<STUDY> 9495pal

<DESCRIPTION> Palmer Station Season

<DATE_RANGE> oct94-mar95

<ABSTRACT> Fourth Palmer LTER field season at Palmer Station.  Ocean water column observations were carried out twice a week from zodiacs over the Palmer near-shore grid.  Bird observations were carried out on nearby islands.

<SAMPLING_FREQUENCY>
Zodiac sampling was carried out twice a week of the water column at the near-shore grid stations.  The monitoring of bird populations continued for the entire field season. Weather was monitored daily.

<SITES>
Palmer Station (64deg 46'S; 64deg 04'W), Antarctica, near-shore
grid stations within a 2 mile zodiac boating limit include:
st, latS(d,m),  lonW(d,m),  comment
A,  64, 46.45,  64, 03.27,  Gamage Pt. (harbor side)
B,  64, 46.77,  64, 04.35,  w Bonaparte Pt.
C,  64, 47.30,  64, 04.35,  w 3 cable rocks
D,  64, 48.40,  64, 03.06,  w Laggard I.
E,  64, 48.90,  64, 02.43,  100 fathom pt
F,  64, 48.40,  64, 04.35,  tween pt
G,  64, 48.00,  64, 06.00,  se Spume I
H,  64, 47.30,  64, 07.60,  wsw Janus I
I,  64, 46.50,  64, 08.00,  w Litchfield I
J,  64, 46.00,  64, 08.00,  w Humble I
The five island rookeries within a 40km2 area include:
Humble Island
Torgersen Island
Litchfield Island
Christine Island
Cormorant Island

<SITE_DESCRIPTION>
Palmer Station is situated at the edge of a glacier on Anvers Island 
off the West coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.

<HYPOTHESIS> 
The biological dynamics of the ecosystem are related to the 
extent of the annual pack ice.

<EXPERIMENTAL_DESIGN>
Repeated sampling of physics, chemistry, biology and optics of the water
column and the bird colonies within the immediate Palmer area throughout
the spring and summer seasons.  The near-shore sampling grid stations
were located using a portable GPS unit on-board the zodiac.  Three
zodiacs were used:
 zodiac 1 (ROZE)  - optics & ctdprofiles, surface chl, fish finder 
 zodiac 2 (LEGEND)- water column chl, hplc, nutrients, productivity
 zodiac 3 (RDUKE) - targetted tows, standard tows
Day 1: Standard transects with ROZE from stations A to E for acoustic biomass.
 Then ROZE and LEGEND rendezvous to sample each station E to A simultaneously
  for bio-optics and phytoplankton.
Day 2: ROZE completes standard transect F to J for accoustic biomass.
Day 3: RDuke runs targeted tows for krill.  
  Legend samples water column at Station B.
Day 4: LEGEND samples water-column at Stations B and E for
  phytoplankton experiments and samples surface at stations C and D.
Day 5: RDUKE makes standard tows from stations A-B, D-E, F-G and I-J.
Seabird measurments between October and March include censuses of
breeding population size, peak arrival periods of breeding adults (October),
the number of chicks creched per colony, adult breeding chronology/success,
chick weights at fledging (February) and foraging ecology.

<METHODS>
Research for long-term background monitoring program includes
repeated measurements of the water column made over a near-shore
grid (Smith et al, 1996) and observations at bird colonies follow
accepted standard methods (CCAMLR, 1992).

<LT_CORE_DATA_SET>

<LT_CORE_AREAS>

<PROPRIETARY_LIMITS>
Core measurments available two years after the season.
Citation acknowledgement: "Data from the Palmer LTER data archive
were supported by Office of Polar Programs, NSF (OPP-9011927)."

<RELATED_STUDIES>
9192pal, 9293pal, 9394pal, Icecolors90, RACER, AMERIEZ, BIOMASS, AMLR, CCAMLR

<KEYWORDS>
antarctic, southern ocean, lter, long-term, marginal ice zone,
phytoplankton, bio-optics, krill, seabirds

<DATA_FILENAMES>
~lter/data/9495pal/*

<PUBLICATIONS>
CCAMLR, 1992. Standard Methods for Monitoring Studies. Convention
     for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources
     Ecosystem Monitoring Program, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
     Fraser, WR, WZ Trivelpiece, BR Houston, and  DR Patterson.
Karl, DM, CD Winn, DVW Hebel, R Letelier, 1990.  Hawaii Ocean 
     Time-Series Program Field and Laboratory Protocols. University 
     of Hawaii Report (ftp:128.171.154.9@/pub/hot/protocols/1142.asc)
Passow U, W Kozlowski, M Vernet, 1995: Palmer LTER: Distribution  of  
     transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) during summer at a 
     coastal station in  Antarctica.  Antarctic Journal of  
     the United States.
Smith, RC, JL Jones, LB Quetin, RR Ross, KS Baker, WA Kozlowski,
     M Vernet, WR Fraser, 1996.  Palmer LTER: Annual Season
     Sampling on Station. Antarctic Journal of the United
     States. (accepted)
Vernet M, W Kozlowski, T Ruel, 1995.  Palmer LTER: Temporal
     and spatial variability in primary production in Arthur
     Harbor during the 1994/1995 growth  season.  Antarctic
     Journal of the United States.

<PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORS>

<COOPERATING_AGENCIES>
National Science Foundation, Division of Polar Programs

<DATE_SUBMITTED>
14jun93-ksb

<DATE_UPDATED>
07dec93-ksb 
25nov96-ksb

<SUBMITTED_BY>
Karen S. Baker

<CONTACT_PERSON>
Robin M. Ross
Langdon B. Quetin

<COMMENTS>

<FORM>
Study Form V1.3 for describing a collection of datafiles.