Abrupt Mid-Twentieth Century Decline in Antarctic Sea-Ice Extent from Whaling Records. Format is a WinZip'ed Microsoft Access 2000 database. The northernmost edge of the sea ice was derived from the southernmost positions of whale catches. A supplemental word document is also included with the dataset. This dataset was originally compiled by Bill de la Mare. The fields in this dataset are: record ID latitude mean latitude longitude longitude Interval date season decade id catch Record species ID

Long term data sets are useful for identifying temporal changes in the abundance of breeding populations of Antarctic seabirds. This data set is one of only two long term data sets existing for Snow Petrels. The data set comprises records of snow petrel activity for up to 109 nests clearly marked on the colony of Reeve Hill (near Casey station)between 1984 and 2003. A map of the exact nests locations is available as Arcview shapefile. In the database, the following information was recorded in an Excel worksheet: - For each colony check: observer(s) name(s), date and time of the nests check, weather before and during observations - For each nest: 1/nests condition (whether filled with ice/snow or (partially) accessible) 2/activity level in the nests: presence/absence of birds, what sex if known, other signs of activity (footprints, guano, stomach oil) 3/presence of an egg or chick, live or failed 4/presence of old remnants in the nest(egg, chicks) 5/Any specific comments No data are available for years 1987-1988 and 1988-1989. Data are only available for the early part of the breeding season for 1991-1992, 1992-1993 and 1999-2000. The fields in this dataset are: Field Season Date Type of Observation Time start Nest Number Nest condition Old Remnants Activity Egg/Chick Comments

The breeding population of the black-browed albatross Thalassarche melanophrys has increased at Heard Island since the first census data were obtained in 1947/1948. Four breeding localities are known, and all populations have increased in the period 1947/1948-2000/2001. The breeding population is estimated to have been approximately 200 pairs in 1947/1948. Based on 2000/2001 census data, the population has increased to a minimum of approximately 600 pairs over the 53 years. Two mechanisms, that of increased prey availability through scavenging discards from trawlers operating within their foraging range, and climatic amelioration, are proposed as hypotheses for this increase. The fields in this dataset are: Season Dates Location Numbers Nests Adults Chicks

Twenty three juvenile (8-14 months of age) southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina L.) from Macquarie Island were tracked during 1993 and 1995. Migratory tracks and ocean areas with concentrated activity, presumed to be foraging grounds, were established from location data gathered by attached geolocation time depth recorders. The seals ranged widely (811-3258 km) and foraging activity centred on oceanographic frontal systems, especially the Antarctic Polar Front and bathymetric features such as the Campbell Plateau region. The seals spent 58.6% of their sea time within managed fishery areas while the remainder was spent on the high seas, an area of unregulated fishing. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) areas 58.4.1, 88.2 and especially 88.1 were important and distant foraging areas for these juvenile elephant seals. From fisheries records, diet and the foraging ecology studies of the seals there appears to be little, if any, overlap or conflict between the seals and commercial fishing operations within the regulated commercial areas. However, attention is drawn to the possibility of future interactions if Southern Ocean fisheries expand or new ones commence. Furthermore... The dive duration of 16 underyearling (6-12 months old) southern elephant seals Mirounga leonina during their second trip to sea was investigated using geolocating time depth recorders. Underyearling seals had a lesser diving ability, with respect to duration and depth, than adult southern elephant seals. Individual underyearlings dived for average durations of up to 20.3 minutes and depths up to 416m compared to durations and depths of 36.9 minutes and 589m, respectively for adults. Dive duration was positively related to their body mass at departure, indicating that smaller seals were limited to shorter dive durations, perhaps as a result of their lesser aerobic capacity. All seals often exceeded their theoretical aerobic dive limit (average of 22.1 plus/minus 18.1%). The number of dives exceeding the theoretical aerobic dive limit was not related to mass, suggesting that factors other than mass, such as foraging location or prey availability, may have been responsible for the differences in diving effort. Foraging ability, indicated by the ability of the seals to follow vertically moving prey, was positively related to seal mass, indicating that small mass restricted foraging ability. The shorter dive durations of the smaller seals inferred that they had shallower dive depths in which to search for prey, thus restricting foraging ability. Although foraging ability was restricted by size, foraging success was found to be inversely related to mass, the smaller seals gaining a higher proportion of blubber than larger seals during their foraging trips. Thus, despite smaller seals being restricted to shallower depths and shorter durations, their foraging success was not affected. The fields in this dataset are: Area Perimeter ID Latitude Longitude Time Percent CCAMLR EEZ Season Seal Sex Age (months) Days at Sea Range (km) Bearing (degrees) Sea Surface Temperatures (degrees C) Foraging Areas Departure Mass (kg) At sea mass gain (kg) Rate of mass gain (kg) Survival estimates Length (m) Girth (m) Dives Divers per hour Total Time Diving % trip diving Dive Duration Surface Time Theoretical Aerobic Dive Limit Drift

This dataset contains results from Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) surveys in the Southern Ocean. When the opportunity arises, zooplankton species, numbers and abundance data are recorded on a continuous basis as vessels steam through the area between Australia and Antarctica, including Heard and Macquarie Islands. Observations have been made since June 1990 and are ongoing. Obviously the observations are not continuous over the region with time. Many of the original SO-CPR logbooks from the various voyages have also been scanned, and are available via the Australian Antarctic Data Centre's Reports Register. Zooplankton have been identified to lowest possible taxon, usually species, and counted for each segment. For copepods, copepodites and for some species nauplii (e.g. Rhincalanus gigas) have been counted separately, and for euphausiids, naupliar, calyptopis and furcilia developmental stages are identified. The fields in this dataset are: Tow_number - the CPR tow number Ship_name - the name of the ship on which the tow was conducted Season - two-year Antarctic season based around the austral summer, e.g. '2000-01' runs from July 2000 to June 2001 Latitude - the decimal latitude of the segment sample Longitude - the decimal longitude of the segment sample Observation_date - UTC date and time of the segment sample in ISO8601 format (yyyy-mm-ddTHH:MMZ) Observation_date_year - the observation date year Observation_date_month - the observation date month Observation_date_day - the observation date day Observation_date_hour - the observation date hour Observation_date_minute - the observation date minute Observation_date_time_zone - the observation date time zone (0=UTC) Segment_number - the individual segment number within each tow Segment_length - the distance travelled by the CPR during this segment (nautical miles). This is the true segment length as used in the Geocoding program used to cut the silk, and to calculate positions and average environmental data for each segment. In theory, all segments are 5 nautical miles long. However, this wasn't always the case with early Aurora Australis tows, where it was assumed that each marked segment was 5 nautical miles whereas each tow had subtle variations in silk advancement, depending on the wear of the cassette or travel with or against a current. True segment length has since been recalculated. At other times, some silks have been incorrectly cut and the true length has again been recalculated. The last segment of each tow may be less than 5 nautical miles. This field can be used to standardise species counts to say 5 nautical miles or to a theoretical volume filtered by multiplying the distance travelled by aperture area (12.7 x 12.7 mm): Volume Filtered = Distance (n miles) x 1852 metres x 0.0127^2. A 5 nautical mile segment theoretically represents 1.49 m^3. Total_abundance - total count of all zooplankton in a segment Phytoplankton_colour_index - visual estimation of the green colour of the silk mesh. Values are 'No Colour', 'Very Pale Green', 'Pale Green', or 'Green'. This colouration is due to the green chlorophyll pigments derived from chloroplasts of intact and broken cells and small unarmoured flagellates. It may provide an indicator of phytoplankton standing stock, although in the Southern Ocean there are some diatoms that are quite common on the silks but as they have very low amounts of chlorophyll the colour doesn't register in the PCI analysis. Fluorescence - water fluoresence measured by the vessel, averaged for the segment (arbitrary units). See Quality notes for more information. Salinity - water salinity measured by the vessel, averaged for the segment (psu). See Quality notes for more information. Water_temperature - water temperature measured by the vessel (degrees Celsius). See Quality notes for more information. Photosynthetically_active_radiation - photosynthetically active radiation measured by the vessel (micro-Einsteins m-2 s-1). This is not available on some vessels but has been included as a useful parameter to help differentiate data from night and day. The remaining fields ('Abylidae' through to 'Vibilia_sp') are zooplankton taxon names. The entries in these columns are the counts of each taxon in the segment.