TITLE:   Palmer Long-Term ecological research: Sea ice indexes relevant 
	 to polar marine ecosystems
AUTHOR:  Sharon Stammerjohn, and Raymond C. Smith
DATE:    2-7 March 1997
PLACE:   Gordon Research Conference on Sea Ice Ecology, Ventura, CA
         Poster Presentation

ABSTRACT:  

The ecological influence of sea ice is a complex space/time matrix of physical
forcing and biological response.  It is critical to define sea ice variability
on appropriate temporal and spatial scales which are relevant to ice-ecosystem
interactions.  Our work focuses on the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP)
region as part of the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research (Palmer LTER) study
(Fig 1), whose central hypothesis is that the annual advance and retreat of
sea ice affects all levels of the Antarctic marine ecosystem, from total
annual primary production to breeding success in seabirds.  The spatial and
temporal variability of sea ice is determined from several satellite sensors
(SMMR/SSMI, SAR, AVHRR/OLS) with various ground resolutions and
electromagnetic characteristics, in addition to field site photos, video and
visual observations.