Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2179 See the link below for public details on this project. Taken from a progress report of the project written in 1998: 60 terrestrial sediments have been taken from Wilkes and Thala Valley tip, with control sites at Robinsons Ridge and Jacks Donga. 50 marine sediments have been taken from the bay offshore from Thala Valley tip. 116 fresh and marine waters have been taken from the fresh water stream flowing through the Thala Valley tip, the tip/sea interface, and the nearshore marine offshore from Thala Valley tip and control sites. Formal integration of these data into a GIS is underway. These data have not been archived until 2012, hence the only data available were sourced from publications arising from the project.

This terrestrial dataset was collected at Ursula Harris’s behest by Craig Hamilton and a Naval Survey team on 09 January 2018 when sea conditions prevented the team from taking bathymetric measurements. This survey was intended to fill gaps in the existing Mawson Station survey data and includes 29 previously unrecorded features comprised of bollards, HF towers, flagpoles, masts, antennae, ionosonde transmitter and receiver, the Mawson Signpost and the Douglas Mawson Bust.

The dataset contains boundaries of Cape petrel nesting areas at numerous breeding sites on islands off the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica. Boundaries of nesting sites were obtained from aligning ground observations and photographs from land or the sea-ice adjacent to the breeding sites onto maps of islands in the region. The observations were made and the photographs taken between 18 and 30 November 2017. Marcus Salton and Kim Kliska made the ground observations, took the photographs and delineated the GIS boundaries representing the nesting areas. The data is a polygon shapefile with each polygon designated Type A or Type B. Type A indicates nests present. Type B indicates this area was searched and no nests were present. Also included are three images showing the Type A polygons and the associated nest counts. Please refer to the Seabird Conservation Team Data Sharing Policy for use, acknowledgement and availability of data prior to downloading data.

Access database containing biological and environmental data collected by the Australian Antarctic Division, Human Impacts Benthic Biodiversity group.

Some mammalian and avian species alter their vocal communication signals to reduce masking by background noises (including conspecific calls). A preliminary study suggested that Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) increase the durations of some underwater call types when overlapped by another calling seal. The present study examined the durations and overlapping sequences of Weddell seal calls recorded in Eastern Antarctica. The calling rate, call type (13 major categories), total duration, numbers of elements per call, and overlapping order of 100-200 consecutive calls per recording location were measured. In response to increased conspecific calling rates, the call durations and numbers of elements (within repeated-element call types) did not change or became shorter. Calls that were not overlapped were 3.8 plus or minus 6.1 s long, the first call in a series of overlapped calls was 14.4 plus or minus 15.7 s and subsequent calls in an overlapping series were 6.5 plus or minus 10.3 s. The mean durations of non-overlapped and overlapped calls matched random distributions. Weddell seals do not appear to be adjusting the durations or timing of their calls to purposefully avoid masking each others' calls. The longer a call is, the more likely it is to overlap another call by chance. An implication of this is that Weddell seals may not have the behavioural flexibility to reduce masking by altering the temporal aspects of their calls or calling behaviours as background noises (natural and from shipping) increase.

This indicator is no longer maintained, and is considered OBSOLETE. INDICATOR DEFINITION All known observations of seabird strikes are recorded upon observation at Australian Antarctic Stations and on ships travelling in the Southern Ocean. TYPE OF INDICATOR There are three types of indicators used in this report: 1.Describes the CONDITION of important elements of a system; 2.Show the extent of the major PRESSURES exerted on a system; 3.Determine RESPONSES to either condition or changes in the condition of a system. This indicator is one of: PRESSURE RATIONALE FOR INDICATOR SELECTION Human presence in the Antarctic has led to the creation of many stations located around the continent. In many cases, these stations are sited close to seabird colonies. Birds have struck station buildings, radio masts, etc. Further, seabird strikes are reported from resupply and research vessels. In recent decades, there have been observations made of bird strikes, particularly colliding with station infrastructure, remote installations and supporting infrastructure and ship-based transport to the continent. Whilst the data are not considered to be comprehensive or highly rigorous, it is envisaged that recording of bird strikes may facilitate useful analysis in the future. DESIGN AND STRATEGY FOR INDICATOR MONITORING PROGRAM Spatial scale: Southern Ocean: 40S to the Antarctic continent, Mawson, Davis, Casey, Macquarie Island, Heard Island, field camps, and summer expeditions. Frequency: Annual. Measurement technique: Observation of bird strikes at Australian Antarctic Stations and at sea. RESEARCH ISSUES The accuracy of the data are likely to be limited as it depends upon the detection of bird strikes by actual observation of the strike as it occurs, or the discovery of bird carcasses near the structure with which it collided. LINKS TO OTHER INDICATORS SOE Indicator 29 - Breeding population of the Southern Giant Petrel at Heard Island, the McDonald Islands and within the AAT SOE Indicator 37 - Species and numbers of species killed, taken or interfered with or disturbed in the Antarctic and the sub-Antarctic for the purpose of scientific research SOE Indicator 46 - Annual tourist ship visits and tourist numbers SOE Indicator 48 - Station and ship person days SOE Indicator 76 - Monthly fuel usage of ships travelling to Australian Antarctic Stations

This dataset contains data on the habitats, distribution and numbers of Adelie Penguins (Pygoscellis adeliae) along the Vestfold Hills coast (including colonies on the mainland and offshore islands) during November 1973. The data are obtained from counts at the colonies and black and white photographs. Some aerial photographs were taken at Davis in 1981-82 and 1987-88, and will be compared to the results of this survey. The results are listed in the documentation. A total of 174178 26127 breeding pairs were counted. An increase in Adelie penguin population was found at most locations in East Antarctica. Data from this record has been incorporated into a larger Adelie penguin dataset described by the metadata record - Annual population counts at selected Adelie Penguin colonies within the AAT (SOE_seabird_candidate_sp_AP). It also falls under ASAC project 1219 (ASAC_1219).

This file contains a log of biological observations undertaken at Mawson station between 1982 and 1990. The logs comprise observations of skuas. The hard copy of the log has been archived by the Australian Antarctic Division library.

Six colonies with breeding Adelie colonies were mapped this season on Kista Island. On Bechervaise Island subcolonies C and R were not mapped and so are missing from the final layer, but birds were present in these subcolonies. Subcolonies were mapped by circumnavigating the perimeter of sub-colonies on foot while carrying a Garmin GPS (Legend Cx) to log the track taken. The person walking the perimeter of the sub-colonies maintained a buffer distance of approximately 2.5m between themselves and the breeding birds along the sub-colony boundary. This buffer distance was reduced to approximately 2m in the final shapefiles. Please refer to the Seabird Conservation Team Data Sharing Policy for use, acknowledgement and availability of data prior to downloading data.

Refer to antFOCE report section 4.4.5 for deployment, sampling and analysis details. https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/AAS_4127_antFOCE_Project4127 One camera and flash unit was mounted on the top middle section of each chamber to take one photo of the sediment every 30 minutes. The download file contains two folders with the photos taken from the 28th of January to the 23rd of February 2015 – one for Chamber A and one for Chamber C. A video time-lapse compilation of the Chamber A images is also included. Malfunctioning cameras deployed on Chamber A and C and on B and D during this same period and at other times, meant that no useful images were obtained. Background The antFOCE experimental system was deployed in O'Brien Bay, approximately 5 kilometres south of Casey station, East Antarctica, in the austral summer of 2014/15. Surface and sub-surface (in water below the sea ice) infrastructure allowed controlled manipulation of seawater pH levels (reduced by 0.4 pH units below ambient) in 2 chambers placed on the sea floor over natural benthic communities. Two control chambers (no pH manipulation) and two open plots (no chambers, no pH manipulation) were also sampled to compare to the pH manipulated (acidified) treatment chambers. Details of the antFOCE experiment can be found in the report – "antFOCE 2014/15 – Experimental System, Deployment, Sampling and Analysis". This report and a diagram indicating how the various antFOCE data sets relate to each other are available at: https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/AAS_4127_antFOCE_Project4127