95Jan PD95-01: Annual cruise 07jan95-08feb95 Annual austral summer LTER time-series cruise carried out in three phases with repeated sampling of inshore stations. Phase I covers standard transect lines 600 and 500. Phase II is composed of sampling the bird foraging area using three methods: picket-fence sampling, high density grid, and zodiac observations. Phase III covered the standard transect lines 200, 300 and 400. Inshore stations B to E were occupied three times throughout the cruise while B and E were occupied an additional three times to provide a time-series of the inshore grid. Sampling was done aboard the R/V Polar Duke PD95-1. Raymond C. Smith served as chief scientist. Phase I and III used standard transect sampling protocol between stations (ie 4 to 5 stations per day) using 20km grid for BOPS with XBT between stations (10km grid). Station sampling included: BOPS, phytoplankton productivity, nutrients, krill observations. Phase II included running bird picketlines, high density foraging grids run eight times in 5 different areas, and bird observations using zodiacs to determine direction of travel done five times during the cruise. Sampling West Coast of Antarctic Peninsula including near Palmer and LTER grid. Palmer Stations (B-J) repeated. PhaseI(07Jan-11Jan): grid lines 500, 600 PhaseII(12Jan-25Jan): picketlines 3.7,10,30,multi; HD grids; S inshore PhaseIII(26Jan-04Feb): grid lines 400,300,200; N inshore PhaseIIb(05Feb-07Feb): HD grids based on picketline results ~10kmx20km Many icebergs from 500 grid line through 200 grid line. Six basic sampling modes provided: -spatial coverage of the core areas (1&2) -temporal coverage of the grid area (3) -information as to bird location and quantity (4,5,6). where the six basic sampling modes included: 1) the cardinal grid line sampling; 2) sampling "inside" the islands. 3) the inshore grid station sampling; 4) the picket line bird census at 3.7km, 10km and 30m 5) the high density foraging grid. 6) zodiac bird observations Below is a brief overview of and comments on previous "annual" January cruises. The current picket line bird census sampling is then outlined. The Jan93 cruise had three phases: 1 & 3) a survey of 600 & 500 and 400, 300 & 200 lines with following standard measurements: optics, hydrography, microbial loop measurements, plant pigments, primary production & physiology, acoustic surveys & net tows for zooplankton, krill & fish (3 nets). Objective to characterize mesoscale physics, optics, chemical, biological (pocb) of LTER area during critical bird period. Phase 2 was an intensive, and repeated, sampling of a 50km x 50 km near-Palmer grid. This area was hypothesized to be the foraging area of "our" breeding Adelie's and the sampling effort was designed to cover this area "synoptically" several times. During Phase 3, the "back" side of the Biscoe Islands were also survey for larval fish (1m net) hypothesized to be important for "our" Skuas. Several "diurnal" stations were taken along the transects during Phases 1 & 3 to investigate phytoplankton physiology on diurnal time scales. (This is NOT all inclusive - just a quick review and rational for previous sampling strategy - see lter- gopher for full details on each cruise.) The Jan94 cruise was generally similar with the addition of more intensive sampling in the vicinity of the sediment traps and more time spent sampling "inside", ie, in the Lemaire/Grandidier area. Given our experience from these earlier cruises it is appropriate to modify our sampling strategy in light of what we have learned. Important "new" information includes that the foraging range of the Adelie's is now thought to be as far as 200km. From the sampling point of view this significantly extends the potential foraging area and the "synoptic" sampling of this large an area is difficult at best. As an alternative we are proposing a "picket line bird census". Objectives: 1) to statistically determine where the Adelie's are going; 2) Characterize (ie, pocb) the foraging area if/when we find it. Rapid shipboard sampling within the large scale LTER grid and the "close grid" are as in the past. The "picket line bird census" sampling strategy would be done as follows: day 1 - At a 10 km radius from Palmer (roughly) a semicircular track would be established. This 10km picket line could be run in 3 hours (say 0600 to 0900 when the birds are traveling to their foraging area) at 6 knots and could be rerun again in the evening (say 1800 to 2100 when the birds are returning). Obviously we need to carefully choose the route to keep the ship safe. Six, thirty minute bird observation periods along this picket line would divide the line into roughly 30 deg (pie shaped) sectors. day 2 - Repeat transect in opposite direction in an attempt to avoid timing bias in our sampling. Presumably at the end of these two days we would have sufficient bird sight counts to statistically say whether or not there is a preferred direction for the Adelie's. Given a preferred direction the picket line could be moved further out - with judgment as to where they might be going. day 3 - picket line further out - a line established at 30km would take longer to run - and some sectors would be interfered with by islands - so "on site judgment" would be required for this choice. If/when we find where the birds are feeding we could run a "tight grid" (say 10-30 km diameter) with physics, optics, production, nuts, pigs, krill, birds in this "hot spot" and, then repeat similarly "tight grid" in a location (from picket line bird census) that is "cold". This would give us an indication of differences between where the birds are and are not. This tight grid, analogous to previous phase 2 sampling but aimed at statistically determined foraging area, would take some 3-5 days depending upon circumstances. It is certainly possible that the birds do not depart the same direction (ie place) throughout the foraging season or from year to year. But a systematic sampling strategy aimed at quickly determining in which direction the birds are going will narrow down our subsequent sampling aimed at understanding the linkages between where they are and why there are there. See individual data sets. Core measurments available two years after the cruise. Citation acknowledgement: "Data from the Palmer LTER data archive were supported by Office of Polar Programs, NSF (OPP-9011927)." antarctic, southern ocean, bio-optics, phytoplankton, krill, marginal ice zone ~lter/data/95jan/* Smith RC: Palmer LTER: Annual January cruise for 1995 (PD95-1). Antarctic Journal of the United States x:xx-xx, 1995. Smith RC, LB Quetin, RM Ross, J Jones, WR Fraser, WZ Trivelpiece, L Sommerville, D Hardesty: Palmer LTER: Sea bird picket line sampling and zodiac tracking dur- ing the January 1995 cruise. Antarctic Journal of the United States x:xx-xx, 1995. Quetin L, KS Baker, W Fraser, D Hardesty, J Jones, R Ross, RC Smith, L Somervill, W Trivelpiece, M Vernet: Palmer LTER: Observations in foraging arenas of adelie penguins during the January 1995 cruise. Antarctic Journal of the United States x:xx-xx, 1995. National Science Foundation, Division of Polar Programs 07 March 95 26Apr96-ksb 25Nov96-ksb Raymond C. Smith Raymond C. Smith

Study Form V.1.3 for describing a collection of datafiles.