Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Funding

RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer Cruise 10-02, March 16-May 2, 2010 long of scientific activities including CTDs, MOCNESS tows, Sediment trap deployments, underwter particulate camera (UPC) deployments, Tucker trawls, Otter trawls, Penguin diet sampling, XBTs, Multibeam surveys, Blake trawls, and beach sampling.

There was a significant blog in the Tampa Bay times detailing the cruise events, some preliminary findings and of course, phenomenal pictures.

Photo from Ph.D. student Paul Suprenand.

BCO-DMO Processing Notes:

1) Added 'NBP1002' to all event numbers.

1b) Standardized instrument names.

2) Assumed NBST = Neutrally Buoyant Sediment Trap and UPC = Underwater Partical Camera

3) Moved Cast# from 'activity' name to column of its own and removed spaces from the 'activity' field

4) Combined deg decmin -> degdecmin and had to remove leading zero in Latitude degrees (max lat =90 in one direction)

5) Put in leading zeros so all times were HH:MM. 

(4 and 5 necessary for jgofs/globec software)

6) changed 'person' column to 'si' for scientific investigator.

7) added column: ISOdateTime_start.  BCO-DMO convention for interoperability. 

Pleuragramma antarcticum, the Antarctic silverfish, plays a key role in the trophic pyramid of the Antarctic coastal ecosystem, acting as food for larger fishes, flying and non-flying seabirds, pinnipeds, and whales. In turn, they are predators on coastal euphausiids, including both Euphausia superba and E. crystallorophias. Historically, Pleuragramma have been an important food source for Adélie Penguins of the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), but during the last decade Pleuragramma have disappeared from the Adélie diet. We suggest that Pleuragramma's absence from the diets of top predators is linked to the declining sea ice canopy, which serves as a nursery for eggs and larvae during the austral spring. The research will investigate four hydrographic regimes over the WAP continental shelf with the following features: (1) persistent gyral flows that act to retain locally spawned larvae, (2) spring sea ice that has declined in recent years (3) the prevalence of adult silverfish, and (4) the presence of breeding Adélie penguins whose diets vary in the proportions of silverfish consumed. The research will evaluate the importance of local reproduction versus larval advection, and the extent to which populations in the subregions of study are genetically distinct, via analysis of population structure, otolith microchemistry and molecular genetics of fish. The Pleuragramma data will be compared with penguin diet samples taken synoptically.