DEC92 Palmer SITREP - B.Houston SEND PLM155.JAN MSG%"PALMER_SCIENCE",msg%"ASAHQ@asa.org" PSDN-021 SCIENCE SITREP R 052203Z JAN 93 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 !TO MCM ASASAT, ASALABM, ASASUP, NSFMGR 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,MANAGER 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. High winds prevented local boating from December 1-3, while the remainder of the month was calm, allowing daily access to the islands. We continued to monitor Adelie penguin colonies for overall nesting activities and censusing. Known-aged birds on Humble Island and reproductive study sites on both Torgersen and Humble Islands continue to be monitored daily for egg loss, chick hatching and chick loss. We continue to monitor 25 additional nests and weigh adult Adelies at these sites every 6 days as part of an energetics experiment. South polar and brown skua study sites continue to be visited periodically to determine territory establishment and egg laying dates. Diet samples continue to be collected on an opportunistic basis. Cormorants continue to be monitored weekly at two sites. Kelp gull reproductive studies continued, and all chicks have hatched and continue to be monitored. An area wide survey of adult kelp gulls was performed on December 15th. Giant petrel surveys and reproductive studies were begun on December 5th at 20 sites. Marine mammal surveys continue to be taken daily. Lab work has consisted of compiling and entering data as it is collected. 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 Nicolas Boucher Mike Deal Keith Seydel Sandra Roll Personnel changes this month included the departure of Keith Seydel on 9 December, 1992 and the arrival of Nicolas Boucher and Mike Deal on 22 December, 1992. Intensive water column sampling of the LTER inshore stations A-E continued. Stations were sampled 5 times per week to determine the spatial and temporal variability of primary productivity, nutrient dynamics, phytoplankton biomass, and phytoplankton community dynamics. This sampling schedule was conducted in conjunction with S-032 in order to correlate the physical and optical characteristics of the water column with the biological parameters. Weekly productivity measurements were made to determine changes in the diel periodicity of productivity. ~400 samples were collected for HPLC determination of phytoplankton pigments. ~300 samples were collected for dissolved nutrient (NH4, Si(OH)4, NO3, and PO4) determination. ~7000 samples were run for determination of primary productivity. All samples that were collected in December have been processed, analyzed, and all data has been entered into computers. In Addition to field sampling, preparations were made for the January LTER cruise. N. Boucher completed his dive orientation with L. Quetin (S-028). 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. FIELD TEAM: Langdon Quetin Tim Newberger Karen Haberman Vance Vreedenberg L. Quetin and V. Vreedenberg arrived at Palmer Station on December 9. M. Talkovic departed December 23. All weekly sampling schedules were met. Weekly acoustic surveys were conducted along a track from stations A to E. Krill swarms remain abundant in the area. Samples of krill in the area continue to be collected weekly for analysis of size, body composition, sexual maturity and ovarian stage, and growth. The trawling zodiac is enabling us to discreetly sample smaller schools of krill than in previous studies. The weekly sampling of quano from South Polar skuas on Bonaparte Point indicates that krill were abundant in the diet compared to fish toward the end of December. The predominant fish in the diet of South Polar skuas continues to be Electrona sp. Fish otoliths will be analyzed for species, size, weight, and annual growth. Experiments to determine the ingestion rates of krill in mixed phytoplankton cultures are continuing. All algal cultures are healthy and at high enough concentrations to begin feeding experiments. Protocols for the experiments are being established from results of some preliminary experiments. Sharon Stammerjohn (S-032), Tim Newberger (S-032/028) and Nicholas Boucher (S-016) successfully completed their dive orientation. 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. FIELD TEAM: Ray Smith, Sharon Stammerjohn and Tim Newberger CTD, Optics and chlorophyll surveys continued on a weekly basis at 10 stations along the two near shore LTER transects. Water column stratification and an associated phytoplankton bloom occurred during the month. Preparations are currently being made for the upcoming cruise in January during which the zodiac based sampling will be discontinued until early February. S-106 STANFORD VLF. U. Inan, Stanford University. No personnel on station; system is operating normally. Daily data continues to be collected. System is being operated by ASA science technicians Bill Hassel and Andy Archer. S-200 REPRODUCTIVE EFFORT IN ADELIE PENGUINS FIELD TEAM: D. Janes and C. Peterson The field team arrived at Palmer on 9 December 1992. In the first part of the month we counted the numbers of active nests in colonies 5-11 on Torgersen Island. We identified all previously banded birds, mapped their nest sites, and banded any unbanded mates of these birds. Nests of banded birds were observed daily to determine the hatch date for the chicks. Thus we have established a population of known age chicks on which to conduct studies of osmoregulation and energetics. We continued, as in the past two years, to collect samples of urine, feces, and salt gland secretion from chicks of known sizes and ages. These samples will be analyzed for ion content (e.g., Na, K, Cl, SO4, PO4, NH4, urea, uric acid). We also continued collecting samples of food regurgitated by the adult to the chicks. These regurgitate samples will be analyzed for ion content, caloric content, and lipid content. These sample analyses, combined with isotopic measurements of water flux from previous years, will show how much water, energy and ions are ingested by the penguin chicks, and how much water, energy and ions they excrete. We brought five small chicks into the lab and administered oral salt loads approximately equivalent to what they normally receive in the field. Salt gland secretion and urine were quantitatively collected to determine how much of a salt (i.e., sodium chloride) load is excreted via the salt glands vs. the kidneys/digestive tract. We brought five small chicks into the lab and fed them pureed krill and quantitatively collected all excreta for five days. We isotopically measured energy usage using doubly labeled water. With these data we will calculate the metabolic efficiency of chicks eating krill and correlate growth with food intake. We captured twelve adult penguins returning from sea in the mornings over three days and extracted small amounts of stomach contents from them by suction from tubing inserted into the stomach via the esophagus. These birds were held in a ventilated box on Torgersen Island for six hours, after which their stomach contents were resampled and they were released. Since small chicks receive small amounts of food from the parents over as much as a 24 hour period, and large chicks usually receive food from the parents in one or two large meals per day, we hypothesize that the small chicks may receive food that is, on average, different in composition from the food that larger chicks receive. The hypothesized reason for this difference is that the parents continually alter their stomach contents while digesting them. By sampling those stomach contents before and after a period of digestion, we hope to show how the composition of the stomach contents is altered. We thank M. Melcon for the speedy production of five excellent chick metabolism chambers in the beginning of the month. These are indispensable to our studies of chick growth in the lab. We also thank L. Quetin, T. Newberger and K. Haberman (S-028) for their efforts in providing us with excess krill for our chick feeding experiments. S-254 CHLORINE- AND BROMINE-CONTAINING GASES IN THE ANTARCTIC. R. A. Rasmessen, P. I., Oregon state University. No S-254 personnel are on station; the project is being monitored and maintained by the station physician. 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. 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 technicians Bill Hassel and 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 technicians Bill Hassel and Andy Archer. The system is nonfunctional due to a software incompatibility in the replacement hard drive. Replacement hard drive arrived on station 22DEC92; upgrade software is due 05JAN93. System has been nonoperational as of 19NOV92. Station science technicians are standing by. T-313 UV Monitoring Experiment. C. Booth, Biospherical Instruments. No personnel on station. System being run by ASA science technicians Bill Hassel and 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 technicians are working on the organization and clean up of Clean Air and T5 buildings including a clean up of the surrounding area around the Clean Air building. Shelving was installed and the systematic inventory of T5 is continuing. BRENT R. HOUSTON/PEOPLES PLM155.JAN Action?