This database is a compendium of histories of known age seals (Weddell) from observations across the Southern Ocean but focussed on the Windmill Islands, Mawson and the Vestfold Hills. Although the following information pertains to Elephant Seals, it is assumed similar procedures were undertaken with the Weddell Seals between 1973 and 2006: At Macquarie Island 1000 seals were weighed per annum between 1993-2003 at birth and individually marked with two plastic flipper tags in the inter-digital webbing of their hind flippers. These tagged seals were weighed again at weaning, when length, girth, fat depth, and flipper measurements were made. Three weeks after weaning 2000 seals were permanently and individually marked by hot-iron branding. Recaptures and re-weighings of these known aged individuals were used to calculate growth and age-specific survival of the seals. Similar data were collected from elephant seals between 1950 and 1965 when seals were individually marked by hot-iron branding. Mark-recapture data from these cohorts were used to assess the demography of the declining population. Length and mass data were also collected for these cohorts and were used, for the first time, to assess the growth of individual seals without killing them. The database was held by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre, but was taken offline due to maintenance problems. A snapshot of the database was taken in June 2018 and stored in an access database. This work was completed as part of ASAC project 90.

Aerial photography (Linhof) of penguin colonies was acquired over the Windmill Islands (Eric Woehler). The penguin colonies were traced, then digitised (John Cox), and saved as DXF-files. Using the ArcView extension 'Register and Transform' (Tom Velthuis), The DXF-files were brought into a GIS and transformed to the appropriate islands. Data conforms to SCAR Feature Catalogue which can be searched (refer to link below).

Very little information is known about the distribution and abundance of snow petrels at the regional scale. This dataset contains locations of grid sites used to survey for snow petrels in the Windmill Islands during the 2002-2003 season. Descriptive information relating to each grid site was recorded and a detailed description of data fields is provided in the attached dataset. Survey methodology used 200*200 m grid squares in which exhaustive searches were conducted (FO). Search effort for these is provided in the dataset. The fields in this dataset are: Site Nest Region Date Time Ice free area UTM Coordinates

These results are for the 4 hour extraction of HCl. See also the metadata records for the 0.5 hour extraction of HCl, and the time trial data for 1 M HCl extractions. A regional survey of potential contaminants in marine or estuarine sediments is often one of the first steps in a post-disturbance environmental impact assessment. Of the many different chemical extraction or digestion procedures that have been proposed to quantify metal contamination, partial acid extractions are probably the best overall compromise between selectivity, sensitivity, precision, cost and expediency. The extent to which measured metal concentrations relate to the anthropogenic fraction that is bioavailable is contentious, but is one of the desired outcomes of an assessment or prediction of biological impact. As part of a regional survey of metal contamination associated with Australia's past waste management activities in Antarctica, we wanted to identify an acid type and extraction protocol that would allow a reasonable definition of the anthropogenic bioavailable fraction for a large number of samples. From a kinetic study of the 1 M HCl extraction of two certified Certified Reference Materials (MESS-2 and PACS-2) and two Antarctic marine sediments, we concluded that a 4 hour extraction time allows the equilibrium dissolution of relatively labile metal contaminants, but does not favour the extraction of natural geogenic metals. In a regional survey of 88 marine samples from the Casey Station area of East Antarctica, the 4 h extraction procedure correlated best with biological data, and most clearly identified those sediments thought to be contaminated by runoff from abandoned waste disposal sites. Most importantly the 4 hour extraction provided better definition of the low to moderately contaminated locations by picking up small differences in anthropogenic metal concentrations. For the purposes of inter-regional comparison, we recommend a 4 hour 1 M HCl acid extraction as a standard method for assessing metal contamination in Antarctica. The fields in this dataset are Location Site Replicate Antimony Arsenic Cadmium Chromium Copper Iron Lead Manganese Nickel Silver Tin Zinc

These results are for the time trial extraction of HCl. See also the metadata records for the 0.5 and 4 hour extractions of HCl. A regional survey of potential contaminants in marine or estuarine sediments is often one of the first steps in a post-disturbance environmental impact assessment. Of the many different chemical extraction or digestion procedures that have been proposed to quantify metal contamination, partial acid extractions are probably the best overall compromise between selectivity, sensitivity, precision, cost and expediency. The extent to which measured metal concentrations relate to the anthropogenic fraction that is bioavailable is contentious, but is one of the desired outcomes of an assessment or prediction of biological impact. As part of a regional survey of metal contamination associated with Australia's past waste management activities in Antarctica, we wanted to identify an acid type and extraction protocol that would allow a reasonable definition of the anthropogenic bioavailable fraction for a large number of samples. From a kinetic study of the 1 M HCl extraction of two certified Certified Reference Materials (MESS-2 and PACS-2) and two Antarctic marine sediments, we concluded that a 4 hour extraction time allows the equilibrium dissolution of relatively labile metal contaminants, but does not favour the extraction of natural geogenic metals. In a regional survey of 88 marine samples from the Casey Station area of East Antarctica, the 4 h extraction procedure correlated best with biological data, and most clearly identified those sediments thought to be contaminated by runoff from abandoned waste disposal sites. Most importantly the 4 hour extraction provided better definition of the low to moderately contaminated locations by picking up small differences in anthropogenic metal concentrations. For the purposes of inter-regional comparison, we recommend a 4 hour 1 M HCl acid extraction as a standard method for assessing metal contamination in Antarctica. The fields in this dataset are Concentration Extraction Time Antimony Arsenic Cadmium Chromium Copper Iron Lead Manganese Nickel Silver Tin Zinc

Very little information is available on the geomorphology of areas surrounding Australian Antarctic stations. This type of information is generally collected during geological surveys. This metadata record gathers a range of descriptive geomorphological information of various nature: -Habitat surveys were conducted in the season 2002-2003 in the Windmill Islands in parallel with bird nest mapping (reported in metadata record BIRDSCASEY0203) in order to study selection of nest sites by a range of species. Habitat was described in the survey sites searched for bird nests following various methods (described in BIRDSCASEY0203). Information is stored as GIS files (Arcview 3.2) -polygon shapefile gathering all the geomorphological units. -line shapefile describing habitat along transects used for searching bird nests -polygon shapefile describing habitat in small 25*25m quadrats used for searching bird nests -A collection of 1309 digital photos showing the sites searched for bird nests indexed by grid site number. Plus another set of 194 photos showing region of the Windmill Islands or bird nests more in detail -A set of Digital Elevation Models (DEM) covering the entire Windmill Islands area generated separately for 18 regions. -200m*200m grid created from the coverage of ice-free areas (Aerial photography 93-94) providing site numbers for the photographic database -A series of Black and White aerial Photos (500 m, Zeiss, 1994) scanned at high resolution for the purpose of substrate study. See the word document in the file download for more information. This work has been completed as part of ASAC project 1219 (ASAC_1219). The fields in this dataset are: Date Boulderbig Bouldsmall Baresubst Morsed Scree Snowcover Permice Slope Aspect Photonumber Sitedotid Comments

These results are for the 0.5 hour extraction of HCl. See also the metadata records for the 4 hour extraction of HCl, and the time trial data for 1 M HCl extractions. A regional survey of potential contaminants in marine or estuarine sediments is often one of the first steps in a post-disturbance environmental impact assessment. Of the many different chemical extraction or digestion procedures that have been proposed to quantify metal contamination, partial acid extractions are probably the best overall compromise between selectivity, sensitivity, precision, cost and expediency. The extent to which measured metal concentrations relate to the anthropogenic fraction that is bioavailable is contentious, but is one of the desired outcomes of an assessment or prediction of biological impact. As part of a regional survey of metal contamination associated with Australia's past waste management activities in Antarctica, we wanted to identify an acid type and extraction protocol that would allow a reasonable definition of the anthropogenic bioavailable fraction for a large number of samples. From a kinetic study of the 1 M HCl extraction of two certified Certified Reference Materials (MESS-2 and PACS-2) and two Antarctic marine sediments, we concluded that a 4 hour extraction time allows the equilibrium dissolution of relatively labile metal contaminants, but does not favour the extraction of natural geogenic metals. In a regional survey of 88 marine samples from the Casey Station area of East Antarctica, the 4 h extraction procedure correlated best with biological data, and most clearly identified those sediments thought to be contaminated by runoff from abandoned waste disposal sites. Most importantly the 4 hour extraction provided better definition of the low to moderately contaminated locations by picking up small differences in anthropogenic metal concentrations. For the purposes of inter-regional comparison, we recommend a 4 hour 1 M HCl acid extraction as a standard method for assessing metal contamination in Antarctica. The fields in this dataset are Location Site Replicate Antimony Arsenic Cadmium Chromium Copper Iron Lead Manganese Nickel Silver Tin Zinc

Very little information is known about the distribution and abundance of snow petrels at the regional scale. This dataset contains locations of bird nests, mostly snow petrels, mapped in the Windmill Islands during the 2002-2003 season. Location of nests were recorded with handheld GPS receivers connected to a pocket PC and stored as a shapefile using Arcpad (ESRI software). Descriptive information relating to each bird nest was recorded and a detailed description of data fields is provided in the detailed description of the shapefiles. Two observers conducted the surveys using distinct methodologies, Frederique Olivier (FO) and Drew Lee (DL). Three separate nest location files (ArcView point shapefiles) were produced and correspond to each of the survey methodologies used. Methodology 1 was the use of 200*200 m grid squares in which exhaustive searches were conducted (FO). Methodology 2 was the use of 2 transects within each the 200*200 m grid squares; methodology 3 was the use of 4 small quadrats (ca 25 m) located within the 200*200m grid squares (DL). Nests mapped in a non-systematic manner (not following a specific methodology) are clearly identified within each dataset. Datasets were kept separate due to the uncertainties caused by GPS errors (the same nest may have different locations due to GPS error). Three separate shapefiles describe survey methodologies: - one polygon shapefile locates the 200*200 grid sites searched systematically (FO) - one polygon shapefile locates the small quadrats (DL) - one line shapefile locates line transects (DL) Spatial characteristics, date of survey, search effort, number of nests found and other parameters are recorded for the grid sites, transect and quadrats. See the word document in the file download for more information. This work has been completed as part of ASAC project 1219 (ASAC_1219). The fields in this dataset are: Species Activity Type Entrances Slope Remnants Latitude Longitude Date Snow Eggchick Cavitysize Cavitydepth Distnn Substrate Comments SitedotID Aspect Firstfred Systematic/Edge/Incidental RecordCode The full dataset, including a word document providing further information about the dataset, is publicly available for download from the provided URL. Also available for download from another URL is polygon data representing flying bird nesting areas. The polygon data was derived from the flying bird nest locations by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre for displaying on maps.