brcensus lterjan99 07Jan99-14Feb99 At-sea seabird censuses to determine abundance and distribution in the Palmer LTER marine grid between the 600 and 200 lines during the 98-99 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. crjan99h.dat cruise number, year and month, transect start point on LTER grid, transect end point on LTER grid, event number, transect start time (GMT), total transect time (minutes) ship speed (knots), transect start latitude, transect start longitude, transect end latitude, transect end longitude, sea state (Beaufort scale), marine habitat type, ice cover (octas), ice type, ice color, depth, notes crjan99t.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, crjan99s.dat cruise number, year and month, station number, event number, depth, latitude longitude 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, number observed linkages (feeding associations between species), behavior, notes, Stationary censuses, 1-2 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 98-99 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. Antarctica, Adelie Penguin, seabirds, biomass, foraging ecology, sea ice, = winter ascii local DBASE online LTER ~lter/lterdata/lterpal9899/cruises.98/crjan99h.txt ~lter/lterdata/lterpal9899/cruises.98/crjan99s.txt ~lter/lterdata/lterpal9899/cruises.98/crjan99t.txt William R. Fraser William R. Fraser Peter Duley Ron Batie Peter Duley Ron Batie William R. Fraser Donna L. Patterson William R. Fraser 09jun01 Smith, R.C., K.S. Baker, W.R. Fraser, E.E. Hofmann, D.M. Karl, J.M. Klinck, L.B. Quetin, B.B. Prezlin, R.M. Ross, W.Z. Trivelpiece and M. Vernet. 1995. The Palmer LTER: A long- term ecological research program at Palmer Station, Antarctica. Oceanography 8: 77-86. Smith, R.C., L.B. Quetin, J. Jones, R.M. Ross, W.R. Fraser, W.Z. Trivelpiece. L. Somervill and B.D. Hardesty. 1995 Palmer LTER: Seabird picket-line sampling and Zodiac tracking during the January 1995 cruise. Antarctic Journal of the United States 30: 273-274. L.B. Quetin, Smith, R.C., J. Jones, R.M. Ross, K. Baker, M. Vernet W.R. Fraser, W.Z. Trivelpiece. L. Somervill and B.D. Hardesty. 1995. Palmer LTER: Observations in foraging areas of Adelie penguins during the January 1995 cruise. Antarctic Journal of the United States 30: 269-270. Fraser, W.R. and D.L. Patterson. 1997. Human disturbance and long-term changes in Adelie Penguin populations: A natural experiment at Palmer Station, Antarctic Peninsula. In, Antarctic Communities: Species, Structure and Survival, B. Battaglia, J. Valencia, and D.W.H. Walton, eds., Cambridge University Press, pp. 445-452. Fraser, W.R., D.L. Patterson, E.J. Holm, J.C. Carlson and P.A. Duley. 1997. U.S. seabird research undertaken as part of the CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program at Palmer Station 1996-1997. Annual Report, National Marine Fisheries Service, La Jolla, California, USA, 35pp. Loeb, V., V. Siegel, O. Holm-Hansen, R. Hewitt, W. Fraser, W. Trivelpiece and S. Trivelpiece. 1997. Effects of sea-ice extent and krill or salp dominance on the Antarctic food web. Nature 387: 897-900. Kaiser, J. 1997. Is warming trend harming penguins? Science 276: 1790. Emslie, S.D., W.R. Fraser, R.C. Smith and W. Walker. 1997 Abandoned penguin colonies and environmental change in the Palmer Station region, Anvers Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Antarctic Science 10: 257-268. Fraser, W.R., D.L. Patterson, P.A. Duley and M. Irinaga. 1998. U.S. seabird research undertaken as part of the CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program at Palmer Station 1997-1998. Annual Report, National Marine Fisheries Service, La Jolla, California, USA, 22 pp. Key to acronyms and abbreviations 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. Note that several new data fields have been added to the databases. These relate primarily to obtaining finer scale data on the ship's position and the location of transects.

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