brcensus 95jan 07Jan95-06Feb95 At-sea seabird censuses to determine abundance and distribution in the Palmer LTER marine grid between the 600 and 200 lines during the 94-95 season. The files provide general spatial and environmental data associated with both stationary and moving transects, and specific data on the species encountered (including marine mammals), their abundance, distribution and behavior. crxxx95h.dat cruise number, event number, transect start time (GMT), transect start point on LTER grid, transect end point on LTER grid, ship speed (knots), sea state (Beaufort scale), marine habitat type, ice cover (octas), ice type, ice color, crxxx95t.dat cruise number, event number, time of observation (the minute the observation is made), taxa observed, number observed, linkages (feeding associations between species), behavior, notes, crxxx95s.dat cruise number, event number, station number, time (GMT), sea state, marine habitat type, ice cover (octas), ice type, ice color, time of observation (the minute the observation is made), taxa observed, linkages (feeding associations between species), behavior, notes, Stationary censuses, twice at each station; moving censuses, 1-3 between stations. Two types of transects are conducted, moving and stationary. During moving transects (the ship underway at 6 knots or more in open water; 3 knots or more in ice) between stations, seabirds are censused as they enter a 90 degree quadrant off the ship's starboard or port side bow. The use of these quarters alternates depending on what side offers better visibility, but both quarters are never used during the same census. Each census also begins and ends with a stern count of seabirds following the ship. Censuses are confined to seabirds within 300m of the ship and typically last 30 minutes each. In the second type of transect, an instantaneous census lasting 1 minute is made to document all seabirds around the ship when it stops to begin an oceanographic station. This census covers 360 degrees and includes all seabirds within 300m of the ship. After completing this census, another 15 minute census is done that is confined to birds that enter a 90 degree quadrant off the ship's starboard or port-side bow. All censuses also record marine mammals (seals within 300m of the ship an whales within 800m of the ship). The objectives of the LTER seabird component during the 93-94 season were to 1) determine the pelagic abundance and distribution of Adelie Penguins, 2) examine how the physical and biological characteristics of the marine environment influence these parameters and, 3) use these data to identify foraging areas that may be important to Adelie populations being studied as part of land-based work at Palmer Station. Secondary objectives included documenting the abundance and distribution of other seabirds and marine mammals within the LTER study area. To meet these objectives, two sampling schemes were designed. The "low density" sampling scheme profiles seabird (and marine mammal) abundance and distribution over large spatial scales, in this case the LTER 600, 500, 400, 300 and 200 lines with stations spaced at 20km apart. The "high density" sampling scheme profiles these parameters over a smaller spatial scale, focusing on an area within a 100km radius of Palmer Station and with stations spaced 10km apart. Three-hundred-ninety-seven moving transects and 97 stationary censuses were completed. Antarctica, Adelie Penguin, seabirds, biomass, foraging ecology, sea ice, winter ascii local DBASE online LTER ~lter/lterdata/lterpal9495/cruises.94/crjan95h.txt ~lter/lterdata/lterpal9495/cruises.94/crjan95t.txt ~lter/lterdata/lterpal9495/cruises.94/crjan95s.txt William R. Fraser Wayne Z. Trivelpiece, ubiwt@montana.edu William R. Fraser Denise Hardesty Laura Somerville William R. Fraser Donna L. Patterson William R. Fraser 11 May 1998 Fraser, W.R. and D.G. Ainley. 1986. Ice edges and seabird occurrence in Antarctica. BioScience 36: 258-263. Ainley, D.G., W.R. Fraser, C.W. Sullivan, J.J. Torres, T.L. Hopkins and W.O. Smith. 1986. Antarctic mesopelagic micronekton: evidence from seabirds that pack ice affects community structure. Science 232: 847-849. Ainley, D.G., W.R. Fraser and K.L. Daly. 1988. Effects of pack ice on micronektonic communities in the Weddell Sea. In, Antarctic Ocean and Resources Variability, D. Sahrhage, ed., Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 140-146. Fraser, W.R., R.L. Pitman and D.G. Ainley. 1989. Seabird and fur seal responses to vertically migrating krill swarms in Antarctica. Polar Biology 10: 37-41. Ainley, D.G., W.R. Fraser, W.O. Smith, T.L. Hopkins and J.J. Torres. 1991. The structure of upper level pelagic food webs in the Antarctic: Effect of phytoplankton distribution. Journal of Marine Systems 2: 111-122. Ribic, C.A., D.G. Ainley and W.R. Fraser. 1991. Habitat selection by marine mammals in the marginal ice zone. Antarctic Science 3: 181-186. Ainley, D.G., C.A. Ribic and W.R. Fraser. 1992. Does prey preference affect habitat choice in Antarctic Seabirds? Marine Ecology Progress Series 90: 207-221. Fraser, W.R., W.Z. Trivelpiece, D.G. Ainley and S.G. Trivelpiece. 1992. Increases in Antarctic penguin populations: reduced competition with whales or a loss of sea ice due to global warming? Polar Biology 11: 525-531. Fraser, W.R., W.Z. Trivelpiece, B. Houston and D.L. Patterson. 1992. Palmer LTER: Seabird research undertaken during 1991-1992 at Palmer Station, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctic Journal of the Unites States 27: 249-250. Fraser, W.R. and W.Z. Trivelpiece. 1996. Factors controlling the distribution of seabirds: Winter-Summer heterogeneity in the distribution of Adelie Penguin Populations. In, Foundations for Ecological Research West of the Antarctic Peninsula, E. Hofmann, R. Ross and L. Quetin, eds., AGU Antarctic Research Series, Washington, D.C., 257-272 Key to acronyms and abreviatons used in pal-lter seabird databases. Palmer manual for censusing seabirds at sea. All data are initially recorded in field notebooks. Quality assurance is determined during two subsequent stages. The first is when data are moved from field notebooks to data sheets; the second is when data are moved from data sheets to databases. The coordinates delineating the high density grid were formalized.

Datafile Form V1.2 for describing a data file.