Metadata record for data expected from ASAC Project 2940 See the link below for public details on this project. Public: The extent of Antarctic winter sea-ice influences all aspects of the Antarctic marine food-web. We will use natural variations in inter-annual ice extent, to assess how a key component of that ecosystem, the predators, use the sea ice zone. Core foraging areas and dietary signals for a key Antarctic predator (Antarctic fur seal) will be identified. We will use newly developed, technology to track the animals, and stable isotopes to examine tropic linkages. Combined with satellite-derived sea-ice data, this will lead to the development of a model to predict how changing sea-ice patterns will influence Antarctic marine predator communities. Project Objectives: 1. Use large samples of newly-developed (and tested) animal-borne miniature geolocating light level recorders to population level information on the spatial extent of movements of Antarctic fur seals, thereby quantifying the extent of the use of the winter pack-ice and associated waters by these abundant predators. 2. To quantify how changes in winter ice extent influence the location of core foraging areas for this species. 3. To develop models to investigate how changing ice conditions in the future will influence the movements of this species and to examine a range of climate-change scenarios. Taken from the 2007-2008 Progress Report: No field work was conducted at Macquarie Island in the last 12 months. This was due to the decision by the state government to not issue permits for the work. With the help of our colleagues from BAS we did however manage to deploy 20 GLS light loggers on Antarctic fur seals at South Georgia. Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report: Objective 1 has been revised to the study of Antarctic fur seals only (see below). Research is progressing well with 78 animals tracked in 2008 and a further 80 expected in 2009. Objectives 2 and 3 will follow once field data is available for both years (May 2010). Isotopic analysis of blood and whisker samples for the 2008 season will commence in May 2009 once samples have been received. Taken from the 2010-2011 Progress Report: Public summary of the season progress: This study has quantified the response of the Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) to inter-annual variation in oceanographic and winter ice conditions. We have measured the winter spatial foraging patterns of 66 adult females from three circum-Antarctic populations over two years (2008, 2009) during 114 trips to sea, while simultaneously recording in situ water temperature. Stable isotope analysis of fur seal blood and whisker samples indicates that adult females feed on a range of lower (krill) to higher (fish and squid) trophic levels across their winter range. Broad-scale habitat preferences across the range of the species indicate the importance of shelf, ice edge, frontal and oceanic and continental upwelling features in determining winter foraging movements.

Gentoo penguins are the least numerous of the penguins breeding at Macquarie Island, and the only species to rear two chicks. This project examined the interactions between diving behaviour, diet and reproductive strategy. Data were collected on Time Depth Recorders (TDRs), and stored in hexadecimal format. Hexadecimal files can be read using 'Instrument Helper', a free download from Wildlife Computers (see the url given below).

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2301 See the link below for public details on this project. ---- Public Summary from Project ---- This study develops and combines the latest molecular and electronics technology into a comprehensive investigation of diet and food-web relationships of Southern Ocean predators (whales, seals, penguins) and commercial marine resources (krill, fish, squid). This type of information is essential for ecosystem models that set sustainable catch limits for fisheries. From the abstract of the referenced paper: We describe seven group-specific primer pairs that amplify small sections of ribosomal RNA genes suitable for identification of animal groups of major importance as prey items in marine ecosystems. These primer sets allow the isolation of DNA from the target animal groups from mixed pools of DNA, where DNA-based identification using universal primers is unlikely to succeed. The primers are designed for identifying prey and animal diets, but could be used in any situation where these animal groups are to be identified by their DNA. Progress report from the 2006/2007 Season: Overall objective This new multi-year initiative project within the AMLR program aims to develop and combine the latest molecular and electronics technology to facilitate a comprehensive investigation of appropriately scaled and strategically located trophodynamics of Southern Ocean higher marine predators and commercial marine living resources. The objectives and early experimental design are largely responsive to needs determined by the Australian Antarctic Division's core-function obligations to CCAMLR, as well as other international organisations, the most relevant of which are the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and Southern Ocean Global Ocean Ecology Dynamics (SO-GLOBEC). Traditionally studies of diet of higher predators have often relied upon the use of a single, uncalibrated, methodology, and samples are usually collected in a manner that precludes stratification by age and sex class. Such studies are often subordinate experiments to a larger overall project. In contrast, the power of this new initiative project will be its focus on calibration across a suite of established and novel molecular and macroscopic techniques, feeding trials in controlled situations, direct linkage of samples to age and sex classes, and a detailed knowledge of the foraging behaviour of a sub-set of sampled animals. The parallel development and incorporation of electronic tools to measure predator foraging ecology further strengthens this work. In order to achieve the aims of this study a multi-disciplinary, widely collaborative and multi-streamed program has been developed. Methodological development underpins the potential power of this project to delivery its objectives. The detailed design-phase of incorporating these new approaches into an experimental framework will follow this developmental phase. In order to best represent the sub-objectives of each phase of this study, the work has been divided into the following core components: Experimental Design (phase 1: methodological development) Development of DNA-based molecular techniques to measure prey harvesting Validation trials of molecular techniques Modelling/analysis to develop a matrix of methodologies to best predict prey composition in predator diet Development of electronic equipment to measure prey harvesting Validation trials of electronic equipment Experimental Design (phase 2: ecological experiments) Integrated, question driven, field experiments Some components of this work will run contemporaneously (eg. development of molecular and electronic tools). This project has now been completed. The novel DNA based methods for studying animal diet have been researched thoroughly in controlled conditions and demonstrated to be useful and an advance on existing methods. The DNA based dietary methods have also been successfully applied to studying the diet of Blue

From the abstract of the referenced paper: Satellite telemetry data are a key source of animal distribution information for marine ecosystem management and conservation activities. We used two decades of telemetry data from the East Antarctic sector of the Southern Ocean. Habitat utilization models for the spring/summer period were developed for six highly abundant, wide-ranging meso- and top-predator species: Adelie, Pygoscelis adeliae and emperor, Aptenodytes forsteri penguins, light-mantled albatross, Phoebetria palpebrata, Antarctic fur seals, Arctocephalus gazella, southern elephant seals, Mirounga leonina, and Weddell seals, Leptonychotes weddellii. The regional predictions from these models were combined to identify areas utilized by multiple species, and therefore likely to be of particular ecological significance. These areas were distributed across the longitudinal breadth of the East Antarctic sector, and were characterized by proximity to breeding colonies, both on the Antarctic continent and on subantarctic islands to the north, and by sea-ice dynamics, particularly locations of winter polynyas. These areas of important habitat were also congruent with many of the areas reported to be showing the strongest regional trends in sea ice seasonality. The results emphasize the importance of on-shore and sea-ice processes to Antarctic marine ecosystems. Our study provides ocean-basin-scale predictions of predator habitat utilization, an assessment of contemporary habitat use against which future changes can be assessed, and is of direct relevance to current conservation planning and spatial management efforts. The data files provided here comprise the model predictions of the preferred habitat for each of the six species listed above, as well as the overlap results obtained by combining these six sets of results. See the paper for methods used to generate the model predictions and to combine the individual species results. File names for individual species are of the form results_SPP_TYPE.asc, where SPP is one of "afs" (Antarctic fur seal), "ap" (Adelie penguin), "ep" (emperor penguin), "lma" (light-mantled albatross), "ses" (southern elephant seal), or "ws" (Weddell seal. TYPE is either "mean" (mean estimate of habitat preference) or "iqr" (inter-quartile range of uncertainty in the estimate; see paper for details). Data values for individual species results are percentiles of the study area, so that values of 90% or higher are pixels corresponding to the most important 10% of habitat for that species, values of 80% or greater are the top 20% of habitat, and so on. The overlap results files are named overlay_results_mean.asc and overlay_results_iqr.asc. Values in these files represent the average of the top four individual species results in a given pixel (see paper for details).

This dataset is a description of the shallow coastal marine fauna found in the Vestfold Hills and Rauer Island area, Antarctica. The results are from various surveys in this region over a 12 month period in 1981-82, and a full listing of species (with photographs) is given in the documentation. It includes benthic, pelagic and planktonic organisms of the coast as well as those that inhabit the ice-water interface.

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

Antarctic Fur Seals from Heard Island fed mainly on fish, but the prey species changed both seasonally and inter-annually. The majority of prey were pelagic myctophids characteristic of deep oceanic water, and were generally taken in autumn and winter. The only other fish taken in significant numbers was Champsocephalus gunnari which was mostly taken from late winter through early autumn when it was co-dominant in the diet with the Krefftichthys anderssoni. Males and females foraged in different localities and in different parts of the water column. Males foraged mainly to the south of Heard Island in winter usually diving deep by day, feeding on scattering layers. In summer males also fed on the shelf, presumably to the north and east of Heard Island on K. anderssoni at shallow depths primarily at night. Although diet studies provided little evidence of feeding on crustaceans, diving data indicate that some males may travel to Antarctic waters in winter to feed on krill. The fields in this dataset are: Months Species Scats Time foraging Number of Dives Time Submerged (minutes) Mean Dive Duration (minutes) Maximum Depth (metres)

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2794 See the link below for public details on this project. Public: This study will use innovative technology to measure the winter spatial foraging patterns and net energy gain of adult female elephant seals (and potentially Weddell seals), while simultaneously providing high-resolution data on the physical nature of the water column in which the seals live. By combining biological and physical data with satellite derived sea-ice information, this study will improve our understanding of predator foraging success (and therefore mechanisms which regulate population trajectories) and provide physical oceanographers with fundamental data on the importance mechanisms that determine the winter ice and bottom water formation that under-pin the Antarctic marine ecosystem. Project objectives: The extent and nature of Antarctic winter sea ice is thought to have profound impacts on biological productivity, the recruitment of Antarctic krill, and the flow-on effects through the Antarctic marine food web. 1. Winter sea-ice formation is also hypothesised to play an important, yet highly-variable role in ocean circulation patterns through the production of cold, dense winter bottom water. 2. The mechanisms determining the inter-annual variation in winter ice formation are poorly understood, as are the complex feedback processes involved, but they are nonetheless recognised as being vulnerable to human-induced climate change. 3. Given the dynamically-linked nature of winter-ice and biological productivity, long-term climatic changes will have broad scale influences on Antarctic biota. This study will use innovative technological developments to quantify the response of one of the major Antarctic marine predators, the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina), to inter-annual variation in winter ice conditions. We will measure the winter spatial foraging patterns and net energy gain of adult female elephant seals while simultaneously providing high-resolution data on the physical nature of the water column in which the seals are living. The combination of these biological and physical data with satellite-derived sea-ice information will relate variation in the winter-ice to broad scale biological production through the foraging success (maternal investment and therefore demographic performance) of a top Antarctic marine predator, as well as providing physical oceanographers with fundamental data on the important mechanisms that determine the winter ice and bottom water formation that under-pin the Antarctic marine ecosystem. The specific objectives are to: Measure the foraging performance of the seals in terms of spatially-specific net energy gain while at sea, in relation to intra- and inter-annual variation in sea-ice and oceanic processes. Use newly-developed (and tested) animal-borne satellite-linked Conductivity-Temperature-Depth Satellite Relay Data Loggers (CTD-SRDLs) to provide oceanographic quality data on local physical characteristics (temperature and salinity). Record fine-scale foraging parameters (dive depth, duration, swimming speed) using "Dead-Reckoning" Data Loggers (DRDLs) and feeding events using Stomach Temperature Sensors (STSs). Integrate these data collected in years and regions of different winter ice extent and conditions. Assess diet during the winter months using stable isotope and fatty acid signature analysis. Combine the biological and physical information to refine current models of predator performance based on annual climatic features. These models will be used to examine a range of climate-change scenarios, initially for elephant seals but with a view to broadening the species application at a later stage. Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report: Progress against objectives: Due to logistic constraints, no satellite telemetry was conducted at Casey or Macquarie Island this year, but preliminary surveys of the region were conducted for both elephant and Weddell

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 1252 See the link below for public details on this project. Currently three datasets are attached to this metadata record. Dive data collected in 1988, track data from adult birds collected in 1994 and track data from fledglings collected in 1995. Dive data are available in Microsoft Word format, while the track data are available in Microsoft Excel format. A readme file (txt) is included in each download file to explain column headings, etc. ---- Public Summary from Project ---- To breed successfully the winter-breeding emperor penguins must fatten on two occasions: once before the onset of moult in January, and again prior to the commencement of the new breeding season in March. Interference with the capacity of the penguins to fatten in summer might be detrimental to the their breeding performance and survival later on in winter. This study seeks to determine the likely impact of commercial fishing operations on emperor penguin colonies at the Mawson Coast. More specifically, the data pertains to the locations of emperor penguins when fattening prior to the moult, and prior to the new breeding season. Project objectives: 1. To determine the extent and location of foraging areas of post-breeding adult Emperor penguins in summer. 3. To determine the extent and locations of foraging areas of fledgling Emperor penguins on their first trip to sea. 4. To identify interseasonal and interannual variations in foraging areas in conjunction with changes in seaice conditions and compare these with results from different colonies. 5. To survey the coastline of the AAT to verify the existence (or non-existence) of Emperor penguin colonies. Emperor penguins are icons of Antarctic wildlife and their conservation is of paramount interest to the wider community. They are also key consumers of marine resources in several areas and consequently there is great potential for interactions between feeding penguins and harvesting of fish and krill. Emperor penguins are one of the few species to breed on the fast ice (although there are three known land-based colonies, one of which has all but ceased to exist in recent years). Thus, the breeding habitat of Emperor penguins is subject to direct alteration as a result of climate change. Colonies of Emperors are found across a wide latitudinal range, from deep in the Ross Sea to the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. This range includes breeding areas where significant changes in seaice are not (yet?) thought to be occurring to areas where seaice is changing rapidly. Accordingly, studies at multiple locations will provide valuable clues on how this species will be affected by a warming Antarctic. Additionally, Emperor penguins are large animals that live in a relatively small number of discrete locations. It is therefore more than feasible, using an international effort, to study an entire species and to make some predictions about their response to a warming world and to current and future fishing practices. This project aims to make the first steps towards an overall conservation assessment of Emperor penguins through studies in several locations around the Antarctic continent. Should these attempts be successful, then a more ambitious international project will be launched to take a species-wide perspective.

This file contains a report of biological field work undertaken in the Casey region between 1977 and 1983. It includes information on Elephant Seals, Leopard Seals, Crabeater Seals, Adelie Penguins, Emperor Penguins, Skuas, Silver-Grey Petrels, Antarctic Petrels, Cape Pigeons, Snow Petrels, Wilson's Storm Petrels, Giant Petrels and Whales The hard copy of the log has been archived by the Australian Antarctic Division library.