thirteen cohorts from a declining population of southern elephant seals branded at Macquarie Island between 1951 and 1965. 2) First year survival was essential stable during the 1950s at about 46% for females and 42% for males. There was a dramatic fall in first year survival during the 1960s, declinging to less than 2% for both sexes in 1965. Post-year-1 survival did not change between the 1950s and the 1960s. 3) Comparisons with a stable population of southern elephant seals at South Georgia indicated that both first year and adult survival were lower in the Macquarie Island population. There were no changes in the age at first breeding of the Macquarie Island seals during the study, but this was on average 1 year later than at South Georgia. 4) It is hypothesised that the current decline in elephant seal numbers at several of their major breeding islands is due to the populations returning to pre-sealing levels after they had risen to abnormally high levels with the end of commercial exploitation early this century. 5) Possible tests of the hypothesis include studying the diet and foraging behaviour of southern elephant seals to gain an understanding of the predator-prey relationships, continuing to census the Macquarie Island population to determine if the population levels out at around the estimated pre-sealing levels, and monitoring northern elephant seal populations which were also severely exploited but are currently increasing rapidly.

These data describe pack ice characteristics in the Antarctic sea ice zone. These data are in the ASPeCt format. National program: Russia Vessel: Akademic Fedorov Dates in ice: May 1992 to June 1992 Observers: Unknown The fields in this dataset are: SEA ICE CONCENTRATION SEA ICE FLOE SIZE SEA ICE SNOW COVER SEA ICE THICKNESS SEA ICE TOPOGRAPHY SEA ICE TYPE RECORD DATE TIME LATITUDE LONGITUDE OPEN WATER TRACK SNOW THICKNESS SNOW TYPE SEA TEMPERATURE AIR TEMPERATURE WIND VELOCITY WIND DIRECTION FILM COUNTER FRAME COUNTER FOR FILM VIDEO RECORDER COUNTER VISIBILITY CODE CLOUD WEATHER CODE COMMENTS

Locations of ice edges on 18 north-south transects of the BROKE voyage of the Aurora Australis (AA V4 1995/96). Locations determined from direct observations by the seabird observers on board. The fields in this dataset are: Latitude Longitude Ice Conditions Transect

Zooplankton were collected with a Rectangular Midwater Trawl (RMT 8+1 net) from 37 sampling sites on and near the Southern Kerguelen Plateau. The contents of each net were preserved in 5% buffered formaldehyde. This dataset covers the counts of the contents of the RMT8 net and includes the abundances for the euphausiid Thysanoessa macrura and the salp Salpa thompsoni. The contents were identified and counted under a Leica M165C stereo-microscope. A flow meter attached to the mouth of the RMT 8 was used to record the volume of seawater passing through the net. The count for Thysanoessa macrura includes the total of all developmental stages. For the salps abundances are shown for the 2 developmental phases - solitary individuals and aggregates.

These data describe pack ice characteristics in the Antarctic sea ice zone. These data are in the ASPeCt format. National program: United States Vessel: Nathaniel B. Palmer Dates in ice: 31 Dec 1998 - 30 Jan 1999 Observers: Martin Jeffries, others Summary of voyage track: 31/12 - 11/1 N-S transect along 165W between 65-75S 13-22/1 S-N transect along 150W between 74-65S 24-30/1 N-S transect along 135W between 69-74S Note: No observations along E-W legs between N-S legs The fields in this dataset are: SEA ICE CONCENTRATION SEA ICE FLOE SIZE SEA ICE SNOW COVER SEA ICE THICKNESS SEA ICE TOPOGRAPHY SEA ICE TYPE RECORD DATE TIME LATITUDE LONGITUDE OPEN WATER TRACK SNOW THICKNESS SNOW TYPE SEA TEMPERATURE AIR TEMPERATURE WIND VELOCITY WIND DIRECTION FILM COUNTER FRAME COUNTER FOR FILM VIDEO RECORDER COUNTER VISIBILITY CODE CLOUD WEATHER CODE COMMENTS

Dataset includes locations of sampling sites for ASAC project 40 on voyage 6 of the Aurora Australis in the 2007/2008 season. Samples were collected between March and April of 2008. The dataset also contains information on chlorophyll, carotenoids, coccolithophorids and species identification and counts. Four datasets are currently included in this download - a CTD filtration log, an HPLC filtration log, a CHEMTAX file and a Pigments file. Public Summary from the project: This program aims to determine the role of single celled plants, animals, bacteria and viruses in Antarctic waters. We quantify their vital role as food for other organisms, their potential influence in moderating global climate change through absorption of CO2 and production of DMS, and determine their response to effect of climate change. For more information, see the other metadata records related to ASAC project 40 (ASAC_40). The fields in this dataset are: HPLC Dataset Tube Label Date (UTC) Time (UTC) Latitude Longitude Sea Temperature Ice (Presence or Absence - 1 or 0) Lugols HPLC Flurometer - Chlorophyll a Comments CTD Dataset Tube label Station Number CTD Number Niskin Bottle Number Depth (m) Date (UT) Start time (UT) Stop time (UT) Latitude Longitude Lugol's Number HPLC Volume (ml) Temperature (degrees C) Comment

This dataset contains the underway data collected during the Aurora Australis Voyage 1 1998-99. This was a dedicated marine science cruise aimed at researching winter-time oceanographic, glaciological, meteorological and biological processes within a polynya near the Mertz Glacier. However, the mission was aborted after a serious engine room fire occurred one week into the voyage. Underway data are available online via the Australian Antarctic Division Data Centre. For further information, see the Marine Science Support Data Quality Report at the Related URL section.

Chlorophyll data was used to measure growth rates of sea ice algae in CO2 incubations. Sea ice brine microalgae was collected from sackholes. Replicate samples were incubated in ambient air (~0.04% CO2), 0.1% CO2, 1.0% CO2 and 2.0% CO2 concentrations. AT the end of the incubations the 50 ml samples were filtered through a 25 mm GF/F filter using vacuum filtration. The filters were placed in 15 ml plastic falcon tubes containing 10 ml of methanol, covered in aluminium foil and kept in the dark at 4 degrees C for 12 hours. Chl a concentration was measured using a 10AU Turner fluorometer following the acidification method of Strickland and Parsons (1972). Data in spread sheet shows the extracted chl + phaeophytin, phaeophytin and chlorophyll concentrations (micro grams l-1) for each of the three experiments. Data were collected at SIPEX Ice Stations 1-8 and SIPEX CTD stations 2-5

This log contains notes and observations of whales and seals at Mawson, collected between 1979 and 1984. Included animals are Minke Whales, Killer Whales, Leopard Seals, Elephant Seals, Crabeater Seals and Fur Seals. Locations include Horseshoe Harbour, Welch Island and Giganteus Island. The hard copy of the log has been archived by the Australian Antarctic Division library.

Satellite derived tracks of humpback whales tagged on their Antarctic feeding grounds. Data can be found here: https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/argos/display_campaign.cfm?campaign_id=83 Satellite tags were deployed on adult humpback whales with a modified version of the Air Rocket Transmitter System (ARTS, Restech) and a purpose-designed projectile carrier at a pressure of 7.5 – 10 bar. A custom-designed, 80mm anchor section is attached to a stainless steel cylindrical housing containing a location-only transmitter (SPOT-5 by Wildlife Computers, Redmond, Washington, USA and Kiwisat 202 Cricket by Sirtrack, Havelock North, New Zealand). This superseded anchor design resulted in the anchor section disarticulating upon deployment in order to achieve improved tag retention times while minimising impact. The tags were sterilised with ethylene oxide prior to deployment and implanted up to 290mm into the skin, blubber, interfacial layers and outer muscle mass of the whale. Tags were programmed to transmit to the Argos satellite system at various duty cycles and repetition rates for a maximum of 720 transmissions per day. These transmissions are relayed to processing centres which calculate the transmitter’s location by measuring the Doppler Effect on transmission frequency.