TITLE:     Relationship between biological transport and the Southern
	   Antarctic Circumpolar Current in the Scotia Sea
AUTHOR:    BA Fach, EE Hofmann, JM Klinck, RA Locarnini, E Murphy
DATE:      9-13 February 1998
PLACE:     AGU/ASLO, Ocean Sciences Meeting, San Diego, CA

ABSTRACT:
It has been suggested that the population of krill, Euphausia superba, around 
South Georgia Island in the southeastern corner of the Scotia Sea is supplied 
by breeding grounds located upstream along the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula
in the southern Drake Passage and southwestern Scotia Sea.  The Southern Front 
of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (SACCF) is located very close to the edge 
of the continental shelf west of the Antarctic Peninsula, continues along the 
Scotia Sea, and wraps around the continental slope of South Georgia Island.  
We used historical data on frontal locations, speeds, and krill distribution 
to address the feasibility of krill transported from the Antarctic Peninsula 
to South Georgia Island.  Wind data were used to calculate surface Ekman drift 
and FGGE surface drifter observations were used to obtain frontal surface 
speeds.  Particles were released in the modelled surface flow and tracked over
time using a numerical integration scheme.  Particles released along the break 
of the continental shelf west of the Antarctic Peninsula are moved 
northnortheast by the small Ekman drift into the high speed core of the SACCF 
and transported to South Georgia Island in about 140160 days.  The particle 
trajectories are consistent with regional abundances of larval krill 
developmental stages collected in the Scotia Sea.  Our preliminary results 
strongly suggest that krill populations west of the Antarctic Peninsula provide
the source for the populations found around South Georgia Island.  Transport 
directions and transit times are such that krill spawned west of the Antarctic 
Peninsula will arrive at South Georgia Island as they develop into the older 
juvenile stages.