OCT92 Palmer SITREP - B.Houston SEP92 Plamer SITREP - B.Houston SEND PLM052.NOV MSG%"PALMER_SCIENCE",ASAHQ PSDN-605 SCIENCE SITREP R 030300Z NOV 92 FROM: Brent Houston, S-013, Science Leader P A L M E R S T A T I O N A N T A R C T I C A TELEMAIL::PALMER.STA PHONE/FAX: 011-874-150-3157 SPAN::PALMER@ATSVAX.SPAN TELEX: 5841503157 PNHG INTERNET::PALMER@ATSVAX.RSMAS.MIAMI.EDU !TO ASA SHEPHERD !TO SPOLE NSFREP CC E-MAIL::ANTARCTIC.OPS, NSF.DPP.OCEANOPS, P.PENHALE, T.DELACA, R.HANSON, E.HOFMANN, R.BOOTH, O.HOLM.HANSEN, G.MITCHELL, M.VERNET, M.HUNTLEY, R.WHRITNER, D.KARL, W.FRASER, B.SIDELL, W.DETRICH, M.KENNICUTT, K.DUNTON, W.STOCKTON, L.QUETIN, R.ROSS, Sea.Space, W.TRIVELPIECE, R.SMITH.UCSB, GMCC.BOULDER(pass to B.Mendonca), F.AZAM, R.RADTKE, S.WEILER, SPOLE, DUKE, NATPALMER, ASAHQ, VLF@STAR.STANFORD.EDU, NSFMCM (includes all McMurdo addresses) KARENTZD@ALM.ADMIN.USFCA.EDU, CHAPPELL@UCRACC.SPAN, J.PROSPERO, TFOSTER@UCSCC.UCSC.EDU, DALLUGE@ATMOS.OGI.EDU, N.SWANBERG, ENELSON%MINES.BITNET@SDS.SPAN, R.BIDIGARE, SRCFNSF@CMV.DSIR.GOVT.NZ (includes all CHCH addresses. Responding: Please insert in message, all CAPS, with the ! in column 1: !TO PAL SCIENCE, LABMANAGER, ADMIN S-013 THE BAHIA PARAISO OIL SPILL: IMPACTS ON A SOUTHERN OCEAN SEABIRD COMMUNITY. William R. Fraser, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia. LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: AN ICE-DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT. William R. Fraser and Wayne Z. Trivelpiece, Seabird Component, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia. Personnel at Palmer Station this month : Brent R. Houston and Elise Stephens. We arrived at Palmer Station on 5 October to begin the 1992-1993 field season. Open water in and around Arthur Harbor and the surrounding islands allowed early access to all study sites. Following boating orientation, we proceeded to familiarize ourselves with the islands in the area and the sites where censusing and reproductive studies would begin. We were able to monitor arrival dates of Adelie Penguins from the appearance of the first banded birds, as well as conduct daily censuses of our indicator penguin colonies. Early data was also available for blue eyed shags (i.e. cormorants), as we monitored and censused their colonies on Cormorant Island on 12, 19, and 26 October. Lab work has consisted of classifying limpets (kelp gull diets) from last season, preparing field notebooks for studies that will begin in early November, and preparing bands by color coding them for specific sites in the Adelie penguin colonies. On 25 October, we began obtaining several early Adelie penguin weights as pair bonds began to form. We also began gathering arrival dates of brown and south polar skuas and recording marine mammal observations. Daily penguin censusing and arrival data continue to be taken on both Torgersen and Humble Islands. Adelie penguin reproductive study sites (i.e. banding of adult pairs) are also being established, and Torgersen colony 23 (oil spill study site) is being monitored daily for arriving penguins. S-014 ENERGETICS OF THE ADULTS AND LARVAE OF THE ANTARCTIC KRILL. Langdon B. Quetin and Robin M. Ross, Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California. FIELD TEAM: Thomas K. Frazer Dennis Divens D. Divens (Diving Safety Officer, University of California, Santa Barbara) and T. Frazer arrived on the 5th of October and remained until October 12th. Check-out dives for M. Talkovic (S-028), M. Moline (S-016), K. Seydel S-016), R. Duran (S-028), and K. Haberman (S-028) were completed, as well as training of equipment repair and use of oxygen equipment. A full report of activities will be sent to James Stewart (NSF Diving Officer). S-016 LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: AN ICE-DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT. Barbara Prezelin, Primary Productivity Component, University of California, Santa Barbara, California. FIELD TEAM: Mark Moline Keith Seydel Sandra Roll Mark Moline and Keith Seydel arrived at Palmer Station on the 5th of October to begin preliminary setup and sampling for the 1992-93 field season. From the 6 through 12 October, both members went through a diving checkout procedure supervised by Dennis Divins and Thomas Frazer (S-014). This included instruction in equipment repair, three dives, and instruction on safety procedures and use of oxygen equipment. Boating instruction was completed. The Carpentry Shop instruction was also completed. We completed inventory of supplies for; the Palmer nearshore field season, the Polar Duke cruise (Jan '93), and the Nathaniel B. Palmer cruise (April-May '93). Laboratories #3, #4, #6, and the Aquarium Room were set up for sample processing. Outdoor incubators were also built and installed. From the 17th to the 23rd, time was primarily devoted to the constuction of a zodiac sampling platform, which had been designed prior to deployment to Palmer station. A zodiac Mark V was fitted with this new platform and launched on the 26th of October. Sandra Roll arrived on the 23th and completed her boating training. Water column sampling began on the 27th of October. Samples were taken and processed to determine primary production (~500), phytoplankton pigments (~25), and dissolved nutrients (~25). S-028 LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: AN ICE-DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT. Robin Ross and Langdon Quetin, Prey Component, University of California, Santa Barbara, California. Personnel at Palmer Station this month: Karen Haberman, Tim Newberger, Mark Talkovic and Robert Duran. Karen Haberman, Mark Talkovic and Robert Duran arrived at Palmer Station on October 5. We spent our first week (Oct. 5-12) organizing our diving operation, and completing check out dives (3-5 per team member) with Dennis Divins and Tom Frazer (S-014). K. Haberman and R. Duran performed standard check-outs and were trained in the use of the tether system, while M. Talkovic was assessed and approved as the on-site dive supervisor for our group. We also received training in oxygen administration, diving safety procedures, and equipment evaluation and repair. Between Oct 12-24, we unpacked and organized the lab and field equipment, calibrated the fluorometer, and ran tests of our Winkler chemicals. We also reviewed protocols to be used during the season. Over-wintered algae cultures in the lab were examined, and we began efforts to increase the populations for use in various experiments. We conducted a few preliminary trawls by hand, but did not collect any krill. We also began piecing together the station's Waters HPLC system, determining whether certain parts were operational, and assessing its possible use in gut content analysis of krill. All personnel also completed their boating training. Our major project this week (Oct. 26-31) has been to build the platform for the trawling zodiac, and test the trawling winch. We also assisted Tim Newberger (S-032) in assembling the electronics zodiac, which includes an echosounder used for krill detection. We hope to begin full trawling and echosounding operations early next week. S-032 LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: AN ICE-DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT. Raymond Smith, Optics Component, University of California, Santa Barbara, California. Personnel at Palmer Station this month: Tim Newberger (Additional assistance provided by S-028 members Mark Talkovich and Robert Duran.) The S-032 field team arrived Palmer station on Friday 23 October. Offload of the this season's field and laboratory equipment was completed on Saturday and most of the unpacking was completed by Monday. The primary equipment for our field work (CTD and OFFI) was assembled in the laboratory and "dry" testing was completed by Tuesday 27 October. The equipment was assembled onto the ROZE the following day. I hope to add a chart recording fish finder to the ROZE today (Thursday) which will be used for detailing the bottom topography of the LTER near shore grid. Field trials of the CTD, OFFI and other ROZE components (GPS, echosounder) should be complete by the end of the week. We still need to attend to some laboratory work such as setting up the water filtration apparatus for chlorophyll samples and setting up computers, plotter and printers to be able display and archive the CTD and OFFI data. S-106 STANFORD VLF. U. Inan, Stanford University. No personnel on station. System is being monitored by ASA science technician Andy Archer. System is operating normally. Daily data continues to be collected. S-254 CHLORINE- AND BROMINE-CONTAINING GASES IN THE ANTARCTIC. R.A.Rasmussen, P.I., Oregon state University. No S-254 personnel are on station; the project is being monitored and maintained by the station physician. Current canister inventory includes 164 empty, 11 full and 0 delivered to cargo for retro. S-257 GEOPHYSICAL MONITORING FOR CLIMATE CONTROL (GMCC). J.T.Peterson and L.Waterman, P.I.'s, NOAA. No S-257 personnel are on station; the project is being monitored and maintained by the station physician. Current flask inventory includes 14 empty, 0 full and 10 delivered to cargo for retro. S-275 UM/DOE ATMOSPHERIC MONITORING PROGRAM AT PALMER STATION. T. Snowdon, University of Miami; C. Sanderson/N. Chui, EML/DOE N.Y. No personnel on station. System being run by ASA science technician Andy Archer. System continues to operate with normal weekly schedule of calibration, background, and sample counts, with one sample filter being exposed for the duration of the week. T-312 TERASCAN SATELLITE IMAGING SYSTEM. R. Whritner, Scripps Institute. No personnel on station. System being run by ASA science technician Andy Archer. The required satellite collection schedule continues with three (3) NOAA satellite passes. Four (4) DMSP f-10 satellite passes are also collected daily. Additional passes are being collected to support the R/V NATHANIEL B. PALMER. These passes are recorded digitally on 8mm video tape. T-313 UV Monitoring Experiment. C. Booth, Biospherical Instruments. No personnel on station. System being run by ASA science technician Andy Archer. Daily data packages are sent to Biospherical via E-Mail. The Palmer monthly weather summaries are now being sent to Biospherical on a regular basis. Station science technician is processing both NOAA and DMSP satellite images in support of the R/V NATHANIEL B. PALMER. Ice images are being transmitted to the R/V NATHANIEL B. PALMER, when clear images are aquired. BRENT R. HOUSTON/PEOPLES