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This dataset contains the underway data collected during the MS Nella Dan Voyage V5 1984/85 (SIBEX2). Voyage name : Second International BIOMASS Expedition Phase II Voyage leader: H J Marchant Underway (meteorological) data are available online via the Australian Antarctic Division Data Centre web page (or via the Related URL section). BIOMASS (Biological Investigation of Marine Antarctic Systems and Stocks) , an internatsional collaborative research program, was established in 1976 to run for 10 years with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of the structure and dynamic functioning of the Southern Ocean marine ecosystem to provide a basis for any future management of the living resources. FIBEX (the First International BIOMASS Experiment), conducted in 1981, focussed on determining the distribution and abundance of the Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, in two areas of the Southern Ocean, the Scotia Sea and Prydz Bay. In the latter area Australia worked together with France, Japan and South Africa. In SIBEX I, the first phase of the Second International BIOMASS EXperiment, conducted in 1984, the main emphasis was on oceanography. Because of logistic problems, Australia was unable to devote as much time to this project as was planned and officially withdrew, renaiming its short cruise ADBEX II. The participants agreed that the principal activities of SIBEX II, the second phase of the Second International BIOMASS Experiment, were to be investigations of the biological processes occurring in the Southern Ocean. The Chief Scientists from the nations involved in research in the Prydz Bay area (Australia, France, South Africa and to a very limited extent, Japan) met in Hobart in September 1984, at the time of the meeting of CCAMLR (The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) to plan and coordinate their activities. Within the study area, 60 S to the Antarctic Coast and 58 to 93 E, a series of North-South transects were sailed. At intervals of 1 degree of latitude and 5 degrees of longitude, hydrographic stations and net samples were taken. A number of integrated activities were undertaken on this cruise. The cruise track and the spacing of the stations were designed to provide data on the distribution and abundance of adult as well as the juvenile stages of krill. In addition, other grazing invertebrates as well as fish, particularly larval stages, were sampled with a rectangular mid-water trawl (RMT 1+8) having nets with effective mouth areas of 1 and 8 metres squared. At the hydrographic stations, taken in conjunction with the net trawls, a profile of temperature, salinity, oxygen concentration and light intensity was measured from the surface to 600 metres (or to the bottom on or near the continental shelf) with a Neil Brown Mark 3 CTD apparatus. During the latter part of the cruise, equipment failure prevented oxygen profiling and limited the recording depth to 600m. Samples were taken at standard depths (0, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500m) with 5L Niskin bottles on a rosette sampler attached to the CTD apparatus for nutrient analysis and to ascertain the species diversity, abundance and productivity of phytoplankton, the food of the grazers. Hull-mounted echosounders operating at 120kHz and 38kHz were opewrated south of 60 S providing data along about 4600n.miles of cruise track on the distribution and abundance of planktonic organisms, including krill. The birds in the vicinity of the ship were identified and counted hourly and all whale sightings recorded. Meteorological, sea-ice and iceberg observations were also made. As well as this survey and routine monitoring, a variety of experimental and other studies were carried out. These included investigations of the metabolic rate, feeding, fecundity and hatching, swarming behaviour and sound production of krill. Phytoplankton and various stages in the life-cycle of krill as well as tissue and organs were prepared for later electron microscopical examination. Three moored current meter arrays, each consisting of 3 current meters at different depths as well as a CSIRO drifting buoy, drogued at 50m, were deployed to provide long-term information on the dynamics of the circulation in Prydz Bay. Photography of the seabed with a Benthos camera and flash was attempted at 3 stations before the breakdown of the main hydrographic winch. Samples were taken while returning to Hobart to investigate changes in the distribution and abundance of certain groups of phytoplankton and their relation to the concentration of reduced sulphur compounds. At 50 S zooplankton were sampled with a net trawl at 1000m.
This dataset contains the underway data from Voyage 6 1990-91 (AAMBER2) of the Aurora Australis. This was primarily a marine science voyage. DLS data types were logged at 60-second intervals. The observations were taken between January and March 1991 en route from Hobart to Prydz Bay to Mawson to Davis and back to Hobart. Marine Science Support Data Quality and Programmer's Reports are available via the Related URL section. Voyage 6 1990/91, codenamed AAMBER2, departed Hobart on 1991-01-03. Arrived Horsehoe Harbour, Mawson on 1991-01-16, departed on 1991-01-17. Then followed 44 continuous days of marine science. During this phase of the voyage, bottom and mid-water trawling, CTD casts, acoustic biological surveys and several krill swarm studies were conducted. For the duration of the marine science program we worked alternative 12 hour shifts. The ship returned to Mawson on 1991-03-03, before proceeding to Davis and then Hobart. Temperature and salinity data from the CTD were also obtained. The fields in the CTD dataset are: pressure temperature salinity volume geopotential From the voyage leader's report: Voyage 6 was the main marine science cruise of the season for Aurora Australis. Research was conducted in the region of Prydz Bay, and the main objectives were: 1) A study of the distribution, abundance and ecology of midwater fish species in the area. 2) A detailed study of a large swarm of Antarctic Krill (Euphausia superba) to determine its structure and dynamics and its effect on the surrounding waters. 3) Conduct experiments on the biochemistry and physiology of freshly caught live krill, and to bring live krill back to the laboratories in Kingston for durther experiments. 4) Collect data on the distribution and species associations of other zooplankton animals. 5) Collect data on the taxonomy and biology of Antarctic cephalopods (squid and octopus). 6) Collect samples of bottom sediment to map the distribution of organisms which leave skeletal remains in the sediments. 7) Research into the acoustic characteristics of Antarctic krill. 8) Studies on the taxonomy and pigments of phytoplankton. 9) Measurement of the amount of carbon dioxide in sea water and air. 10) Study of the composition and transport of particulate organic matter in the water column. 11) Sampling of bottom-living fish. 12) Collection of other bottom-living animals brought up by the nets. 13) Conduct iceberg observations in accordance with instructions from Glaciology Section. In addition to scientific programmes, a visit to Mawson early in the voyage was planned to deliver personnel and some cargo, and to Mawson and Davis near the end of the voyage to RTA personnel, equipment and rubbish.
This dataset contains the underway data from Voyage 1 1994-95 of the Aurora Australis. This was a resupply cruise, with limited marine science being carried out. NoQalms data types were logged at 20-second intervals. The observations were taken between August and October 1995 en route from Hobart to Macquarie Island to Davis and back to Hobart. See the Marine Science Support Data Quality Report via the Related URL section. From the voyage leader's report: The aims of the voyage were as follows: 1) Conduct iceberg observations in accordance with instructions provided by the Glaciology Section. 2) Meet any obligations for inspection of the vessel by other Treaty parties. 3) Support the following marine science activities. - Study the East Antarctic Sea Ice Zone: Characteristics and Ocean - Ice - Atmosphere Interaction (Dr Ian Allison). - Antarctic Pack Ice Seals (Dr Bill de la Mare). - Sulphur Gas Production in the Southern Ocean (Dr Graham Jones). - Collection of live Antarctic Krill, "Euphausia superba" (Dr Steve Nicol, collection by John Kitchener) - Not completed. 4) Transfer personnel and cargo by helicopter between the ship and shore at Macquarie Island including helipad components, RTA essential cargo and non-essential cargo weighing more than 700kg. 5) Conduct the Macquarie Island hut resupply, subject to weather conditions, helicopter availability and schedule limitations. 6) Transfer personnel and cargo by helicopter, or over ice transport if ice conditions are suitable, between the ship and shore at Davis. 7) Evaluate and report on the performance and suitability of S76 helicopters for Antarctic Division operations, within the scope of their use on the voyage.
This dataset provides a guide to the Euphausiacea of the Southern Ocean, in particular Euphausia superba Dana (Antarctic krill). It lists all the known species and with illustrated diagrams provides a guide to their taxonomic identification. The document is available for download as a pdf from the URL given below.
This dataset contains results from the Aurora Australis Voyage 7 (KROCK) 1992-93, related to mesoscale distribution of krill and zooplankton communities in Prydz Bay in relation to physical and biological oceanographic parameters. There were five objectives of this project: to define the distribution patterns and abundance of krill in the krill dominated continental shelf area of the Prydz Bay region; to define the krill population structure within this area and the distribution pattern of developmental stages, especially spawning females; to define the distribution patterns and composition of the other two principal communities, neritic and oceanic, which border the krill dominated community; to specifically determine the zooplankton composition within the main feeding area of Adelie Penguins from Bechervaise Island monitoring site, Mawson; to record and analyse various physical and biological processes, eg. salinity, temperature, ice and phytoplankton, to determine how these parameters affect the observed distribution patterns. Surveys of krill and other zooplankton were taken in Prydz Bay, Antarctica between January and February 1993. At each station, rectangular midwater trawls and CTDs/bottle casts were made. During the program, echosounders and echointegrators were operating to provide krill abundance and distribution data, in addition to that from the RMT trawls. Initial analysis has shown that Euphausia crystallorophias dominates the neritic community on the shelf, while Euphausia superba was found not to occur in high abundance in the central Prydz Bay area between 70 and 78 degrees East. This dataset is a subset of the full cruise.
This dataset contains results from the Aurora Australis Voyage 6 1990-91. Surveys of krill and other zooplankton were taken in Prydz Bay, Antarctica between January and February 1991. Species identity and abundance data, length, age, growth rate and mortality rate data were obtained. The major species investigated were Euphausia superba, Euphausia frigidia, Euphausia crystallorophias and Thysanoessa macrura. Other pteropods and cephalopods were also studied. This dataset is a subset of the full cruise.
These data were collected on the sixth Nella Dan voyage of a long term field survey project being conducted by the Australian Antarctic Division, to collect distribution, abundance and population structure data for the krill Euphausia superba in the Prydz Bay region, Antarctica. This voyage, the Australian Antarctic Marine Biological Ecosystem Research 1986/1987 (AAMBER 86/87) cruise, operated between February and April 1987. The dataset includes two scanned copies of the Hyrdoacoustic logs of the voyage.
This data were collected on the sixth Nella Dan voyage of a long term field survey project being conducted by the Australian Antarctic Division, to collect distribution, abundance and population structure data for the krill Euphausia superba in the Prydz Bay region, Antarctica. This voyage, the Australian Antarctic Marine Biological Ecosystem Research 1986/1987 (AAMBER 86/87) cruise, operated between February and April 1987. During March, a survey of the krill population and zooplankton community was conducted, to determine the late summer distribution and abundance of krill, especially the larvae. This was done as a follow up to SIBEX II in mid-summer (Janurary) 1985. The major species investigated were Euphausia superba, Euphausia frigidia, Euphausia crystallorophias and Thysanoessa marcuria. Phytoplankton pigment analysis was also conducted at each CTD station site.
Metadata record for data from AAS (ASAC) project 2926. Public Summary DNA based approaches will be used to study key features of the ecology of whales, penguins and krill. Standard methods cannot accurately estimate what prey species these predators consume, how old they are, or how they are related to the rest of their species. This project will apply novel DNA based methods to biopsy or scat samples as a non-invasive means of improving our understanding of the diet, age and population structure of these important predators. Project objectives: The overall objective of this project is to use molecular biology to study aspects of the ecology of key Southern Ocean predators that cannot be addressed with other methodologies. The organisms that the project would focus upon have been chosen because they are large biomass components of the Southern Ocean food web and because they are important to the Australian Governments commitments to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and the International Whaling Commission (IWC). This project is integral to the work of the Australian Centre for Applied Marine Mammal Science (ACAMMS) that has recently been formed within the Science Branch of the AAD. The focus predators are baleen whales (primarily Minke whales, Balaenoptera edeni and Humpback whales, Megaptera novaengliae), Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and Adelie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae). Within this overall goal, there are three major objectives: 1. To characterise and monitor predation by key Southern Ocean organisms with dietary DNA analysis. 2. To use population genetics to study the stock structure and population size of baleen whales and Antarctic krill. 3. To develop and validate DNA-based age estimation methods for whales. 1. DNA Based Dietary Research A major objective of this project is to apply DNA based methods for dietary analysis to large sample sets taken to address specific ecological questions. My group at the Australian Antarctic Division has been at the forefront of developing DNA based methods to study animal diet. We have been especially active in researching DNA as a non-invasive means of studying the diet of large mammals and birds by reconstructing diet with prey DNA that we can identify in scats from predators. Our development of new DNA-based methodologies (Jarman et al., 2002; Jarman et al., 2004; Deagle et al., 2005; Jarman et al., 2006a) and accompanying software tools (Jarman 2004; Jarman 2006) have led to more efficient dietary analysis methods and has produced a substantial volume of good quality published research and stimulated international interest in these methodologies, which are now being pursued by several overseas laboratories. We have completed short descriptive studies of the diet of Antarctic krill (Passmore et al., 2006), whales (Jarman et al., 2002; Jarman et al., 2004; Jarman et al., 2006b), fur seals (Casper et al., in prep) and macaroni penguins (Deagle et al., in prep) with these methods, but have not had comprehensive sets of samples with which we can address broader ecological questions. The ecological questions that the dietary component of this project will address are: 1a. What is the diversity and identity of prey species consumed by populations of the key predators? 1b. What are the relative biomass proportions of prey species consumed by key predator populations? 1c. What temporal variation is there in diversity, identity and abundance of prey consumed by each key predator population? 1d. What spatial variation is there in diversity, identity and abundance of prey consumed by each key predator population? The focus species cover three trophic levels of the Southern Ocean food web. Krill are thought to feed predominately on primary producers with some heterotrophic prey taken as well. Adelie penguins feed on krill and other small nekton and plankton, as well as being prey of leopard seals and killer whales, making them a mid-to-high level predator. Baleen whales feed on diverse planktonic and nektonic organisms, preferring crustaceans and small fish that tend to form high-concentration swarms and are top predators. By studying krill and their most abundant predators (Adelie penguins) and their largest predators (baleen whales) we get an assessment of trophic flow from primary production to both a mid-level predator and a top-level predator. It is clearly not possible to study all components of the Southern Ocean food web, so by targeting these three key groups it is hoped that we will not only gather information that is most directly relevant to the objectives of the science program, but that this information will also be an efficient means of assaying some of the most important trophic interactions in the Southern Ocean food web as a whole. Krill are highly abundant and quite easy to sample. They are generalist feeders, which makes them a good organism for monitoring changes in populations of primary producers and small heterotrophs. Furthermore, they are the target organism of the world's largest crustacean fishery (Nicol and Endo, 1997). This makes them a species of major interest to CCAMLR. Our scientific objective in studying krill diet with DNA based methods is to improve our understanding of this critically important organism. This research should contribute to Australia's role in CCAMLR and consequent influence within the Antarctic treaty system. Adelie penguins are the only land-based predators in this study. They are the most abundant penguin and can be found in high concentrations at breeding colonies at many points along the Antarctic coastline. This makes their population size and condition relatively easy to estimate when compared to completely marine organisms. These features make them an excellent animal to survey for ecosystem monitoring purposes and they have been selected by CCAMLR as their main organism for the CEMP (CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program). The objective of the Adelie penguin DNA based diet research is to develop non-invasive diet analysis methods that can rapidly and cheaply analyse large numbers of scat samples for prey DNA. This technology would allow us to monitor penguin diet without stomach flushing and would also enable the generation of much finer-scale temporal and spatial information on Adelie penguin diet. It is hoped that the development of these methods to the point where they become practical and cheap to apply on a large scale may eventually allow them to be recommended to CEMP as a replacement for stomach flushing as a dietary analysis method. Baleen whales are highly visible components of the Southern Ocean ecosystem and despite their relative scarcity, they are very well studied because of their charisma and being the focus of a prominent international fishery and conservation organisation, the IWC. The diet of baleen whales is difficult to study with any methodology, so our previous development of DNA based methods to analyse prey DNA found in whale scats as part of AAS project 2301 was scientifically quite a useful advance. It was also a useful political advance for Australia as we can now argue that lethal whaling for 'scientific' studies is less necessary than previously claimed. The objective of the baleen whale diet work is to continue our previous research in this area to maintain our position as the only country within the IWC that is capable of doing truly non-invasive dietary research on whales. 2. Population Genetics Research This project would also include studies of the population genetics of humpback whales, minke whales and Antarctic krill. These studies have two goals. The first is to study genetic differentiation within each of these species. For humpback whales this work would focus on attempts to link whales found in Australian Antarctic waters during the summer feeding season with the whales that migrate past the west and east coasts of Australia and which breed near south Pacific islands. For Antarctic krill, the genetic differentiation work aims to identify genetic 'stocks' of krill to assist in policy decisions for managing the krill fishery, as well as potentially providing a tool for measuring flux of krill between different regions of the Southern Ocean. The second goal of the population genetics work is to use genetic data to estimate population size. Simple methods for estimating the size of an animal breeding population (the 'effective population') have been available for some time. We would apply these methods and also work on newer genetic 'mark and recapture' type methods that estimate overall population size, rather than just the size of the proportion of the population that reproduces. Another aspect of this goal is the estimation of past population sizes, which would give us a better idea of pre-exploitation stocks of whales and their relative recovery from exploitation to date. 3. DNA-Based Age Estimation Another major goal of the project is to develop genetic methods for estimating the age of whales. This would be a major advance for cetacean science as the methods could be performed on DNA collected through biopsy samples, or potentially even from the 'sloughed' skin that a whale leaves behind when diving. There are currently no validated, non-lethal methods for estimating cetacean age in adults. The only alternative methods for age estimation involve lethal sampling for collection of ear bones in which growth rings can be counted. One of the main claims promulgated by the Japanese scientific whaling program is that lethal sampling of whales is necessary for aging them. The political objective of this research would be to neutralise this claim in the same way that our DNA based dietary research has previously neutralised the claim that lethal sampling is necessary for dietary analysis. Alongside this political objective is the scientific objective that the development of a widely applicable, non-lethal aging method for whales would provide a wealth of information on the age structure of whale populations. This is an especially important feature of their ecology as most of the great whales are still recovering from human exploitation, which should have led to skewed age distributions in these populations when compared to the natural age distribution. Better knowledge of their population age structure will greatly improve our understanding of the recovery process and the current status of whale populations. Taken from the 2009-2010 Progress Report: Progress against objectives: 1. DNA based diet work. We converted our DNA based diet analysis work to next-generation sequencing based methodologies and refined blocking primer approaches for eliminating predator DNA in the libraries that we sequence. This approach was published as Deagle et al (2009) as listed in the papers below. 2. Population genetics research. A microsatellite and mitochondrial sequence dataset for humpback whale population samples in eastern Australian waters, West Australian waters and Antarctic waters in the Ross Sea has been generated, analysed and a paper written. 3. DNA based age estimation. Libraries of cDNA from juvenile, sub Adult and Adult humpback whales have been analysed. ~1.2 gb data was produced for each library. We are currently analysing these to identify genes that are differentially expressed among the three age classes.
RNA was extracted from pooled gonad tissues and tails of five sexually mature males and females, respectively, originating from the krill aquarium at the AAD in Tasmania, Australia. For RNA extractions, RNeasy mini kits (QIAGEN) were used and total RNA (8 micrograms each) was sent to Geneworks, South Australia (www.geneworks.com.au), for Illumina TruSeq 75 bp paired-end sequencing in two technical replica. Reads Yield Total Yield Krill_Male_sex_a_read1_sequence.txt 8,120,993 609,074,475 bases 1,218,148,950 bases Krill_Male_sex_a_read2_sequence.txt 8,120,993 609,074,475 bases Krill_Male_sex_b_read1_sequence.txt 10,465,586 784,918,950 bases 1,569,837,900 bases Krill_Male_sex_b_read2_sequence.txt 10,465,586 784,918,950 bases Krill_Male_tissue_a_read1_sequence.txt 7,867,804 590,085,300 bases 1,180,170,600 bases Krill_Male_tissue_a_read2_sequence.txt 7,867,804 590,085,300 bases Krill_Male_tissue_b_read1_sequence.txt 10,956,251 821,718,825 bases 1,793,118,450 bases Krill_Male_tissue_b_read2_sequence.txt 10,956,251 821,718,825 bases Krill_Female_sex_read1a_sequence.txt 29,447,654 2,208,574,050 bases 4,417,148,100 bases Krill_Female_sex_read2a_sequence.txt 29,447,654 2,208,574,050 bases Krill_Female_sex_read1b_sequence.txt 18,223,515 1,366,763,625 bases 2,733,527,250 bases Krill_Female_sex_read2b_sequence.txt 18,223,515 1,366,763,625 bases The insert size for these libraries is approx 160bp.