Date:    Sun, 7 Jan 96 14:51:22 GMT
From: palmer@atsvax.rsmas.miami.edu
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Subject: DAVIS STATION SCIENCE SITREP - DEC 95
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DAVIS STATION SCIENCE SITREP - DEC 95
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                     DAVIS STATION
                 SCIENCE SITREP DEC 1995

Report of activities at Davis Station during the month
  
S-038 FORAGING ECOLOGY AND REPRODUCTIVE ENERGETICS OF ANTARCTIC 
PETRELS.  Wesley W. Weathers, University of California, Davis CA 
95616

PERSONNEL ON STATION: Peter Hodum, Karen Gerhart, Jane Wilson, 
Catherine Bone

     Karen completed the respirometry work on adult snow petrels 
and cape petrels at the beginning of December.  She then moved 
the respirometry system to Hop Island in preparation for the 
second phase of the metabolism research.  Once chicks begin 
hatching in early January, Karen will be determining resting 
metabolic rates on all four species.  She will be measuring chick 
metabolic rates throughout the nestling period.

     Peter and Jane have been based on Hop since the end of 
October. They have been following the fates of marked nest sites 
for each of the four species.  Egg laying dates were determined 
for approximately one hundred nests of each species and adult 
birds at these nests were marked with picric acid.  This marking 
enables us to follow the cycling of adults incubating eggs and 
determine the length of each incubation stint.  Antarctic petrels 
began laying on 19 November, peaked on 24 November, and finished 
on 29 November. Snow petrels began laying on 27 November, peaked 
on 1 December, and finished on 8 December.  Cape petrels began 
laying on 27 November, peaked on 5 December, and finished on 12 
December.  And southern fulmars began laying on 6 December, 
peaked on 12 December, and finished on 16 December.

     An interesting development this season is that all four 
species have had a reduced breeding effort compared to the 
previous two breeding seasons.  Of pairs of snow and Antarctic 
petrels that had eggs the previous two seasons only 60% laid an 
egg this season.  And only approximately 80% of the cape petrels 
and fulmars are breeding this season.  Incubation patterns thus 
far do not differ from those of the previous two seasons and 
there is no indication of unusually high desertion rates.

     In mid-December Karen shifted to Hop and Catherine arrived 
on the mid-season voyage.  The entire team is now based on Hop.  
Until the chicks hatch, Karen will be running adult Antarctic 
petrels and fulmars in the respirometry system in order to obtain 
resting metabolic rates.  Peter has begun the incubation stage 
doubly labelled water component on cape and snow petrels.  This 
will provide information on the energy expenditure of incubating 
adults.  At present we are waiting for chicks to hatch to move 
into the focal part of the field season.

     The Adelies seem to be having a successful season thus far 
with the majority of nests still having two chicks.  By this time 
last year most nests were down to one chick.  Based on the well 
fed appearance of most chicks, Adelies are having no trouble 
finding food thus far.  The decreased breeding effort by the 

07123353.138
PLM461.JAN